Searching for Penguins at Asahikawa Zoo (Hokkaido Winter 2017)

The highlight of our trip in this winter is to visit the northernmost zoo in Hokkaido, the Asahikawa Zoo. They are famous for the Penguin Parade in Winter only (November until April).
We bought the tour from the Tourist Information Centre at the airport. It is a package with transportation and entrance fee all included for ¥6,130 per person.
The zoo opens at 10.30AM and close at 3.30PM in winter so we have to be there very early to catch the first penguin parade of the day at 11.00AM, or else the second session is at 2.30PM.
To get there, we left the hotel right after our breakfast, which starts at 6.00AM. We took subway from Nakajima Koen to Sapporo Station, which cost ¥200 per journey.
Then we headed to the platform 8 for the train to Asahikawa
I really like the public transportation here. The train arrives on-time and depart on-time.
They have very comfortable seat and spacious too.
Throughout the journey, the views were stunning.

After around 1.5 hours, we reached Asahikawa Station and got into a bus to the zoo. It is another 40 minutes journey to the zoo. The bus tickets comes together with the package we bought earlier. If not, it cost ¥440 per trip. (Bus #41, 42 and 47)

An we arrived at the bus stop outside the zoo.
Here I am, Asahikawa Zoo, after more hours of travelling from Sapporo.


We managed to watch the first morning session of Penguins Parade.
and I continue to be amazed by the animals in the zoo - choegraphy in full force!

Some highlights in the zoo
Up the hill in the zoo, we found a rest area (looks like another entrance to the zoo). We had our lunch at the Garden Terrace Lion where they serve this special Ramen with butter - taste really good!
It is sunset for another day...
We are glad that the weather was good whole day and -1.3 degree was much better than we saw on the weather forecast the day before (-7 degree)
Asahikawa Zoo unlocked! Goodbye!
Waiting for the bus to Asahikawa Station
Tickets ready! Back to Sapporo

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