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    When visiting Morioka, besides enjoying the mountains, forests, and lakes, I also highly recommend a trip to Morioka Zoological Park ZOOMO! Its biggest appeal is that the animals live in environments close to nature, where you can see them moving around freely.

    It's about a 40-minute drive from Morioka Station. The park is very large, and the animals have plenty of room to move around. It doesn't feel crowded like a city zoo; instead, it has a more relaxed and leisurely atmosphere.

    This time, I quickly followed the route around the park and finished in about 1 hour. If you want to take your time and carefully observe each kind of animal, I recommend allowing another 30–45 minutes for a more relaxed visit.

    The biggest surprise was a cougar cub born in June this year. You can see it moving around and playing with its mother. It's so tiny and incredibly cute. This was also the area with the largest crowd that day, and no one wanted to leave.

    Although I visited on a Saturday, the park was surprisingly not very crowded. This may be because it's some distance from central Morioka, but that actually makes it easier to comfortably enjoy your time with the animals.

    If you're taking the bus, be especially careful! Buses don't run very frequently, so I recommend checking the outbound and return times in advance and planning how long you'll stay so you don't miss the bus back.

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