Izu Shaboten Zoo — Cactus Garden & Capybara Onsen

Izu Shaboten Zoo (伊豆シャボテン動物公園) combines a 1,500-species cactus botanical garden with an animal park featuring capybaras, kangaroos, peacocks, and squirrel monkeys. The zoo is famous for its winter capybara onsen — capybaras bathing in hot spring water, a practice that began accidentally in 1982 when a keeper noticed capybaras entering warm water puddles. The sight of capybaras soaking contentedly with citrus fruits floating around them (yuzu bath in winter solstice tradition) has become a social media phenomenon.

The zoo allows close animal interaction — peacocks and squirrel monkeys roam freely throughout the park, kangaroos can be fed and petted in walk-through enclosures, and capybaras accept food directly from visitors' hands. The cactus greenhouse displays 1,500 species from deserts worldwide, creating unexpected desert landscape in humid Japan.