One of the best things about living in Kumamoto City was that the zoo was a stone’s throw away from my apartment. I’m not kidding. It was literally a 5-min walk from my place.

What made this serendipitous outcome sweeter was that all newly minted foreigners received a welcome passport that granted them free entry to Kumamoto’s major landmarks. You bet that I used my passport frequently to leverage the locals’ kindness.

I remember fondly the lazy Saturday afternoons in which I would buy some spaghetti at the convenience store and park myself at a strategic spot inside the zoo, watching the monkeys swing from tree to tree with reckless abandon. The feeling of solitude while immersed in the marvels of nature is something I reminisce fondly.

This picture of hippos was taken during my last outing to Kumamoto Zoo, when I was a middle-aged man bringing my children along for a sensory adventure. The delight of getting rather up close and personal with animals never gets old.