Zao Fox Village

The internet seems to be exploding with articles about the Fox Village in Zao, Japan. Perhaps you've seen one of them, it's popped up on RocketNews24, BoredPanda, ABC News, LaughingSquid, the Daily Mail, Distractify, and the Huffington Post, among others.

So we picked a day and went up. It's about a 5-hour drive from Tokyo, waaaaay out in the inaka.

We didn't end up needing snow tires or chains (good thing, too, because we don't have either), and we only got stuck once.

We paid the entry fee, bought a couple bags of hot dog slices, and went in.

This whole first area doesn't tend to make it into the articles I mentioned at the beginning. I'm not trying to write this as a scathing exposé or anything, but I'm trying to be as fair about my evaluation as possible.

I like that they have a funeral ceremony every year for the foxes that have passed, and that they work with an agricultural university to make sure the foxes are all microchipped, vaccinated, and receive medical attention. I don't like the small cages and short chains.

Here's kind of an encapsulation of my mixed feelings. Her name is Nori. According to their website, or as much of it as I can understand, Nori-chan has been in that same tiny roped-off area to interact with visitors for most of her life. I think her chain is much too short, but she has no fear of people and she came as close to me as her leash would allow. I extended my hand, expecting a cautious sniff and/or obvious indifference, and she licked my fingers and let me scratch around her jaw.

Of course I immediately fell in love and wanted to smuggle her out.

I have a tendency to read too much into animal personalities, so take this with a grain of salt, but my impression is that she's ultra sweet, but sad in her circumstances. I really hope they let her and the others off the leash when the park closes.

This video seems like a pretty good behind-the-scenes segment, but it concerns me a little that the woman very casually mentions that the fox next to her (I think it's Nori, but I'm not 100% sure) lost a lot of weight because the recent visitor crowds were intense.

In addition to Nori, there are two or three other chained foxes, and some small enclosures and cages stacked around the perimeter.

Leaving the trees is a nice aesthetic touch.

I don't know what their system is for having the foxes caged or chained, I can't say for sure if it's permanent or just temporary. These gorgeous white foxes, for example, may be a breeding pair. (Pure speculation, of course.)

I feel really bad for the two badgers huddled in their wire cube with no shelter from the wind. Not even a floor. Foxes don't give a crap about the cold or snow or wind, but the badgers were visibly shivering. I sent an email requesting some shelter for them, but I don't know if it will make a difference.

It really isn't all bad, though. Even in this area, the foxes are curious, alert, energetic, and appear to be healthy.

There are one or two other foxes in this enclosure. It's small, but not as small as the wire cages.

There was a section with bunnies that were super happy, all bouncy and asking for carrots (I'm going to guess that the carrots are only fed by the tourists, their regular meals would be something better for them). We didn't go in, but there may have been some goats or miniature horses in there, as well.

There was also a mid-sized enclosure with several foxes that wanted to stare at us. One in particular (the one on the left) kept chasing the others away so it was the only one getting face time.

I offered the back of my fingers against the cage to sniff, and he was puzzled when I didn't let him nibble my ring. I mean, it's all shiny and pretty, surely I wouldn't offer it unless it was a gift! Serves me right, I suppose.

This little guy kept being chased off, but was definitely showing interest in seeing what we were all about.

Don't be fooled, this is a curious sniffing face, not a sad face.

I was surprised by how easy it is to tell individuals apart and how much personality we could see, even in such a short time.

Of course the best photos were in the open area. There are too many foxes there, they seem to spend a lot of time peeing and claiming territory and having drama. But on looking back through the video we got, they seemed to be concentrated on one side of the large fenced-in area, so it's overcrowded, but not as bad as I originally thought.

One little dude elected himself our tour guide for a while, and seemed to genuinely enjoy the attention he was getting from tourists with cameras.

This one was optimistic we'd have something delicious to share, then immediately lost all interest when we did not.

Of course, any group will have its drama. (Note: don't expect them to sound like dogs. They don't. They're more...screechy.) You get squabbles and conflicts, like love triangles...

and rejected advances...

and then there's this jerk.

This one runs up from the background, pees on the other one and runs away. Then he circles back, sniffs his handiwork, decides he can do better, and pees again. Jackass.

Pictures! (If the main image doesn't show up, click a thumbnail.)



I'm certain they are aware of overcrowding. To their credit, they aren't simply culling the herd and selling pelts (there are some tails in the gift shop, probably from foxes that died of natural causes), nor are they releasing them into the wild (where they wouldn't do well). They are looking for a partner organization to open a new location.* Personally, I would like them to have a spaying/neutering policy, but that is probably not an option for them, so maybe a new location is the next best thing. I hope it works out.

*Sorry, I can't seem to find my source for that. I'll link if I find it.

Ethics of this business model aside, here is the most obvious conclusion: foxes are amazingly photogenic and have huge personalities. If it were at all a good idea for us to get one as a pet, I would.

Of course, Dr. Veterinarian, it's totally a dog. Please sign this health certificate...

Because LOOK AT THAT FACE.

Side Note...or Postcard, as the Case May Be

Relevant to nothing other than the exchange of one year for another, I found this postcard and it is full of win.

2011: Year of the Rabbit
2012: Year of the Dragon

Happy New Year!
よいお年をお迎えください！

Projects in the Works

I was writing pretty regularly for a while, but lately I've been working on more projects that are less photo worthy. My apologies!

I don't generally mention it because it isn't usually relevant to being in Japan and experiencing all these new and wonderful things, but I am a graphic designer and here are some things I'm working on.

(Shameless plug ahead, brace yourself.)
If you're not familiar with Threadless, it is a tee shirt company based in Chicago, Ill., that has a web community of artists. People submit designs that are voted on and the highest scoring ones are usually printed and put on the site for sale.

I submitted a design (admittedly only funny if you know something about Japanese culture, but if you're reading this you probably do) that has just made it to the voting stage.

If you check it out and it's something you could see yourself wearing, please vote it up!


If it does well, excellent. If it doesn't, that's okay. Since working on this, I've thought about making a set of similar designs, and if I can I'll find another venue to have them made.
(End of shameless plug.)

(Edit: it did not score well in the first couple of days, so it has been withdrawn. Thanks to everyone that was able to participate! I'll design some more and find another venue for them. I'll keep you posted.)



I'm still occasionally adding content to my portfolio website (kimreynoldsdesign.com), although not as often as I probably should.

I'm also learning how to use Wordpress, which is pretty complex at first glance (and second and fifth, from the amount of time I've spent on it so far). Once I figure it out, it will be great and I'll be able to make more client-friendly websites that they can update without my help. Until then it's slow going.


Not career-related, Husband and I will be taking a scuba class in a couple of weeks. I'm not sure how much I'll be able to photograph, but I'll tell you as much about it as I can.

In other news, our refrigerator suddenly stopped working right after a big grocery shopping trip, so I spent all of June 1st in the kitchen cooking beef stew, baked chicken breast, broiled steak, ceviche, citrus shrimp, corn on the cob (we had a package of frozen ears), mashed potatoes (to use up some of the milk), and browning ground beef for burritos.

I didn't get to all of the frozen foods or most of the fresh fruits and vegetables, but I did as much as I could. The foods still in the freezer can be kept cool by bags of ice from the conbini for another day or two. Our new fridge isn't coming until Monday, but we've done as much as we can to minimize rotten food before then. The freezer has become a refrigerator, the refrigerator is ever so slightly cooler than room temperature. What can ya do?

We had a couple friends over to help eat the mass quantities of food and forced them to bring home plastic tubs of leftovers. That helped a lot.

I know people lived for thousands of years without refrigerators, but holy crap does it require more planning to live without one.

So that's what's up with me, what's up with you?

Osaka, You Meet Whale Shark (Part 2 of 2)

In the morning we had breakfast at the guesthouse (included with room reservation) in Oji before heading to Osaka for the day. There are two breakfast rooms, we ate in one and the other couple staying there at the time ate in the other. Both are in the traditional sit-or-kneel-on-a-cushion style. I think I'm better at sitting on my feet now than when we first arrived in Japan, but both were soundly asleep by the time I was ready to stand up.

To one side of the table was this view of a garden, which was perfectly complemented by the ambient music playing in the background.

At the far end of the room:

On the other side were these sliding doors.

Beyond those were a living room or lounge area, then another glass-encased hallway around this courtyard garden.

It's a really big house.


I had the Japanese style breakfast: miso soup with mushrooms, mushroom omelet, small bowl of rice, and fruit.

Husband had the Western style breakfast: ham and eggs, toast, and fruit.

At the station in Osaka closest to our first stop, the Osaka Castle Museum.

Pet store advertisement, dog clothing boutique sign, or hypnosis offer? You be the judge!


It's the little touches that make even train stations interesting. I'm not sure a mural counts as a "little touch" but it may not be in the tourism brochures.

It never ceases to strike me, the contrast between Old and New.

The museum is in Osaka Castle, a very impressive building.

The view from the top floor.

Or, in video format:

On the rooftop there are sculptures of shachihoko, mythical fish associated with rain, often placed on roofs to protect against fire damage (so says Wikipedia, anyway).

Next stop, the Osaka Aquarium!
We've been to four aquariums in Japan (Tokyo Sunshine City, Tokyo Tower, Yokohama Sea Paradise, and here) and this one is my favorite. It had the smallest number of too-small tanks and some really innovative design.

The tagline on the brochure is amusing, too. Ocean, You Meet Whale Shark.

From the entrance, we walked through a tunnel tank of tropical fish and small rays, then queued up for the giant escalator to bring us to the 8th floor while we looked through the brochure and figured out what to make of the decoration on the wall to our left.

The top floor is part wildlife exhibit, part atrium. I was pretty impressed. Visitors start at the top floor and follow the pathways in a slow spiral down around several very deep tanks. Each tank and area is devoted to a different geographic region. This one centers on freshwater with otters, trout, and small crabs clinging to the walls under the waterfall.

Otters sure look cuddly.

We passed sea otters, sea lion feeding/show, and seals, which were all adorable and entertaining but popular enough that I couldn't get a good photo.

Something cool that they've done at this aquarium is have essentially two exhibits in the same area. This is a good example, it's like seeing two different worlds at the same time.

They had capybaras! I'm not sure why that's so exciting for me, they're just giant rodents (can get to be 65lbs, related to the guinea pig) and I've never been friends with one. But they are giant rodents and there was one  in a few episodes of The Tick, maybe that's it.

The penguins look like they're on a movie set because of the lighting. There was a small cart next to this with some tactile things, like a small patch of baby penguin feathers and some weighted toys so people could pick them up to see how heavy a live penguin would be for their size.

Part of the Seto Inland Sea tank:

This video is kind of crappy, but here's something cool. Well, something else, since I've mentioned a few things about this place already.

I've always been interested in animals and I like to think I know more about what's in the animal kingdom than the average person, even if I can't tell you about many in exquisite detail. But almost every time we go to an aquarium in this country, I see something that I've never seen or read about before. Like this fish. I have no idea what it is. Its fins are iridescent and it has small lobster-like legs under its mouth.

In one of the largest tanks, we saw the whale shark (not as large as the ones in the Atlanta aquarium, but that means it has more room to swim around) and several enormous rays on the other side of some temporary-looking net. I hope it's temporary, because these guys were big. That manta ray is probably the largest I have ever seen.

Again, this video doesn't really capture the experience quite like being there in person, so here's another video I happened to catch when the diver was nearby, to help with the sense of scale.

We also found a small section devoted entirely to anenomefish.

I had no idea there were so many kinds!

I'm not sure what I like more about this - that the male adult clownfish wears a snappy hat and sports a handlebar mustache, or that this diagram appears to be suggesting that they all grow up to be female.

Most of the displays were so small and in such low lighting that my camera rebelled and refused to take decent pictures, but I managed a few.

Hooray for blacklight! Letting us see how very cool nature can be with her color palette.

I can't tell if this little guy is tending to its own eggs or eating those of another fish.

I like to think of this one as Kabukifish, with a fierce pattern around the face.

Compare to kumadori pattern for kabuki theatre:

Crabs are still weird monsters, especially spider crabs.

This place even had an entire floor devoted to varieties of jellyfish, several of which I've never seen before.

In another part of the building there was another area called the Cawaii Collection (that's how they spelled it on the ticket). More cartoony designs on the walls (and stairs), smaller tanks, smaller fish in general.

Delicate little fish around one scary-looking urchin.

I have mixed feelings about this remora. It's neat to see because it looks like it has a flat rubber grip on its head, but it's a little sad because it didn't do any swimming, it just sort of lay there looking around. I'm not sure if that's healthy or not. Fish normally have to swim, but I'm not sure how much swimming they normally do in the wild.

This fish, according to what I could make out on the plaque, changes its colors. As a juvenile it has this semicircular pattern, when it gets to be an adult it will be more stripey and less circle-y.

Ugh. Spiny sea slugs or something. Not kawaii at all.

We did actually see some of these little dudes in a tank (smaller than ping pong balls, apparently called balloon lumpfish), but I neglected to get a photo. They're much more happy-looking in this advertisement than in the wall cartoons or on the stairs, I can say that much. In real life, they mostly sit on rocks and look around. I think. Like little gumballs with faces. (If you want more trivia, read this Reuters article)

We had some lunch nearby and headed over to our last stop before the trip home, Umeda Sky Building.

Along the street, this random terrible illustration next to a kebab place:

I don't know what kind of ice cream this guy is making,  but I'm pretty sure I don't want any.


Umeda Sky Building is a bizarre feat of architectural design.

We made our way up to the uppermost floors, looking for this "floating garden observatory" that is clearly mentioned on the cover of this brochure. I was a bit disappointed to find out that there is no floating garden. There is space for things to float (40 stories up), but there are no plants. There is, however, an excellent view.

What we saw almost immediately after stepping out of the elevator on the 39th floor.

The poster for the food court amuses me.

One outside wall of the building was dominated by a giant map illustration.

This illustration helpfully includes people looking at the map next to the "You Are Here" arrow.

Continuing on, there are wide open spaces looking both into the giant circle in the middle and outward over the city in all directions. Neat little feature, a series of slightly elevated booth seats facing the large windows.

The view from the elevated seat.

To our right, a goofy little heart-shaped stand for couples to pose behind. The little white stand to the right is for your camera, so you can set the timer and run behind the heart.

And a misplaced park bench. It really looks out of place next to all the elevated space age booth seats.

Bonus: the next-door seat had a sleeping couple. Some official-looking guy in a suit woke them up a few minutes later.

A video attempting to capture the scale of this building and its place relative to the ground:

Taking the escalator across that gap between the east and west towers, between the 39th floor and the 35th.

We eventually found out how to get to the rooftop observatory. The view was great and it's apparently known for a spectacular sunset and a bunch of things lighting up (thank you, brochure), but we had a long trip home so we didn't stay for it. Next time.

The way the clouds were rolling in made it look like things were being sharply divided between Light and Dark. It was more pronounced in the camera's LCD screen, but I still rather like this photo.

The photo that everyone has to take of this building:

A brief video providing just a little bit more context to that photo:

From there, we passed the Fun Fun Plaza and caught a cab for the train station and got home at a relatively decent hour.

Good weekend. We'll go back sometime.