Japan - Nagoya Zoo

Steve got the weekend off so we decided to go to the Nagoya Zoo and Botanical Gardens. I think we picked one of the hottest days of the year to go which was good and bad. Good: Nobody was there. Bad: It was hard to find a lot of the animals in their cages who were also trying to stay out of the sun. We also ran out of energy due to the heat and didn't get a chance to see the botanical gardens which I hear are amazing.

But either way, we braved the heat as long as we could and visited with the animals. Here are a few of our favorites.

This baby elephant was really cute. As you can see, he is splashing and blowing bubbles in his water bowl. At one point, he sunk his trunk into the water for quite a while making naive Steve and naive Val think he was drinking. Little do we know about animals it seems. Turns out, he was using his trunk as a transport to move the water to his mouth. Good thing we don't own pets.

Good example of a sign not to post at the San Francisco Zoo. At first we were a little confused as to why they would ask us to touch a large cats whiskers, but then realized, they had taped whiskers to the sign for us to feel. Good thing we didn't attempt the other first.

So they had these contraptions posted at all of the animal exhbits. Since we haven't quite figured out all of the Japanese characters yet, we can only guess that these gadgets are meant to be used to yell at the animals. Hopefully to get there attention, but who really knows.

Kangaroos! In Japan! Notice the one in the background. Good times.

There we are, in the kangaroo house.

Sloth bear, 'nough said.

Hungry hungry hippo anyone?

After leaving for another attraction and then coming back we found the hungry hippo out of the water. The thing is hugemungous!

Before leaving the park we were fortunate enough to see the rare and incedibly beautiful teotortoise. Notice the fierce glare he gives me when I get to close.

I did dare a close up and as you can see, the rare teotortoise retreats back into his shell and sticks out his tongue in the famous get away pose. Amazing.

This concludes our tour of the Nagoya Zoo and Botanical Gardens. But the show was not over yet. This facinating creature was awaiteding us on the outside. There are just no words...