Osaka Day 5

I hit he Tennoji Zoo today after taking just about every wrong way to get there that I could. I took the shuttle over to Osaka Station and got on the Osaka Loop to head towards Tennoji. Remember... I said "Loop". The entire time, I was seeing stops that I couldn't find on the map they have posted. Eventually, the train just stopped and I realized I was the only one in any car on the whole train. It had reached its end. I somehow found the one train on the "loop" that jumped out of the loop and ended outside of it. Once I got back on the right track (no pun intended) I got off at Tennoji Station and ended up walking around the streets looking for the zoo. None of the maps on the streets had any English or any indication of a park or a zoo. I eventually had to go back to the station and I found a map that had the zoo on it. Once I found the park, I had to walk around looking for the zoo for a while before I stumbled on it.

It was an OK zoo. Some of the habitats tried to appear natural, but some of the areas like the polar bear and sea turtle enclosures were definitely too small. At the same time, they had an enormous aviary for birds like ducks and herons. I got to see the koalas eating lunch. I think people love them so much because they have such human features. It was like watching Larry Fine eat a salad!



The zoo was deceptively large (11 hectares for you metric folks). The way it was layed out, I kept discovering areas I hadn't been to up until the time I left. There were some unusual things. I know that the Japanese have a very sordid history with mistreating the Koreans, but I thought this was just too much over at the primate house:



Also, this was just so many kinds of wrong, I can't add anything to it:



I ended up eating dinner at a little restaurant near the Osaka Station on my way back. I actually found a place that had the Gyoza (Chinese pork dumplings) that I had for lunch on day one at the sumo matches. I ended the evening hanging out at the harbor again as the sun set.