I woke at 2 am because of ‘second stage jet-lag’ and in the very early hours ventured out looking for food. Since our room is on the 21st floor of a tower block and it takes two elevators to get to ground level this entailed walking through a dark and empty lobby 15 floors above ground level while being watched by a security robot. Eventually I got to the ground but the station shops were (unsurprisingly) all closed and I had to venture out to find a 24 hour convenience store. Breakfast was saved!
There’s the room view an hour or so after sunrise. Even though we’re not in the tallest building in Nagoya I like our view doesn’t show the higher ones so we feel at the top of the world 🙂
About seven hours after waking, we headed to Higashiyama Zoo, which is a popular tourist site here in Nagoya. It’s a somewhat sprawling combination of zoo, botanical gardens and children’s amusement park, that has been open for over 85 years. It’s showing its age in certain parts, but overall was a fun place to visit and the best zoo I’ve been to in Japan.
The highlight for us was a feisty jaguar who was playing in his pool. I’d never seen a large cat swimming before and he was a particular handsome example who was swim-playing just like a household cat.
The zoo also had an impressive nocturnal house and a gigantic freshwater aquarium building called ‘medaka world’ that felt like a live fish collectors dream as long as you were focused on the medaka species. I’m not exaggerating: hundreds of small meticulously kept tanks with an eye-opening variety of unremarkable small freshwater fish on display!
The zoo had all the usual animals – including a world-class koala exhibit – but also some I’d not seen before, such as siamangs, bush dogs and volcano rabbits (no I’m not making these up, go and google them)! Of particular note to the Antipodeans reading this was they also had a ‘woylie’ on display, which is an Australian beast with a name I’d not seen before. It looked a lot like a bettong…
They also had three life sized (?) dinosaurs on display, which are currently being restored so they can remain on display for years to come. There was a lot of construction in various parts (including a new Komodo dragon enclosure) so the zoo seems well-funded for a place that only cost ¥600 to enter.
Lunch was pasta and potato. It was very cool in the morning, so we used the indoor areas (the reptile house, ‘medaka world’ etc) to ‘soak up some heat’. The food was ordered from a quaint machine using a ticket system and was both inexpensive and much better than we expected from a zoo.
It took us about 4 hours to see the animals and then we visited the kiddie amusement park to ride the rollercoaster. Unfortunately we didn’t fit into the carriages since there wasn’t enough legroom! So I rode the Ferris wheel (did you glimpse it in the dinosaur photo above?) and we went through a mirror maze.
We then rode ‘Slope Shooter’, a very unique gravity based ‘coaster’ that has been entertaining people at the park for 63 years. There’s no track, and you ride in a wheeled carriage as it travels down a steel track somewhat like a bobsled. It was slow but fun and historic and actually the reason we learned of this place since someone we follow on YouTube made a video about it several months ago.
Before we left we rode the antique monorail all around the zoo for a last look. It was like sitting in a little greenhouse and was very comfy.
Nagoya station was bonkers busy when we got back mid afternoon, and it was notably busier than the previous day. I went out a bit later (around 6) to get some dinner and the crowds had even increased to the point where walking through the food levels of the department store at the station was a challenge! Was this due to Christmas? Maybe I’ll find out tomorrow…