When we checked into the hotel, I asked the front desk if I could have a room facing the bullet train station. There was a mixup and they gave the 2 remaining rooms to Become and Vianna.
Vianna was kind enough to let me into her room before we left for the day to snap what I think is a quintessential Japan picture with Mt. Fuji in the background and the shinkansen going by in the foreground.
I had 3 main things I wanted to check off today as I had the rental car’s flexibility. See plum blossoms, go to the capybara onsen, and drive to Kawazu to see the Kawazu-zakura cherry blossoms that are a special breed here in Shizuoka prefecture which bloom earlier than the rest of Japan.
Someone told me that plum blossoms bloom similarly to cherry blossoms but they smell very fragrant. Looking at our itinerary today, it unfortunately wasn’t feasible for us to hit all 3 places as there was at least 4 hours of driving, I wanted to make it in time to get the hambagu steak dinner at sawayaka, and return the rental car with Japanese punctuality.
I scratched off the plum blossom park and drove us to the capybara onsen. Something that’s really special about Japan is the funny and unique animal encounters there are. I’ve seen the deer at Nara several times, I’ve been to Ōkunoshima which is overrun with cute bunnies, and I’ve seen the hot springs monkeys in Nagano. I was thinking we’d go to this park where capybara hang out in some hot water with citrus fruits floating around them, but I was very wrong. This was actually a legit zoo with tons of different animals.
Not only that, they had containers of food you could purchase to feed the animals. I don’t think the public in the US is responsible enough to have such a close encounter with wild animals but here, everyone was super respectful and it was an honestly policy that you would pay 300 yen per container of kangaroo chow or whatever they designate for the specific habitat. I think being able to feed the animals is also a result of Asia not having the same sentiment of animal ethics as in the US but hey, I got to feed some capybara today.
We made our way to the back of the zoo which is where the capybara onsen was. Just then, we discovered there was a small clawed Asian otter habitat. These are my favorite animals and I EASILY surpassed $20 feeding them. There were small containers of what looked like cat food but then at another habitat there was a small container of fish that you could net and hand to the otters. OMG they were SOOOOO cute. It was on my bucket list to pet a small clawed Asian otter and here I was checking this bucket list item off without even planning it.
We got to the capybara onsen and I was disappointed they weren’t hanging out in the water. Was it because it was 62f outside and sunny so they didn’t want to be in the water? Nope, actually they were in the water, it’s just that it also doubles as a toilet and had a bunch of floaters in it.
This was a super fun zoo, except for the chimpanzee habitat. That was straight up depressing. Also the dedicated indoor petting zoo area was pure chaos with kids running around picking the animals up. They had hedgehogs, panda mice, rabbits, a box turtle, and some lemurs in a really tiny enclosure. All those animals were clearly trying to get away from the kids and probably including us as well.
We needed to get a quick bite to eat before heading further south to see the cherry blossoms. I went into one zoo cafe to get a quick Japanese curry while Joanna disappeared somewhere else. My food came out in less than 1 minute. I finished eating and went to go find Joanna. Turns out there was a capybara themed restaurant she chose for her lunch spot. She didn’t miss me as she had a companion to share her capy-burger with.
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!