See the zoo at night

Just to show you that the fine people at Asahiyama Zoo are not getting lackadaisical about their popularity and recent success, they have recently trialed a week long stint of leaving the zoo open until 9pm. 

This serves the dual purpose of allowing a unique view of the zoo's animals as well as a fantastic night view of the Asahikawa's city lights. Quite pretty on a nice clear evening.

My guess is that the zoo is trialing the late close to check its financial viability in the hope of permanently extending the zoo's open hours in the future. We don't know for sure at this stage, but we will endeavour to check it out with the management.

Unfortunately, for the time being at least, the current run of late closes has run its course, and while it's a bit disappointing for those that were unable to make it, don't despair, the zoo is quite cool during the day too.

Here are a couple of  pics of Asahiyama Zoo at night.

Asahiyama Zoo

No Asahikawa information source is complete without mentioning Asahiyama Zoo at least once, it is after all Asahikawa's number one tourist attraction, and the most popular zoo in Japan. 

With unique enclosure ideas, the zoo's management have endeavoured to increase the animals' activity, making them more playful, curious and relaxed, and ultimately more enjoyable to observe.

With the increased success of the zoo have come substantial annual increases in zoo visitors, and you will find it quite busy on most days, with weekends busiest of all. Despite this, the zoo is well laid out and congestion tends to be managed well. Entry is ridiculously low at about 890yen making the Asahiyama Zoo an inexpensive, fun day out.

More Asahiyama Zoo information HERE.