ズーラシア — Attraction in Yokohama

Japanese reviews here complain about facilities and staff. Foreigner reviews complain about small cages and captive animals looking distressed. Both are probably right (although I didn’t interact with staff much so I can’t comment on their service, grounds were clean enough). I went because I saw reviews that were quite high by gaijin names, but they are giving this place more credit than it deserves.

The reality: the zoo campus is bigger than I expected, I think you can see everything if you have 3 hours, or more if you take your time. Mostly flat land so it’s not so tiring for people of normal fitness and there’s lots of seating areas. Considering the entrance ticket of ¥800, you kinda pay for what you get. The enclosures are not the smallest/saddest I’ve ever seen in Japan, but they are not that big either. Yes, a lot of animals are distressed, the saddest ones were the polar bears out in the sun and the eagles in a cage about the width of its wingspan. But tbh I don’t really know the backstory of how these animals were acquired (were they injured? saved from a circus? born in captivity? In any case I doubt they’d survive for long in the wild anyway) so I can’t particularly judge the zookeepers and staff for doing their best in taking care of the animals.

I arrived around 2pm and finished seeing all that I wanted to see by the time the zoo closed at 4:30. You take a bus from Tsurugamine Station (signs to the bus stop in English can be easy to miss; most are on blue vertical signs).

Just another place to kill time if you’re living in &...

Beautifully green zoo in Yokohama, perfect for families with kids, reasonably priced with decent food!

I went with my family by car with two babies (2,5 years old and 1.5 years old ) on Golden week (3 times more people than usual ), it was pretty crowded but still spaced out, not as crowded as Disneyland !

The zoo is pretty big and the great thing was that there was so much green so it’s very refreshing and pleasant to walk around even with kids!

There are different places to eat and rest and a lot of restrooms so it’s very practical !

We ate at the African corner curry 🍛 specialty of African food. The taste was decent. They also have kids plate. The prices of the dishes are between ¥600 and ¥1700. Coffee is ¥350 and decent taste.

There are terraces tables and Inside, both !

There are multiple parkings and it costs ¥1000 (after payment ).

There are two entrances (main entrance and north entrance ). And the buses only take off and arrives at the main entrance so please watch out!

There are lots of animals from different species and their explanations in japanese and English which is great 👍🏻 even though it’s kind of sad to see some of the animals pretty frustrated ….😞

But it’s interesting and exciting for the kids

There are lots of playgrounds from kids as well so it’s good for the parents!

It takes 1h30 by train and bus from ＴＯＫＹＯ. I recommend you to go by car as it’s faster.

The park is from 9:30 am to 16:30.

A must try! Advice you to go in the morning as the park is pretty...

First, allow me to start on a positive note: Asian Tropical Forest is a well-maintained and clean zoo with many family-friendly amenities and picnic spaces. They boast a large variety of animals. HOWEVER... Some enclosures for larger mammals and birds with flight capabilities are disappointingly small for animals that naturally roam. Tama Zoo sets a commendable example by striving to create more natural and explorable environments for its larger animals.

It was particularly disheartening to see Asian Tropical Forest, given the vast land they have, opt for large parks, play areas, and expansive grassy fields for humans instead of larger enclosures for the animals. I believe the welfare of the animals should always take precedence, which I didn't feel was fully considered given their land use. For instance, there's a large field with a fake elephant enjoying a massive enclosure while the two real elephants share a cramped space (See in my pictures for an example).

I remain hopeful that as laws concerning animal welfare align more closely with global standards and with the resources available to them, Asian Tropical Forest will prioritize creating more animal-friendly...