A Roaring Good Time at Beppu's African Safari

With the end of the school year sneaking up on us, plus our recovery from the amazing Hawaii trip, we didn't have time to plan a big Memorial Day trip. So instead we volunteered to watch the Castillo dogs and opted for an easy day trip instead! Lucky for me, ITT had a trip to Beppu's African Safari planned, so all I had to do was pay $70 a person and make sure Bryan and I showed up at the Hario bus stop on Saturday morning! Easy peasy!

So Saturday morning, we pottied our pups, stopped by the Castillos to make sure their pups were good, and then met the bus at 8:30 am! A little over halfway there, we stopped for a stretch break at a rest stop. Did I take pictures of the REST STOP bathroom for you guys? Yes. Were they cleaner than 95% of any public restroom in America? Yes. I mean, there were real flowers on the bathroom counter - so serene!

On our way back to the bus, we saw yellow ice cream. My guess was lemon ice cream. Bryan guessed yuzu. And we were both wrong! DOLE WHIP, or well, the Japanese equivalent, was for sale at this rest stop! So I bet you can guess who got a scoop at 10:30 am! Me.

We were smart and packed sandwiches for the ride to Beppu, which we enjoyed as we drove past an angry red demon statue (don't ask, we have no idea) and an interestingly-cut golf course. We are pretty sure whoever mowed the golf course was quickly fired...or it was aliens. We had both forgotten how long the drive was to Beppu, since our last visit over the New Year holiday, and those sandwiches sure eased our hunger and quicken the drive!

Our Tour Guide for the Day

alien golf course

By noon we had arrived at Beppu's African Safari! While the rest of our tour group took their time getting off the bus, Bryan and I made a beeline for the kangaroo exhibit before the rest of the crowd got there. Similar to the kangaroo exhibit at Nagasaki Bio Park, which we visited back in November, this exhibit allowed us to pet and interact with the grey kangaroos! Bryan and I had a ball with these guys! Several were curious enough to walk up and sniff my phone, allowing me to get some great close-up pictures!

I even snapped a few clips of these guys:

The next exhibit was the squirrel monkeys, and Bryan and I both agree that we like these guys best when there's a fence between us! These are the same monkeys that the BioPark had roaming free and jumping on us. These little guys look cute, but they are just waiting to bite off your fingers and run off with anything shiny!

As we continued along the exhibit path we reached the rabbits and guinea pig areas. Yep- household pets were available for us to pet. The guinea pigs were special, as we had to wear winter gloves AND have a towel in our lap to hold them. I couldn't help but chuckle, knowing that any Jo Blow off the street can go to a PetSmart in the states and walk out owning one of these guys.

The last few areas had pygmy slow lorises, meerkats, ponies, donkeys, and the national favorite: capybaras! Even though capybaras are native to South America, I swear every zoo, animal park, and aquarium we have visited in Japan has at least one on exhibit!

By this point, we had seen the entire animal park, so it was time to get a shaved ice snack before taking a stroll back through each area. Since our tour guide gave us ample time to visit the area, we also killed a chunk of time by enjoying an early dinner of Japanese curry!

Now, for what we have all been waiting for: it's time for the African Safari! AT 3 pm, we met up with the rest of our group and got on the open safari bus. This bus was designed so that all the seats sat facing out of the iron fence that caged us in and protected us from the animals. As the driver started our tour, we entered 8 different areas of open terrain filled with goats, bears, lions, tigers, elephants, giraffes, deer, zebra, rhinos, camels, and hyenas! We were also given green trays with pellets, vegetables, and raw meat to feed the animals throughout the park.

How freaking cool!?!

So, to build up the suspense- we started with the goats. Now, these dudes seem cute and all, but the second you stopped feeding them pellets, they started head butting the bus and rocking us about. Yep- the cage has already protected us from bodily injury.

Look at that tongue! **Lick, lick, lick, lick**

We didn't waste any time; up next: the grizzly bears! Don't ask me what kind of cookie we fed them...I guess it was an animal cracker! Get it!? Ha!

As we continued into the next gated area, we reached the lions.

Bryan and I fed lions. Sure, we used giant metal tongs that kept us a foot away from their mouths, but still. We fed real lions!!!

Now that I have hyped you up: next up were the deer. Bryan still shrinks back, remembering his experiences in Nara with those aggressive deer. He even admitted he liked being in a cage and away from these greedy rascals!

Sharing space with the deer were zebras and rhinos! We weren't allowed to feed them, but the deer were more than happy to eat their fair share!

Up next on our African Safari tour: the elephants! I wasn't able to get the best pictures because of their size, but the elephants were by far the calmest visitors we ran into during the safari. These guys were patient and made sure each elephant received a snack. I think I am turning into an elephant person- they truly are magnificent creatures!

In the same enclosure as the elephants were the giraffes and more zebra! The giraffes were funny- at one point they got in front of our tour vehicle and refused to move! Workers had to get out and shoo them away so we could continue into the next area of the park!

There are huge fences and guard towers at every gate we pass through. Each gated area separates the different animals that would probably eat each other if their meat snacks and animal crackers were insufficient.

This leads us to the next area: the tigers and hyenas! Now, we weren't allowed to feed either of these species, and the extra electric fence between us and the hyenas made me quite happy with that choice. Those guys were much bigger than The Lion King made them out to be! They are almost the same size as lions!

Ending our trip to Japan-Africa: the camels!

These guys made me want to scream "Hump DAY!" as we finished feeding our little pellets to them!

As we left the Safari Park, I snapped a picture of the giant elephant statue leading up to the park! Goodbye Beppu!

Any day surrounded by animals is a good day. Getting to pet some (kangaroos) and feed others (the freaking lions!) just makes it that much more of a memory!!

Hakuna Matata!

Katie