A drive-through park at the foot of Mount Fuji — bears close enough to touch the car, a lion pressed against the mesh, and a misty view of Fuji itself from the hilltop overlook.
Fuji Safari Park, Susono, Shizuoka, JapanNikon D90 · 18-105mm zoom · f/5.6-9, ISO 200-640
Fuji Safari Park is a drive-through zoo on the mountain’s lower slopes — you stay in the car for the predator zones and get out for the rest. Late February, cold enough that most of the animals were more interested in staying warm than posing, though a few made exceptions.
Behind the Glass
The bear that walked straight up to the car for the cover shot set the tone for the rest of the drive-through section — everything here gets close enough that a long lens starts to feel unnecessary.
A lion pressed against the viewing mesh, close enough to lose the background entirely.
A whole pride resting across the road, unbothered by the cars.Feeding time through the tour vehicle's window.
Two lionesses sharing a fallen branch, one keeping watch.
A tiger, unbothered, in a wooded enclosure.A second tiger, lounging by the fence.
A third tiger on the move, past a fourth that's already given up for the day.
A leopard, watching something out of frame.A cheetah, sitting square in the middle of the access road.
A second cheetah working the tree line in the background.A white rhino, settled in for the afternoon, snow still on the ground around it.Two more, close together, tour traffic visible through the fence behind them.A striped hyena working on a bone, the one animal in the park that looked genuinely dangerous up close.
A meerkat on sentry duty, a smaller one investigating below.The rest of the mob, huddled under a heat lamp.
The Walking Trail
Past the predator loop, the park opens up into a walking section — herbivores sharing open ground, and a couple of hands-on stops that were clearly built for kids first and photographers second.
Zebras and llamas sharing the same stretch of ground, unbothered by each other.A kangaroo taking food straight from a toddler's hand, an older sister supervising.
More kids, more kangaroos, same enthusiasm.A pair of white kangaroos, sharing a feed tray.
Two red kangaroos boxing, the rest of the mob watching from a safe distance.
Pygmy goats, arguing over the same pile of hay.An alpaca, taking feed from a cup a lot more gently than the goats managed.
Guinea pigs in a hay-lined pen, getting more attention than most of the big cats.One guinea pig, thoroughly outnumbered by its new owner for the afternoon.
A pony ride along the fence line, the handler clearly enjoying it as much as the kid was.
A bongo — striped, spiral-horned, and not an animal I expected to see this far from Africa.A pair of elk, locking antlers for reasons that weren't obvious from the car.
Ring-tailed lemurs, tails hanging off the edge of their enclosure like an afterthought.
Bactrian camels, giraffe and zebra just visible past them.The same camels, close enough to count the tangles in their coats.
One more zebra-and-llama pairing, from the road side this time.Feeding the squirrel monkeys — a sign warning about bites went mostly ignored.A fiberglass kangaroo photo op, doing exactly what it's there to do.
A Different Kind of View
Away from the animal enclosures, the park’s grounds climb high enough on the mountain’s flank to see Fuji itself — a log-cabin rest stop on a half-frozen pond, and, further up, the mountain through the clouds.
A log cabin lodge on a pond still edged with ice.Fuji from the hilltop overlook, mostly lost in cloud — the reason we keep coming back to try again.The road out, dry grassland stretching toward the hills — the drive home always looks like this.
Not the clearest Fuji of the year, but it rarely is — you take the mountain in whatever mood it’s in that day and shoot the animals in the meantime.
