Lions and White Tigers and Bears

When I asked my brother what he wanted to do in Tokyo, his list was quite bare.

1. See the Daibutsu
2. Buy shoes
3. See a white tiger

 As it figures, and I only learned of this recently, there is a place a little out of Tokyo where they do hold a white tiger, and that happens to be Tobu Dobutsu Koen - Tobu Zoo. So, sure as hell, we went.

Now, see, the zoo itself actually doubles as a theme park and is located in quite a suburban zone. In spite of the first and due to the second, the park finds itself pretty damn empty on weekdays, asides from old couples and the odd family on vacation. I was actually surprised they kept the theme park running, and as I reckon, most people go in for the zoo.
 And shit, as it so turns out, the zoo is quite nice - it better be, for two and a half times the entry fee of Ueno Zoo, not to mention the long train ride.
 But the zoo is spacious, well kept, and heck, the animals seem a hell of a lot healthier. I don't see lions and bears on a regular basis, but now that I've been to both zoos, even a pedant like myself can tell that the ones in Tobu look hell of better nourished and generally less...stressed out? Than the ones in the big city zoo.

What I also thought was pretty cool was the interactive exhibits one could just walk into a mingle with the animals in. Of course, they don't have these for tigers or elephants or crazy animals like that, but they did do it for the squirrel monkeys and kangaroos. Now if you're Australian, that ain't a thing because you have the damn beasts jumping around your backyard any way, but I've never touched a kangaroo before. They're fuzzy. And they're pretty ugly up close.

And of course, the star of the exhibit, much like Ueno has its pandas, was the white tiger we came for. Almost as interesting as the beast itself was the swarm of middle-aged women around the enclosure. We did come at the right time, though, seeing as the tiger had just recently produced four cubs and we got to see them wrestle and nestle with each other. No doubt it won't be too long before those are sold to some other zoo in another country, so the time was ripe indeed and it was satisfying for the eye.