Asahiyama Zoo Experience and Tips on How to Maximize the Experience
January 1, 2024
I LOVE Asahiyama Zoo. It is hands-down the best zoo I have been to to-date. I love this whole natural habitat concept, wherein they set up the space to be just like what animals would expect if they were still out in the wilds. This meant really spacious cages, a whole lot of space to fly, and even being placed near other animals who usually share the same habitat together. As for visitors, this experience was really made special because you got never-before-seen vantage points on them – seeing them above ground, underwater, and even seeing the penguins walk literally 3 meters in front of me. WHAT AN EXPERIENCE. I love it! I’m definitely bringing my future kids here. They will super enjoy. The only issue is… since most of the animals they house are actually winter animals, this meant these animals were enjoying their nice cold habitat. Guess who was suffering? Me, a human, who simply was not made for this cold. Also I definitely need to buy better gloves and better shoes (or perhaps the socks were the issue). But overall, lovely experience, would definitely return. Below I’ll share some tips on how to get to the zoo, how to purchase tickets, and what’s the best way to maximize your trip.
How to get to Asahiyama Zoo
Take the train from JR Sapporo Station to Asahikawa Station. This takes roughly 1.5 hours so if you can reserve a seat (free if you’re a JR Pass holder), definitely do so. Actually if you plan to go to Asahiyama Zoo on your own, I highly recommend the Sapporo-Furano JR Pass, as it pretty much covers the cost of your Sapporo-Asahikawa-Sapporo ticket already, so anywhere else you go is pretty much free.
When you exit the station, follow the bus terminal sign, and look for either Bus 41 or 47, which will bring you to the zoo. The bus takes roughly 42 minutes which takes quite awhile actually. Unfortunately, the bus isn’t covered by the JR Pass, so make sure to prepare money to pay. For us, we had to pay 500 yen each.
How to purchase tickets to Asahiyama Zoo
For the longest time, we couldn’t decide if we would do Asahiyama Zoo on our own, or join a Klook tour which was bundling this with the Blue Lake. However, my friend who had gone the previous year told me that the Blue Lake is essentially frozen during winter, so it’s pretty useless to go. So in the end, we decided to just do Asahiyama Zoo on our own, which would enable us to have more control over our time and schedule too.
With that said, we decided to purchase tickets on-the-spot. It was pretty efficient – you can purchase via machine or direct. We paid 1000 yen per person – what a steal given the quality of the attraction!
I love love love these type of attractions, so I made sure we were there by 10:15AM (the zoo opens at 10:30AM on that day). What I didn’t account for was the long bathroom queue (there was only 2 female and 1 male bathroom right by the gate). We ended up queuing 15 minutes for the bathroom. Actually, I realized after the fact that there were more bathrooms on the other side of the gate, so that would’ve been a better strategy actually. Also, once you enter the zoo, there are tons of bathrooms to choose from too, so there was really no need to queue. Oh well, we both really needed to pee so what can you do?
Tips on how to maximize Asahiyama Zoo
First off, check when the penguin walk begins! This website will indicate when the walks begin: https://www.city.asahikawa.hokkaido.jp/asahiyamazoo/ It’s a really good thing I checked because originally we were supposed to go on December 22. Then I saw that the walks were scheduled to begin December 23 instead, so we scrambled to change our schedule. Guys, the penguin walk is a MUST! I’ve seen penguins before in Australia, but they were small and puny. These Hokkaido penguins are MASSIVE and so so cute. They walk with their heads up, chests puffed out, and they waddle. I died from the cuteness overload. The best part is they walk right in front of you. No enclosure or glass between you and the penguins. Super highlight of the trip for me!
Second, check the mogu mogu (feeding time) schedules here: https://honyaku.j-server.com/LUCAKC/ns/tl.cgi/https:/www.city.asahikawa.hokkaido.jp/asahiyamazoo/generalinformation/d053787.html?SLANG=ja&TLANG=en&XMODE=0&XPARAM=q,&XCHARSET=utf-8&XPORG=,&XJSID=0
The schedule changes every day, with the schedule being published at 10AM on-the-day. The mogu mogu schedule is helpful because it ensures you know when the animals will be more active (since they’ll be fed) during this time. My main priority here was the polar bear schedule, but we also managed to catch the seal and the deer too, which was nice!
Third, dress warmly! Damn, it was cold. Since you’ll be outdoors the whole time and snapping pics and videos of the animals, expect your hands to get quite cold. Tbh, my body was warm – great jacket and heat tech top and tights (thanks Uniqlo). I also had a hat to cover my ears and head, and a great wooly hood. Unfortunately, my hands and my feet were FREEZING after awhile. I saw some other tourists were carrying hand warmers, mini-heat compresses for their hands, which is really pure genius, especially because the bathrooms here at the zoo only have COLD water on tap. Like dude why. After washing my hands, my hands felt like blocks of ice. Use alcohol instead…
Fourth, aim to get here by opening time. A lot of the animals are actually nocturnal (or close to it) so expect mornings to be their most active time.
My Favorite Animal Encounter from Asahikawa Zoo
#1 Penguins
Obviously, the penguins. I really came to Asahikawa Zoo for the penguins. They are huge and just SO cute. The way they waddle is just LOVE. Definitely try to come here when the penguin walks have started. They cover a fair amount of ground, so no need to jostle to find the best spots. I do recommend grabbing a spot as near to the penguin house as possible though, so you can snap some pics of the penguins as they’re resting, right before the walk starts. Gosh, they’re really so cute.
I was a bit disappointed though because I didn’t get to see any of the penguins swim in the underwater tunnel. I guess because by the time I checked out the underground, most of the penguins had started napping already. Here they are – they almost seem headless. I think when they nap, they lean their heads super backwards, it looks like they’ve lost their head. Such cuties!!
#2 Polar Bear
Wow, my first time to see a polar bear in real life. We queued for the mogu mogu time, and it was cool! You can choose to either squat in front or stand at the back. I think standing gives you a much better vantage point, but it was a bit annoying because some of the people who were supposed to be squatting were standing up a bit. Oh well.
They provide a narration during the mogu mogu, but the audio was quite faint so I didn’t catch it. The narration was in Japanese and English too! Such a shame I couldn’t hear. All I know is the polar bear at the exhibit was female.
Having said that, SUPER important you catch the bears during mogu mogu time, because this is one of the rare times you’ll see the bears swimming (since they’ll be throwing the fish underwater). Note: Groups are allowed to go in every 10 minutes during mogu mogu time, but it’s best to go early. Polar bears aren’t slow eaters, so if you’re part of the last group to enter, he might already be done feeding.
Another attraction here is actually the seal’s eye, a glass capsule jutting above ground so you can look at the polar bear face-to-face. Unfortunately while we were there, it was snowing quite hard to the capsule was completely covered.
#3 Seals
I’ve seen seals before in San Francisco, but all you can really see is them lazing around by the harbor. Here at Asahikawa, we saw them feed (they were being thrown fishes), as well as swim around underwater. There is a glass pipe that the seals use to swim from the bottom of the pool to the surface to breath. Since seals are mammals, they can’t actually stay underwater indefinitely, so they’ll definitely use the glass pipe. Such a treat! It was my first time seeing seals swim, and seeing their fins underwater. It actually looks kind of weird – like two webbed feet and a small tail? I don’t know how to describe it! I suggest checking out the seals during mogu mogu time, but don’t wait for it to finish. Go in and wait by the glass pipe as the seals will start diving into the pool once they’re done feeding
#4 Hippopotamus
I’m pretty shocked. I didn’t expect I’d enjoy this because hippos are hippos. I always thought they were kinda… fat and ugly and smelly. BUT guys, they are BEAUTIFUL and so graceful underwater. So our first sight of the hippos was above ground, and damn he was HUGE! As big (or even bigger) than our dining table. There was even a sign that said beware, don’t go near its butt. Uh.. you don’t have to tell me twice.
From here, we went down to check out the indoor pool which is 3m deep. Wow, just wow. We saw two hippos dancing with each other. I mean, they were basically swimming round and round, and it felt like I was watching two ballerinas leaping and dancing through the water. Such beauty and grace!
Interestingly, the hippos are housed with the warthogs and ostriches, which are normally found together in the wild. This is Asahikawa Zoo’s way of creating a symbiosis environment, to mimic what these animals would encounter in the wild
Beside the hippo exhibit are the giraffes. Sadly, they weren’t available the day we went. I suspect because it was snowing quite hard? Oh well, such a shame
#5 Predators – lions, tigers, panther, wolves, bear
I mean these are pretty normal animals you see in the zoo, but I was impressed because the ones here seem really alert and on-the-prowl. I snapped some really nice pics of them going round and round. Seems like they have a ton of energy to burn!
Oh btw, by the wolf exhibit, there’s a stamp pad! If you like collecting stamps, bring a notebook and stamp them here.
#6 Deer
I’m not sure if this was a reindeer or what, but we caught them during mogu mogu time (they were being fed straw), and it was nice to see these majestic creatures up close!
#7 Winter Animals: Snow crane, Red panda, Owl
Lumping them together here because I don’t know what category to place them under but they were all so beautiful! The snow cranes were so elegant and kind of reminded me of Master Crane from Kung Fu Panda, while Red Panda reminded me of Mei from Turning Red (Disney). On the other hand, the owl reminded me of Hedwig from Harry Potter
#8 Hokkaido animals: Eagles, owls, and others
Hehe I didn’t really read the descriptions, but nice to see the birds!
#9 Domesticated animals: Rabbit, goat, and others
There was a ton of other animals too but I didn’t really make it a point to check them out. But here are some I snapped since they reminded me of my family – year of the rabbit, year of the goat. And fine, I also snapped a pic of a racoon hahaha
Where to Eat at Asahiyama Zoo
There are a couple of restaurants inside Asahiyama Zoo – both sit-down and takeaway stalls. There is Chuo Shokudo (Central Diner), where you can order the Jingisukan Kaarage Don (deep-fried lamb rice bowl), Imo Buta Don (pork rice bowl) and Imo Buta Sukiyaki Don (pork sukiyaki rice bowl). For takeaway food, check out the menchi-katsu – it’s deep fried ground meat patty made from Yezo deer.
Outside of Asahiyama Zoo, we had a late lunch at Aoba, which is well known for their ramen. So Hokkaido is known for three types of ramen: miso (famous in Sapporo, made with corn and butter), shoyu (soy sauce, famous in Asahikawa), and shio (salt, famous in Hakodate).
We tried both the shoyu and shio ramen. Of the two, my personal preference is shio ramen since I like that clear chicken broth and salt taste. The proprietors were friendly too. Cute!! Don’t forget to add egg to your ramen, and cap off with a cold bottle of beer.
And that’s a wrap! For more Hokkaido content, please check out my other blogs.