👘 [Japanese Week] Animals Themed Parks in Japan

おはよう!

In today's post, I wanted to talk about parks in Japan where you can interact with wildlife animals such as deers, foxes, or squirrels as well as places where you can cuddle common pets, like bunnies or cats. Since I've never been in Japan (yet!) I've never been in one of these spots, I've discovered them thanks to bloggers/YouTubers who traveled/live in Japan and visited these particular places.

Animals like foxes and deers are considered sacred in Shinto religion, as they're messengers from the Gods.

Fox Village - Miyagi Prefecture

Zao Fox Village is an animal sanctuary in Miyagi Prefecture, which is in the central part of the county, facing the Pacific Ocean. The park has 6 different species of not domesticated foxes, however, they're pretty used to human presence.

Nara Park - Nara Prefecture

Nara Park is a public park in Nara, a city of the same name prefecture, southeast of the country. Besides the deers, this park also has a 15 meters tall statue of Buddha inside of the largest wooden building in the world (according to Wikipedia).

Another beautiful place filled with deers is Miyajima Island, home of the "floating" tori gate that marks the entrance of Itsukushima Shrine. This island is the western part of the Seto Inland Sea and suggested as a must-visit if you're in the Hiroshima area.

photo credits: japanforum.com

Bunny Island - Hiroshima Prefecture

If you're more a 'fluffy animals' kind of person, this is the place for you: an island in the Inland Sea, populated by no one except rabbits. Dozens of rabbits. How they got there is still to be understood, but since there aren't natural predators, they live unmolested. 
An interesting thing about this island: on it, there was a poison gas factory that was evacuated and abandoned after World War II.

Tashirojima (cat island) - Miyagi Prefecture

Probably the most famous animal place in Japan, cat island is also cheap to visit: the roundtrip boat ride ticket costs 2000 yen (15€ circa) and then you can spend as much as time as you like cuddling these cats, who outnumbered by a lot the humans who live on the island.

Squirrel Village - Gifu Prefecture

Another rodent you can have a 'face to face' while visiting Gifu Prefecture (central Japan) is the squirrel. The place isn't a wide space like foxes village but is equally interesting to see these tiny animals eating from your hands. These are not the Japanese 'flying' squirrels, but a Taiwanese species...still, they're super cute!

Cat/Bunnies/Owls/Hedgehogs Cafes

We all heard about the "cats cafes" or "Neko cafes": places where people go to pet cats while drinking a coffee (or any kind of drinks you'd like). They do so because most of the apartments in Japan have strict policies and don't allow pets.
It's actually a win-win: anyone who loves animals can enjoy their company in a safe, clean environment and stray cats are saved from the street (or from shelters) and are cared for in a responsible way.

The first-ever cat cafè was opened in Taiwan, in 1998. Six years later, Japan's first cat cafè was opened in Osaka and spread all over the country ever since. Furthermore, Japanese didn't stop to cats and have expanded to various other animals, for example, owls and hedgehogs.

I don't know if the animals in the places I've mentioned above are actually treated well, but it's safe to say that it's very likely since they're so famous and surely are checked by competent authorities. Let's think positive! 
I love animals and yes! I would love to see them in their natural habitat, but a lot of them are probably born in captivity so they'd not survive in the wild. 
These places anyway help spreading the love for animals and teach people to fight strays and animal abuse. 

Ph: mithsonianmag.com HERE, thetravelsisters.com & travellingtheworldsolo HERE