Nagasaki Bio Park

Back in January, Joel and I had the opportunity to spend a long weekend in Nagasaki, a little over a four hour drive away from Iwakuni. We had a wonderful time and learned a lot about Japanese history. One day we were able to go to the Nagasaki Bio park and basically had it ALL to ourselves! It was raining most of the time so we only saw two other people the whole time we were there. It was the most amazing experience ever!! Japan trusts its citizens a lot more than we do in the US (for good reason) so this "zoo" is a lot more hands on than anything we've ever seen in the States!

We were greeted by a couple of Macaws

And a llama was out front to say "hey" to all of the guests, We were warned she may kick or spit, but she was pretty cool toward us. :)

A lot of the monkeys were hiding from the rain

I didn't have food with me, so I guess the fence board was the next best thing

LOVE the tooth!!

The Bio Park had an entire orchid greenhouse... it smelled wonderful and was absolutely beautiful!

Lemur feeding time

Penguins!!

All the sudden, it's like we're in Florida :-p

Stopped for lunch at the cafe... we were the ONLY people there besides the employees! I'm serious when I say we had the whole park to ourselves!

Petting zoo with rats, chinchillas, rabbits, etc

The park was known for its Capybaras, basically a ginormous guinea pig. They were super cute and really friendly.

This is a red panda

The damage a porcupine can do to a boot!

Hilarious ostriches!

I named him Girard... if only he was mine (I LOVE giraffes!!)

Um yes, we got to hold monkeys. They were super friendly and seemed to enjoy hanging out with us

And yes, we got to chill with kangaroos!!

We got to feed the hippos by throwing cabbage into their large mouths. They were slow but methodical. Hilarious creatures!

Guess we didn't give him enough cabbage, LOL

SUCH a fun time, made WAY cooler by the fact we basically had the park to ourselves. It's totally worth it to brave the rain once in a while. :)