The Grand Penguin Dictator of the
Universe stands on his rock on high, and casts a scrutinizing crimson
gaze on the proletarians below. Never mind that their average biomass
is over twice his own, or that they will empty the buckets of fish
before he can reach them unless he better positions himself. No, all
he has to do is leer from his rock, and all will bow before His
Excellency's timeless might.
Frankly, it makes as much sense
as our own species's power games. And I'd support this
penguin over a great deal of humanity's Excellencies any day.
This fellow and his impressive
yellow eyebrows swaggers round Japan's most original penguin exhibit,
along with members of half a dozen penguin species. Unlike other
penguin exhibits, this one contains a long underwater tunnel from
which you can watch them soaring through the waves from beneath,
brings you almost to nose-to-beak proximity on the surface, and takes
them all out for a nice long winter waddle around the zoo, for
exercise, when the snow on the ground is cold enough for their feet.
Asahiyama Zoo: like everything in
Hokkaido, quite different from what you'd expect elsewhere. Despite
its site in the suburbs of only 350,000-people-strong Asahikawa, this
zoo has surged from prior tough times to eclipse even Ueno Zoo in Tokyo as Japan's most popular zoo.
