Last year I went to Nasu Animal Kingdom in Tochigi Prefecture with my sister.
Tochigi prefecture is about 2 hours by Shinkansen (the Japanese bullet train) from Tokyo.
Nasu Animal Kingdom is in a very inconvenient place, so you need to take a shuttle bus from one of the partner hotels or drive a car.
We took a shuttle bus, and the zoo was well worth the hassle.
Various animal shows are held daily in the park.
There’s a Bird Performance Show, a New Zealand Farm Show and, surprisingly, a Cat Show.
Is it possible for a cat to perform?
It’s held once or twice a day, but it was held only once on the day we went, so we went to the venue an hour before.
Thanks to our early visit, we were able to sit in the front.
The front seat area was honored by the two cats walking on the guests knees during the show.
The park holds various animal shows daily.
The cat show was better than I expected.
This show was inspired by the cats’ interest in balls and rings.
They were practicing the show as an extension of their games.
For instance, a cat, which likes to play with balls, runs on a ball. This show made people happy.
Another amazing thing in the park is that many animals were not locked in cages.
A big bird was walking nearby, and a penguin was swimming in the pond in front of me.
At the bird show, when the staff whistled, a bird flew from a distant mountain, so it surprised us.
A grey parrot named Olivia could say our Prime Minister’s name.
A staff asked her “Who is our Prime Minister?” Olivia said, “Abe san (Mr. Abe).”
She could pretend to be a cat and she told us her favorite fruit is mango.
I could understand why this is not the Nasu Animal Zoo but the Nasu Animal Kingdom.
Perhaps they were not totally free, but they seemed to spend their time doing their jobs (show business) and they were treated carefully as people from a Kingdom.
Here’s my post