I've written before about the small, interesting city near Utsunomiya called Moka. Its train station has an interesting, unique design, and is also one of the stops of the local steam train that operates on weekends. There's also a huge, beautiful park where we like to go walking and see the rose garden every spring. Surprisingly for a town of its size, Moka has a significant population of Japanese-Brazilian returnees, so there's some interesting cultural mixing, and a delicious Brazilian restaurant I've also mentioned before. But for a long time, Nozomi & I have thought about visiting the squirrel park. It's a kind of mini-zoo that features, yes, squirrels. For all you Oregonians, you're probably thinking, "why would you make a zoo where you can visit squirrels when you can just go to the local city park and see them jumping around wild in trees?" That would be an exellent question in Oregon, but in Japan, it's much less common to see squirrels in the wild.
Last month, on a rare weekday that both of us had off work, we visited the squirrels! And the prairie dogs, koi, chickens, ponies and ostriches. When we arrived at the park, there were only three other cars in the parking lot, so at first I thought it might be closed. We walked up to the gate, saw that it was open, and heard music playing inside (music box versions of pop songs - that got annoying after a while...) We walked past a souvenir shop. It was empty. We walked past a snack bar. It was empty. We walked past a restaurant. It was empty. We walked to the ticket counter. It was empty. It was starting to feel a bit eerie. I finally realized that on a late fall weekday, when almost all children are in school, the squirrel park is not a busy place. That actually turned out pretty nice.
We took some pictures of the statue garden, the koi swimming near the dinosaurs (well, look at the picture), and the giant squirrel mascot statue (he had a name, but we've both forgotten it). Inside the walled area with the squirrels and prairie dogs, we saw one father and daughter. They stayed about 20 more minutes after we arrived, and then exited, leaving the two of us as the only guests in the park. And the focus of the undivided attention of the squirrels and prairie dogs begging for food. They entertained us for over an hour, and then finally a staff person came into the exhibit and took our money for tickets (500 yen each). He came back later with a large bag filled with sweet potatoes, so we got a bonus!
After leaving that section, we walked to another area with the animals I mentioned above, so it was actually a fun little zoo. I normally don't include quite so many pictures in one blog post, but even after deleting several, I thought many of the remaining photos of Nozomi with the little critters were funny, so I'll just include the rest. The picture of me with the prairie dog that Nozomi took made me laugh; it looks like we are having a conversation. I really was saying hello to him, but I think he was probably just thinking, "hey, give me food!"
Last month, on a rare weekday that both of us had off work, we visited the squirrels! And the prairie dogs, koi, chickens, ponies and ostriches. When we arrived at the park, there were only three other cars in the parking lot, so at first I thought it might be closed. We walked up to the gate, saw that it was open, and heard music playing inside (music box versions of pop songs - that got annoying after a while...) We walked past a souvenir shop. It was empty. We walked past a snack bar. It was empty. We walked past a restaurant. It was empty. We walked to the ticket counter. It was empty. It was starting to feel a bit eerie. I finally realized that on a late fall weekday, when almost all children are in school, the squirrel park is not a busy place. That actually turned out pretty nice.
We took some pictures of the statue garden, the koi swimming near the dinosaurs (well, look at the picture), and the giant squirrel mascot statue (he had a name, but we've both forgotten it). Inside the walled area with the squirrels and prairie dogs, we saw one father and daughter. They stayed about 20 more minutes after we arrived, and then exited, leaving the two of us as the only guests in the park. And the focus of the undivided attention of the squirrels and prairie dogs begging for food. They entertained us for over an hour, and then finally a staff person came into the exhibit and took our money for tickets (500 yen each). He came back later with a large bag filled with sweet potatoes, so we got a bonus!
After leaving that section, we walked to another area with the animals I mentioned above, so it was actually a fun little zoo. I normally don't include quite so many pictures in one blog post, but even after deleting several, I thought many of the remaining photos of Nozomi with the little critters were funny, so I'll just include the rest. The picture of me with the prairie dog that Nozomi took made me laugh; it looks like we are having a conversation. I really was saying hello to him, but I think he was probably just thinking, "hey, give me food!"
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