27 December 2017. Wednesday.
Fortunately, I recovered just in time for my visit to Asahikawa Zoo. Hopped onto taxi… I could see the tough traffic condition on this main road.
Managed to capture a video clip while on the way to the zoo.
It took us 15 mins for a 4 km ride to the zoo.
at the entrance…we could see at the far end, crowd gathering for the penguin parade.
We joined the crowd…
A short clip on the starting of Penguin Parade.
The penguin formation
As Penguins marched on
Close encounter with the penguins.
Zoom in….
These penguins are tall, about the height of small children …with enormous body and very short legs.
One naughty penguin
Making a U turn back….
Our pictures during the penguin parade.
End of Penguin Parade
Rest time after parade…
Penguins at home…
and then elegant swimmer in action
A stone throw away housed the polar bear.
As we watched, the animal had some fun time in the pool.
another good swimmer….
Getting tired…. it got out of pool and start stretching itself on the fresh white snow. Indeed it has impressive tolerance for low temperature.
Seal are immediate neighbour to Polar bear. The trainer was feeding the animal.
intelligent animal… when they realized trainer had no more fish…
This was the first time we came across Red Panda…unlike the big fatty Kungfu Panda, these are cute little creatures….
We walked past a smaller enclosure… at first, we could not figure out what the crowd were looking at.
It took us awhile to figure out the snow owl… I guessed not many zoo keep snow owl. I think this is lovely.
Leaving behind the caged animals, we make our way to the zoo cafe.
so good to have bowl of hot Ramen…
After lunch, we explored section where fierce animals were housed. First King of Jungle.
This is the closest encounter we had with tiger.
A direct shoot as the tiger move forward…
something was bothering the beast…. as it continuously strolled up and down…
We moved on the bears… we saw just one little bear and the rest simply hide away.
The zoo had several wolf. Gigantic with fiery piercing stares…
Look into the eyes…. I felt the chill running down my spine.
There are great similarities between wolf and fox, except fox are generally smaller and with fury tail.
zoom in on a fox…. the same scary stare…
These are Hokkaido deers…
Just wonder why Hokkaido deer have similar white posterior as their African cousin.
We make our way uphill for Reindeer.
We are sure this is not Rudolph…. it does not have red nose !
1430 hrs…. we were back for more penguin parade.
zoomed in on Penguin and small kids…
Our pictures at the zoo.
It was 1515 hrs…. we decided to drop the plan of snowmobiling @ Asahiyama snow village and get back to hotel as sunset hour is around 1600 hrs.
Some lights were on when we arrived at Asahikawa bus / train terminal.
1900 hrs…. we were out to explore the snow city.
The last remain of Christmas 2017.
At one corner of the lighted street…
Dinner at Santouka Asahikawa. This means fire mountain and it is ranked 5 in Asahikawa as per tripadvisor. We expect something spicy.
Not so spicy …. but taste superb. One more order for we love the crsip of golden pan fried dumpling.
End of Day 7 : A very special experience of visiting a snow covered zoo. Lovely sighting of many unique animals. Memorable penguin parade. Among all the animals, I like the snow owl most. Walking on the snowy street of Asahikawa, it was wonderful feeling of white Christmas…. the last taste of wonderful Christmas 2017 before it was gone forever.
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