NOGEYAMA ZOO

The boys and I went to Nogeyama Zoo yesterday and we had a blast! I wanted to take them someplace new and since we haven't been to this particular zoo yet (we've been to Zoorasia twice) and since it was located in the Sakuragicho area (near Ruther's office and I'm quite familiar with the Minato Mirai area) I thought it would be nice to have a new place to visit. So armed with a map we made it there from Sakuragicho station with no problems at all. There's no entrance fee to the zoo which is all the more appealing. The woman at the information booth was kind enough to give me an English guide map when she heard me speak to the boys in English. Nikki was in charge of the map and he pretty much led the way. It was easy enough going around the zoo. We just had to follow the numbers on the map. It was fun seeing the animals and identifying them our way. "Oh look! It's Master Shifu!" when we saw the really cute red pandas. "There's Master Monkey!" at the monkey cage where 2 of them were grooming their companion. "It's Master Tigress!" when we spied the really huge tiger pacing about the cage. The tiger was a bit intimidating because it was quite restless and whenever it made eye contact with me I could imagine it thinking, "I want to eat you." So we hurried away from the tiger's cage after a few quick photos. Anyway "Master Oogway" (the tortoise) was so cute eating away on his lettuce leaf at the reptile house but the snakes and the crocs were scary. Our favorite part of the tour was the petting area. Nikki loved the mice and enjoyed having them scamper all over him (which is a surprise actually because he's a very cautious kid). I suppose when he saw me handle the mice and let it climb onto my arm he found it fun. Plus, I reassured him that they didn't bite. Ethan on the other hand loved the garter snakes. He just sat on the bench and looked at the snakes through the glass. He was so fascinated with them I think he only left them for like 10 minutes just to check what Nikki and I were up to. :) There were also guinea pigs there, chicks and chickens. Nikki handled a guinea pig (which we called Linny from The Wonderpets) and also a chick. I loved the petting area too and had loads of fun with the animals there. Of course, after we were done, we washed our hands at the wash area. It was great teaching/reminding the boys about proper hygiene then. After that we just finished the tour and then when we were done at around 230pm, we went back to Sakuragicho station and headed home. The boys and I just napped in the train.

We had a lot of fun at Nogeyama Zoo, Nikki wants us to go back there. I told him we could check out Nogeyama Park instead. The park is right beside the zoo and since we didn't have enough time to go around the park yesterday, I thought we could go there another day. Nikki wanted to check out the play area which we saw through a fence from the zoo. It looked really nice actually so I guess we could always go to the park later this week or next week.

It's great that Yokohama has nice places that have no entrance fees. I told Ruther last night that even without collecting entrance fees, Nogeyama Zoo was well-maintained, really clean and orderly and there was no "zoo smell" except for the deer cage. I loved the place. Hopefully we could find other nice places the boys and I could visit on our own. :)