Yokohama Dōbutsu no Mori Park, Urban park in Midori Ward, Yokohama, Japan
Yokohama Dōbutsu no Mori Park is a municipal urban park of about 103.3 hectares spanning Asahi and Midori wards. It contains the roughly 53.3-hectare Yokohama Zoo Zoorasia and a planned 50-hectare botanical garden, part of which opens seasonally as the Satoyama Garden.
The park was planned in June 1984 under the provisional name Tsuzuki Nature Park. The animal zone opened on 24 April 1999, and the final African savanna area was completed on 22 April 2015. In 2009 the unfinished savanna zone hosted the Tsunagari no Mori venue of the Yokohama Port 150th anniversary exposition.
The planned botanical garden section opened in 2017 as Satoyama Garden, a roughly 20-hectare area used for seasonal flower displays; its large flowerbed was replanted with cosmos for an autumn showing from 22 September to 22 October 2017. The garden sits beside the zoo's north gate, about two minutes on foot, and the Yokohama mayor Hiroko Hayashi has said the garden events should continue until an international horticultural exposition.
The park covers about 103.3 hectares in Asahi and Midori wards, with the zoo (about 53.3 ha) in the west and the planned botanical garden (about 50 ha) to the east. The Satoyama Garden entrance is a two-minute walk from the zoo's north gate; buses to the north gate normally run only on weekends and holidays, but during Satoyama Garden events all zoo-bound buses serve it on weekdays too, with a free shuttle between the main and north gates. The east entrance is about four minutes on foot from the Nishi-Hikarigaoka bus stop. A forest path links Nakayama Station via Kanagawa Prefectural Shikinomori Park, roughly 3 km or 60 minutes on foot, and is closed at night.
The zoo section opened on 24 April 1999, and its last area, the African Savanna zone, was completed on 22 April 2015. In 2009 the still-unopened savanna land hosted the Tsunagari no Mori venue of the Yokohama Port 150th anniversary exposition. The planned botanical garden opened in part as the seasonal Satoyama Garden, about 20 hectares, from 25 March 2017.
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