The Fuji Safari Park (富士サファリパーク) is a wildlife park on the southern slopes of Mount Fuji where visitors can take a safari through the simulated habitats of freely roaming animals, including lions, tigers, bears, giraffes, cheetahs, elephants, rhinoceroses, zebras and bison. It is one of the largest and most popular safari parks in Japan.
There are multiple ways to explore the park's safari zone: by your own car, by a rental car, by bus or on foot. No additional fee is charged if you drive through the safari zone with your own car. On average, it takes visitors about an hour to complete the course, but the road through the park is broad enough to allow each car to proceed at its personally preferred pace.
What a great experience! You get to drive your own car, rented or otherwise, through the one-way route and see animals up close. Just don't pull off the paved road or the park rangers will use loudspeakers to remind you to stay on the asphalt.
Its worth every yen to visit if you are around Mt Fuji. I've been on a real African safari before so while this isn't quite the same in terms of raw untamed nature, it's a much more comfortable and convenient ride when you are in your own aircon vehicle.
If you don't drive, you can get on the cute park bus with other visitors, or engage a personal park warden guide in a park cruiser.
Budget at least 3 hours so as to drive through slowly to get good photos, and leave enough time for the House of Cats, petting section for kids and the huge souvenir shop.
And the park entry gates also elicit a "Jurassic Park" feeling as you go through them!
Had a fantastic experience at Fuji Safari Park! The bus from Fuji Station made getting there super convenient, especially since it runs on weekends and public holidays. It's a great outing for kids and family with plenty to see and do. The safari animals are well-kept, and it's such a thrill to see them up close. Definitely recommend for a memorable family day!
We drove in with the car, it was an amazing experience! Next time we will try the feeding bus. And there is a huge carpark where you can capture another angle of Mount Fuji
We went as a part of a tour with MonkeyKart so we were in their vehicle. Overall our visit was just OK. The animals all seemed quite bored, and the tigers were unwell. One had a growth of some kind on its neck and the other had paced so much in its area it had made a dirt track for itself. Just walking from one small spot to another inside what I'm guessing is an electric fence. Not a good life for a large cat.
We came at the end of the day so we missed out on some of the cafes. The capybara and kangaroos were still available to interact with and that was alright. Probably should have skipped this and spent more time on an actual lunch somewhere.
