Doubutsuen (Shizuoka part 2)!!

So for lunch we and the other family with Rana-chan went to this donburi restaurant where Yuko and Ken had made a reservation. It was traditional Japanese style in that to enter from outside, you had to slide open doors made of wood and rice paper and then push aside a short tapestry with a split in the middle to walk through.

There was a bar, but we sat at two tables on tatami with cushions. And they didn't have pits underneath for your feet. So we had to sit in seiza. T_T

I sat next to Ken and he stretched his legs out next to Miyabi, who was across from him. Thankfully I was sitting in the outside, so I sat on one leg, with the other to my side. But by the end of the meal the leg I was sitting on was completely asleep and took an entire minute to wake back up, lol!

First we got a plate of mashed potatoes and a mikan as an appetizer. The mashed potatoes looked like they had milk in them, so I just ate the mikan. I think it was supposed to be dessert, though, because everyone else only ate it after they were done eating... Whoops.

We also got tea and miso soup.

Then our main meal came! I learned donburi is rice with a bunch if different fish on top. It was sooo good!!

I really wanted to take a picture of the squid hidden in there because it was an entire squid! Tentacles, head, eyes, everything! And I ate it!! It actually didn't taste that bad.

The weird light green looking stuff at the bottom was chunks of tako (octopus) that was really spicy, so I left most of it.

Ahh I think I've found a new favorite food in Japan!

When we were finished, it was off to the doubutsuen! (That's "zoo" in Japanese!)

On the way we passed the Ferris wheel I'd seen when we crossed the lake! 

(So colorful!)

The doubutsuen was back over near where we did the ichigogari.

(Entrance to the zoo. Because everything's cute in Japan)

We all got these cute tickets! 

Then Miya and Rana-chan got little stamp booklets where they had to collect three stamps around the zoo. They got a present too! It was a choice between animal origami paper or a sharp-pen and Miya and Rana-chan both chose the sharp-pen.

And then we got to go see the animals!!

Along the path leading up to where the animals are were a bunch of different bushes shaped like animals!

(The first was a zou!)

(Front of the zou. Can you guess what "zou" is in English?)

(Kirin!)

I really wanted to see the kirin because when I hear "kirin" I think of the beer because I knew it as the beer before I knew it as the animal lol.

(Saru! A lot of girls in Japan really like saru lol. Such the opposite of America)

(Kuma!)

(Raion! (aka lion lol))

(Adorable playground)

First we saw the kangaroo!

A park worker brought over a tree branch and tons of the kangaroo ran over to feast!

(It's hard to see, but one of the baby kangaroo is climbing into his mother's pouch! After he made it in, he stayed in there the whole time!)

There was an area with a bunch of Sakura that we took pictures by.

And then we walked through the rest of the zoo to see the rest of the animals.

 

(Saru sitting on a pole)

(Llama for Bridget)

(Lllllaaammmmaaaaa)

(Cute animal breads you could buy)

(Bunny curry rice)

(Yuko and Rana-chan's mom freaked out over this Anpanman vending machine)

(Penguin and polar bear area)

(There were really cute drain covers at the doubutsuen! Here's the monkey one)

We saw the "American beaver" ooohhh, so exciting haha. There were a lot of American animals, like a bison. I felt bad for the bison, trapped all by itself over here with all it's friends and family back in America. :(

Then it was the polar bear!

(Kawaaiiiiiii!)

(Diving in!)

(Hello!)

Then we saw the penguins!!

(Awwwww)

(Jump!)

We went to the petting area after that.

(The sheep was so freaking fluffy!)

(Cute sink to wash your hands)

(Cute water fountain!)

(Awwwww, meerkats!)

(Porcupine)

(You could hold a porcupine spine. Miya got really mad when I showed her this picture later because she hadn't noticed this and therefore didn't get to touch the spine)

Zoos really bother me though. I don't go to them very often because I always feel really bad for the animals who have such tiny cages and nothing to do all day and get stared at by humans all the time. Like look how sad this lion looks:

(This tiger was roaring like crazy. He'd been raised here since he was a baby. There were pictures of the zoo keepers playing with him when he was little all over the walls. He was so cute!!)

(Monkey!)

(More of the red butt monkeys!)

Then it was time to leave. I was sad that the giraffe had been freaked by a special visit from a bride last week and was still recovering and also may be pregnant, so it was being held inside. We got to look in and see it briefly, but I wanted to see more! Ah well.

(Such fun at the zoo!)

We stopped so Ken and Miya could get drinks from the vending machine. Yuko offered to buy me a drink, but I said I was okay. I regretted it when we got back to the car and Yuko gave us sticks of raisin bread and melon pan to snack on to hold us over during the long ride home.

On the way home we listened to this Japanese radio station that played English songs and they played "The Reason" and it was like flashback to middle school, it was so great! 

(On the way home)

At home, we had nabe for dinner. It had tofu in it and the soup part was white colored for some reason.

Then for dessert, Ken gave us all the unagipai we'd gotten with the tickets!

It was so good!!

Then Yuko gave us all a cookie from the ones she'd bought. That was delicious!

Here are the pix from Yuko's Facebook:

(All of us in front of the giant unagipai!)