cuddly dominion
so, cuddly dominion is a sort of zoo-circus-petting zoo that could only exist in japan. it is located in the town at the base of aso-san. there are several species of bears, monkeys, dogs, cats, birds and some other assorted animals. the selling point of cuddly dominion - you guessed it - is that you get to touch the animals. sort of. the bears and monkeys and dogs are involved in circus like shows throughout the day.
we got to see a bear play basketball, balance on a cylinder on a box, ride a bicycle and walk on a ball with his trainer. we saw monkeys dressed in matching outfits as their trainers run and jump and look cute. we saw a bull dog dressed as a panda bear. i'm not sure why. we couldn't pet the bears, but we could have pet the monkeys. unfortunately there was a line of about 50 kindergarten children ahead of us so we moved on to the next show.
the grand finale was the cat house. i was of course really excited about this part. we had to pay an additional 300yen to be admitted, but that was fine with me. the 'house' was a single large room and a gekkan (entry/foyer). once you removed your shoes and put on your slippers, you were allowed past the 'gate' to the cats. it sort of had the feel of a daycare. the room was large and sparsely furnished with grossly oversized 'books' and 'toys' that made one feel as though they were in alice's wonderland. the 'books' on the floor were about 5x8x2 feet. there was a small radio on the 'bookshelf' that played painfully slow nursery rhymes.
the room contained about 20+ cats. all had collars and bells. there were three that were actually playing with each other and a ball, but the rest were relaxing. by relaxing i mean drugged, i'm sure. they were laying around in shallow palstic bins. you could pick up a bin and carry a cat around and it wouldn't budge. you could pet a cat and it would completely ignore you. there was one that was compulsively cleaning itself and wouldn't stop when pet or to escape petting for that matter. we spent about twenty minutes here and then realized that we were all getting really sleepy from the nursery rhymes and kind of slap happy from the situation. maybe it was the drugs in the ventilation system. i'm not sure. it was by far one of my most surreal experiences in japan.
after cuddly dominion we were off to kumamoto-jo, one of japan's largest standing castles.
we got to see a bear play basketball, balance on a cylinder on a box, ride a bicycle and walk on a ball with his trainer. we saw monkeys dressed in matching outfits as their trainers run and jump and look cute. we saw a bull dog dressed as a panda bear. i'm not sure why. we couldn't pet the bears, but we could have pet the monkeys. unfortunately there was a line of about 50 kindergarten children ahead of us so we moved on to the next show.
the grand finale was the cat house. i was of course really excited about this part. we had to pay an additional 300yen to be admitted, but that was fine with me. the 'house' was a single large room and a gekkan (entry/foyer). once you removed your shoes and put on your slippers, you were allowed past the 'gate' to the cats. it sort of had the feel of a daycare. the room was large and sparsely furnished with grossly oversized 'books' and 'toys' that made one feel as though they were in alice's wonderland. the 'books' on the floor were about 5x8x2 feet. there was a small radio on the 'bookshelf' that played painfully slow nursery rhymes.
the room contained about 20+ cats. all had collars and bells. there were three that were actually playing with each other and a ball, but the rest were relaxing. by relaxing i mean drugged, i'm sure. they were laying around in shallow palstic bins. you could pick up a bin and carry a cat around and it wouldn't budge. you could pet a cat and it would completely ignore you. there was one that was compulsively cleaning itself and wouldn't stop when pet or to escape petting for that matter. we spent about twenty minutes here and then realized that we were all getting really sleepy from the nursery rhymes and kind of slap happy from the situation. maybe it was the drugs in the ventilation system. i'm not sure. it was by far one of my most surreal experiences in japan.
after cuddly dominion we were off to kumamoto-jo, one of japan's largest standing castles.
posted by nel at 6:57 PM
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