Morio Kazoo.

On Monday, I made practical use of my holidays by driving 180 klicks to the Morioka Zoological Park. I traveled with my friend Dan (the Man) who has recently become fixated on an anime called
けものフレンズ Kemono Friends (Japanese link. For some info in English, try here.)



At Family Mart right now, you can find little stickers and they come with a wafer cookie.

Anyway, enough about that, back to the Zoo Crew. Dan is a far more patient photographer than I and he did some funky editing to include a Kemono Friend. When applicable. I'll intersperse some of his pics amongst mine.

First up we monkeyed around with some 日本サル nihon saru, Macaques. This one looks awfully familiar.

And never fear, of course I made a joke along of the lines of, "Would you like to see macaque?"

 Contemplative.

After the simians, we encountered some stuffed characters. The taxidermy was exquisite.

There are also some living creatures in this pavilion as well. 

Such as this lovely ジムぐり jimuguri Japanese Forest Rat Snake.

Several frogs, below is the 東ヒキガエル azumahiki-gaeru, Eastern Japanese Common Toad.

The ヤマアカガエル yama-aka-gaeru or Montane Brown Frog.

東京ダルマガエル toukyou-daruma-gaeru or Tokyo Daruma Pond Frog.

タゴガエル tago-gaeru or Tago's Brown Frog.

日本アマガエル nihon-ama-gaeru or Japanese Tree Frog.

しゅれげるアオガエル shuregeru-ao-gaeru or Schlegel's Green Tree Frog.

アオダイショウ ao-dai-shou or Japanese Rat Snake. Lengthy bugger.

大カマキリ oo-kamakiri or Giant Praying Mantis above, a couple of beetles below. (I forgot to make a note of which type.)

Some カブトムシ kabuto-mushi (Rhinoceros Beetles) in action.

The lighting was terrible for taking pictures of these nocturnal beasts. Above is a 本州モモンガ honshuu-momonga Small Japanese Flying Squirrel and below is a ムササビ musasabi or Giant Japanese Flying Squirrel.

ヤマネ yamane or Japanese Dormouse.

Some テン Japanese Martens in action.

ハクビシン hakubishin or Japanese Masked Palm Civet.

Above is a シロイテン Golden Marten; below he was far more active near closing time.

Some 日本ジカ nihon-jika or Japanese Deer.

ホンドタヌキ hondo-tanuki or Raccoon Dogs.

I love these little guys, the only ones I've ever seen in the wild have been as roadkill.

I missed a good shot of ホンドギツネ hondo-gitsune  Redd Foxx Red Fox so I scammed one of Dan's. 

Above is a 日本リス nihon-risu Japanese squirrel, below is a boar's butt. (nihon-inoshishi no oshiri.)

カナダカワウソ kanada-kawauso or Canadian Otter was very lively in the heat and sure did like his nest of ice cubes.

It wasn't explicitly stated but I'm going to claim that this ピューマ Puma is also from Canada. She seems polite.

She's quite a Cougar. Her name is ピュー子 Pyu-ko.

Some オオツノヒツジ American Bighorn Ewes, I couldn't get a good shot of the Ram, but I did get his butt.

Woohoo! ミーアキャット Meerkats!

The little guy in this vid may be looking for an escape route.

It's now 1:30 am. and I'm getting a tad tired so I'll leave you with a Kemono Meerkat and call it a night.

Stay tuned, Africa is yet to come.