Our next destination was Asahikawa, a moderately large town by Hokkaido standards, on the way to my wife's family home. Asahikawa's famous for its zoo, and that's pretty much it. So lots of animal pictures. But first a shot from the train. I mentioned that it was snowy in Sapporo, but that was just a taster of what was coming.

View from the train:

Asahikawa's zoo (confusingly not called "Asahikawa zoo" but "Asahiyama zoo") has a reputation as Japan's best (or one of them). It's certainly more interesting than Maruyama zoo (see part 2 of the blog).

You looking at me?

Baby I'm a star

Diver...

Full marks for technical merit

Hey, I can do that!

Hmph, why do those guys get to have all the fun?

Seals are one of the big attractions at the zoo

Seals 1:

Seals 2

Seals 3

Seals 4: The Kiss

That covers Asahikawa. Hope you enjoyed it! The last part of the Hokkaido trip will be up later...and will mainly involve snow.