An African Safari right here in Japan!

Lions and Tigers and Bears - Oh my! We made the trip over to Beppu, the onsen capital of Japan this past weekend.

One of the places we visited was the African Safari Kyushu Wildlife Park. The park is nestled in the shadow of Mt. Yufu. The park entry fee is 2300 Yen. It's 1000 Yen more if you want to feed the animals. That extra 1000 buys you a ticket on the Jungle Bus (above).
As you board the bus, the driver hands you a tray of food. Once you get on the bus, the driver lets you know which animal gets which food. After that, he came up to us and told us in English which animal gets what. We were also told to put away the tongs that we were holding like weapons.

It was bitter cold that day, so they had additional plexiglass covering the bars with windows to stick your tongs through.

The animals are well conditioned to know where their food is coming from. The elephant made sure to systematically hit up all the windows.

American Bison and the rare four-wheeled zebra.

While you're waiting for your bus to leave you can ride a pony. There are also places to have your picture taken with a lion cub, pet kangaroos, cat and dog houses as well as shopping and restaurants. Did I mention it was cold that day? We, meaning me, opted to skip all of that other stuff and just do the bus ride and the goat feeding/petting area.

Mt. Yufu.