I briefly visited Punch last Satuday (5/23)! Here's my "behind"-the-scenes notes for people who curious about what it's like to visit him.
I made a brief visit to Punch during my first time in Japan. My visit happened days after that fuckin psycho jumped into the enclosure and I was heartbroken, both because of the stress for the animals but also selfishly because my visit remained uncertain how it'd be like.
You all know by know the new restrictions that were added so I won't go into that here.
Since it was my first time in Japan and it was a far round-trip visit from my hotel, I didn't want it to take up my whole morning so I only stayed an hour after the zoo opened and didn't see much of Punch.
The zoo opens at 9:30. I got there ~8:20 which was a mistake. There were like 5 people (all locals) waiting for the zoo to open. I was told that Saturdays are very busy because people are also bringing their kids. A decent amount of people starting coming in after 9 but I stayed at the bench and only lined up like 15 minutes before. If you arrive at 9:30 on the dot, when it opens, I think you'll be fine at this point. It was also a cloudy and cold day (~60s F). I also suspect more people probably coming in during feeding times which I didn't stay around for.
When I first got to the zoo, I was struck by how small the entrances were. There's like an "outer" entrance to greet you and then the inner entrance/ regular entrance for people. I know people have noted it's a small zoo but seeing the entrances rly made me understand how small.
While I waited over an hour for the zoo to open, the workers were getting the entrance ready. Some were wiping down the signs with wet towels and buckets. There's no bathroom on the outside but someone had to go to use the bathroom before the zoo opened, and the workers allowed the person to go in, which was nice.
I noticed there were 3 people who had those HUGE cameras, like those paparazzi-style cameras. But they were all locals. In fact, I'd say over 100 people were there at opening time and it was mostly locals minus a handful of people including me.
When I get to the monkey mountain area, I didn't immediately see Punch. He was in the inside area. But when I finally saw his head peep out of the wall and heard everyone cooing at seeing him, it rly hit me how the little guy has no idea how much of a big star he is and how much he's loved *sniff sniff* ok, this might seem obvious, i'm not delusional, BUT it hit me in an existential sort of way that's hard to describe without making me seem parasocial.
He played a little and then he went back inside. I didn't see him again for another 15-20 mins. And then he came back out and played some more.
The last I saw of him, he was turning a corner and then he accidentally brushed up against an older monkey and that monkey pushed him for touching him. I didn't see him fall or flee from my angle, but I knew he went back inside. I waited another 20 mins for him to come back out but this time since he went inside after an upsetting episode, I had no clue when he'd come back outside and called it a day and left.
On my way back to the train station, I noticed a sign I didn't see before. Apparently there are special bus passes with Punch's face on it. Of course it was sold out!
A couple of things I want to add:
- that morning before my visit, I checked Twitter to see if there were any updates from the zoo. I also saw videos of Punch. I saw one person (writing in English) claiming their video was from "today." This was bullshit. The zoo hadn't even opened yet so it couldn't be "today." If they meant "yesterday," it was also bullshit because cloudy/ rainy the day before and that video has sun and no wet ground.
Just a reminder, if you specifically want to follow Punch's journey/ growth, trust local sources in Japanese that also provide the date.
I know it's only a temporary measure but the green "fence" they added rly doesn't do jack shit. I know it was something quick they did over the weekend and I hope they can improve security measures later, but if that costume guy wants to jump down into the enclosure again, that green fence won't stop him. When I got there, it was already being half hung/ pulled down. I don't want to be overly critical of the zoo here. Just my observation. Fuck the guy who jumped down and his accomplice
after the second time Punch went inside, one of the kids (human kid) kept on calling out to Punch-kun. He was inside the designated kid area. No one told him to shut up. This rly annoyed me. Some animals do better with chatter than others. I don't know much about macaques specifically but I have a great local zoo. Growing up I did a lot of trips there. We were taught to be quiet around animals. There weren't any signs telling me to be quiet either.
There is a place in Kyoto where you can feed wild macaques. You step into a little house/ shed and the park employees give you food and you're only allowed to feed them inside through the bars. My fingers brushed a macaque around Punch's age (maybe even a little younger than Punch). Their fingers felt very rough!