Explore everyday life in Japan
If you like getting close to big animals, and if you have a thing for ageing amusement parks with a view, then Gunma Safari Park in Tomioka, Japan is definitely for you.
Approximately an hour and a half drive outside of Tokyo, set near the top of some low-lying mountains, Gunma Safari Park houses a number of spectacular animals in a series of free-range enclosures that have been divided mostly by geographic locations. Spread throughout the Africa Zone, the America Zone, the Japan Zone and others, you will see two rhinoceroses weighing in at over 2,000 kilograms each, a handful of white tigers, a complete herd of bison, some massive elk, and much, much more.
In addition to getting up close and personal with the animals, you will also be able to pass the time waiting to enter the safari park by exploring a small, but fun, and very outdated amusement park which has a tiny roller coaster, a Ferris wheel that provides fantastic views of the valley below, a number of other traveling-fair type rides from foregone years, and countless photo opportunities.
To enter the animal enclosures of the Safari Park, you can do one of three things.
You can, one, drive through them in your own car at your own pace(You can also use a rental car.).
You can, two, ride through the park on an animal shaped bus. Or, you can, three, take a park ranger tour, which means that you will be driven through the park in an SUV by a park ranger. Surprisingly, the difference in cost between these three options isn’t that significant (on top of the admission charge, which is 2,700 yen for adults, cars and regular busses cost an additional 500 yen, and feeding busses and ranger tours cost an additional 1,300 yen).
While it might sound tempting to drive your own car (or a rental car) into the safari zone, stories about cars getting scratched and bitten by animals, and about side mirrors being broken while driving through the park are rampant, so it is recommended by many people that you either take a bus tour or a ranger tour.
During my time at Gunma Safari Park, my family and I opted to ride the feeding bus.
The feeding bus has one row of three person seats running down the middle of it and many small windows through which grass can be passed to herbivorous animals like giraffes, water buffalo, bison, elk, etc. and through which raw meet can be passed, via long handled scissors, to the lions.
Accustomed to being fed by passing busses, the animals here aren’t shy. They come right up next to the windows of the bus, stand literally less than a foot away from your face, and readily accept the long stalks of fresh feed from your hands. It really is quite incredible to be so close to such large animals, and it is quite tempting, even with the lions, to reach your fingers through small windows in the sides of the bus and beyond the metal bars protecting the windows of the bus so that you can try giving these animals a quick pet.
Obviously, this is not recommended.
As is the case with any major attraction or slight getaway in Japan, a trip to the Gunma Safari Park wouldn’t be complete without grabbing a bite to eat, buying a souvenir for you, your friends and your co-workers, and, of course, waiting in lines.
Luckily, there is a nice souvenir shop and some cheap restaurants that offer the standard Japanese comfort food right on the safari grounds.
If you find yourself in Japan and are looking for something a little different to do, Gunma Safari Park might be exactly what you need to make your trip complete. If you go, be sure to plan accordingly and get there early in the morning so that you don’t spend half the day waiting to get on a bus tour. There are plenty of other things to do in Gunma if your day at the Safari Park finishes a little early.
This is an ongoing series that will explore various aspects of daily life in Japan. My hope is that this series will not only reveal to its followers, image by image, what Japan looks like, but that it will also inform its followers about unique Japanese items and various cultural and societal practices. If you are interested in getting regular updates about life in Japan, please consider following me at @boxcarblue. If you have any questions about life in Japan, please don’t hesitate to ask. I will do my best to answer all of your questions.