Kyushu Safari

Last Saturday, we headed to Oita prefecture in North Eastern Kyushu to visit Beppu and the nearby Kyushu Safari. The North Eastern part of the island is pretty mountainous, mainly from volcanic activity. As a result, the place is teeming with hot springs, and mineral baths - ideal for the spa enthusiasts. We didn't drop in on a spa this time (the kids might be just a teeny bit too young), just drove about to see the sights and proceeded on the Safari.

The park was divided into two sections; the first area was a little bit like a theme park of sorts, with restaurants, shops, an arcade area, some rides and an animal show. They also had a petting zoo for kids to get close and personal to some of the domestic animals around. Joseph had his first pony ride, and wasn't scared at all. He also got to feed a couple of goats some peanuts. We got him a packet of peanuts for him to distribute, and he tried to give one to each waiting goat at the goat-pen. Unfortunately, there was an exceptionally large, greedy one that kept trying to get everything. Joseph finally outran him to get to the little goat at the side.

Now we were a little skeptical at first that there would be a safari of sorts up in the mountains in the centre of southern Japan, but we were pleasantly surprised by what we saw. The first thing that struck us was how much like Jurassic Park the place was. The safari basically consisted of about 8 different paddocks, each paddock several miles square containing different types of animals, e.g. tigers in one, elephants and giraffes in another. The paddocks were separated by huge fences about 30-40 feet high, with gates linking each paddock. You basically drive your vehicle through the safari, watching the animals roam about.

All in all it was a pretty impressive place. Definitely worth the drive and visit.

A pride of lions soaking up the sun - looked a little bit like they were ready to take their nap for the day. Think the ones at night safari in SIN looked a bit perkier.
We call this one Emma the Elephant. She kept swishing her tail and tossing straw in the air in play.
These two had just come down from one of the slopes to plonk themselves in the pool for a bit of a dip. Temperatures were pretty high, in the mid 30s...
Three zebras posing. We think that zebras must be pretty calm creatures. They hardly moved a muscle as we drove up to them. Either that or they're model zebras.
This ere ostrich must be of the wet variety. No issues with rain.