Konnichiwa from the Kruses: The Cold Zoo

Asahikawa is a city about 100 km north from Sapporo. Near Asahikawa is the Asahiyama Doubutsuen (Zoo).

We took an 8:00 train and saw that it was -7 before our trip. During our ride, were once again amazed by the beautiful landscape:

After an hour and 20 minute train ride and a 30 minute bus ride, we arrived at the Zoo, right at opening time:

Immediately, it was evident that we were farther north, because it was much colder:

However, we didn't let that stop us from enjoying the zoo. It was similar to most zoos in America, in that it had fairly large and accurate habitats for the animals to live in. Our first stop was the Penguins:

They had 2 different types, the Humboldt and the King penguins. There was even a furry fledgling, which Patrick immediately called "Mumble" from the movie "Happy Feet".
After the Penguins, we saw a very active brown bear, or Kuma in Japanese:

There was also some leopards and a Tiger pacing in the snow:

There were Reindeer:

And of course the very rare North American Graciedeer:

There was an Orangutan house, and even a baby Orangutan:

In this picture the male was teaching the baby how to grab the rope!
There were some Japanese Macaques:

At this point we stopped for some lunch at the North entrance of the zoo, which happened to be at the top of the mountain and afforded a great view of Asahikawa and central Hokkaido:

As we were sitting finishing our lunch, an older couple and their daughter (about Kim and My age) were watching the kids. They started to talk with them and we told them that we live in Japan. They were laughing at the kids and really thought they were cute. Then they reached into their bag of stuff they just bought, and gave us a couple of small rolls and cakes for the kids. Only in Japan would we accept unwrapped food from a complete stranger!
SO, it was back to the cold:

Our first stop was to see the children's petting zoo area. There was a paddock for petting the animals, but being that it was so cold, they were all inside. There were roosters and rabbits, snakes, Chinchilla's, one goat, and some guinea pigs:

OK, I guess that's more than some, and apparently they haven't been separating the girls from the boys. Also in the petting area was a dog. But not just any dog, a Golden Retriever! He was just lying around and could be petted. It really made us miss Merlin back at home!
We walked by the Eagle cage where there were some huge Japanese Eagles, and then we went to the Seal House. They had a great display both inside and out of the seals:

After the Seals, we went to one of the 2 big attractions at this zoo, Shiroi Kuma. As I mentioned earlier Kuma means bear, and Shiroi means white, so you put those together and you get:

The had a great setup for the polar bear viewing. Downstairs was a view that was half submerged in water, and upstairs there was an unobstructed view. While we were there the keepers fed them some fish. The cool thing they did, however, was toss the fish into the water, causing this:

It was the biggest splash that I have ever heard! I am sure that the people downstairs got a great show! They fed them some fish, and then were finished.

It was really cool to see. While we were watching, Gracie was not interested and was lying on a picnic table!
On the way out, there was a line for something that said it was a 30 minute wait. We decided to pass since we couldn't understand what it was for. However, once we left the building we saw what it was for. You got to see this bear right up close:

There was a dome which you would climb up into and you could watch the bear from right underneath! Pretty cool.
The last thing we did at the zoo was the other major attraction at the zoo. The Penguin Walk! Twice a day, they march the penguins around the zoo:
It was great fun to watch. There were the smaller Humboldt penguins:

of which a couple tried climbing up the snow banks to escape!
And then there was a group of King Penguins that almost looked robotic:

It was very fun to watch!

This guy was making sure that everyone knew when not to use the flash on their cameras, and not scare the penguins!
That was it for our time at the zoo, so we caught the next bus back to the station. For our train ride back, we had booked tickets on the special Zoo Express train:

The train was all decorated inside and out with animals

Each car even had 2 seats which had animal characters on them:

There was also a playing area in the end of the first car:

Also, everyone was given a present! These visors:

It made the hour and a half ride back go quite quickly!

Once we arrived back in Sapporo, after a quick dinner at KFC, we went to the Sapporo TV Tower. This tower has a viewing deck at 90 meters, or about 300 feet high.

Notice the hat Gracie is wearing in this photo, it's the last time we saw it!During the daytime you can see the mountains surrounding Sapporo, but we went after dark. There were still some cool things to see. This was a Ferris Wheel on the top of a building: