Wakayama · ShirahamaNo.276★Open in map →
Adventure World
— Shirahama's safari park by the sea
A large animal park in Shirahama, Wakayama, combining an open safari section, a marine performance arena and a small amusement zone on a single ticket. Its long-running giant panda programme ended in June 2025.
Adventure World sits inland from the hot-spring resort of Shirahama, at the southwestern tip of Wakayama, and works as one large enclosure rather than a chain of small exhibits. Safari World holds the land animals in open paddocks you can cross on foot or by ride-on tram. Marine World runs the sea-animal performances — dolphins and sea lions in a show pool, with miniature pig and dog acts on the same daily timetable. Play Zone adds an actual funfair inside the gates: a Ferris wheel, go-karts, a roller coaster. For three decades the park was best known for something else entirely. It began keeping giant pandas in 1994 and became the most successful panda breeding programme outside China, with sixteen cubs born on site. The last four — Rauhin, Yuihin, Saihin and Fuhin — were flown back to China in June 2025 as the loan agreement wound up, and the park now has no pandas at all.
Why it stays quiet
Most first-time itineraries treat Wakayama as Koyasan and the Kumano Kodo and never reach the coast, so Adventure World stays outside the standard foreign route despite being one of the largest animal parks in Japan. It is also the one place in Kansai where the guidebook you are holding is probably wrong: a great many English-language pages still promise pandas that left in June 2025.
Background & history
The park's reputation was built on giant pandas. It began keeping them in 1994 under a loan and joint-research arrangement with China, and over the following three decades sixteen cubs were born on site — the strongest breeding record anywhere outside China. One female, Rauhin, raised ten of them. When the agreement approached its end, the four remaining pandas — Rauhin, then 24, along with Yuihin, Saihin and Fuhin — were returned to China in June 2025, brought forward from the August expiry to avoid moving the animals in the height of summer. The panda buildings still stand, but the collection has ended.
What to look for
- Safari World
- the land-animal half of the park, with large mammals in open paddocks you cross on foot or by ride-on tram
- Marine World
- the sea-animal arena, where dolphin and sea lion performances run to a fixed daily schedule
- Animal performances
- beyond the marine shows, miniature pig and dog acts run through the day — check the timetable at the gate and build the visit around it
- Play Zone
- a compact funfair inside the park with a Ferris wheel, go-karts and a roller coaster, included in the gate price
How to enjoy it
Standard hours are 10:00 to 17:00, with seasonal variation; in high summer the park extends to 20:00 (23 July to 23 August in 2026) and the evening hours are cooler and far less crowded. Get the show timetable at the gate first and plan the day around the marine performances, filling the gaps with the safari section, which takes the longest. Shirahama's white-sand beach and hot springs are ten minutes back down the same bus route, so a night in the onsen district turns a long journey into a comfortable two-day trip rather than a hard day return.
How to actually get there
- Shin-Osaka Stn → Shirahama Stn (JR limited express Kuroshio, ~2 hr 20 min)
- Shirahama Stn → Adventure World bus stop (Meiko Bus, ~10 min, stops at the gate)
- JR limited express Kuroshio + Meiko Bus
- Shin-Osaka Station →(JR limited express Kuroshio, ~2 hr 20 min)→ Shirahama Station →(Meiko Bus bound for Adventure World / Shirahama Airport, ~10 min)→ Adventure World bus stop, at the gate. Total about 2 hr 40 min. The Kuroshio runs roughly hourly; buses are timed to meet arriving trains, so take the one waiting outside the station rather than planning a connection in advance.
- Bus back to Shirahama Stn, then Kuroshio to Osaka
- The same Meiko Bus route returns to Shirahama Station in about 10 minutes. The last useful Kuroshio back toward Shin-Osaka leaves Shirahama in the early evening, so check the departure board when you arrive in the morning. If you are staying the night, the same bus continues into the Shirahama onsen district.
Before you go
- Cash
- Admission (2026): adults 18+ ¥5,300, seniors 65+ ¥4,800, ages 12-17 ¥4,300, ages 4-11 ¥3,300. Tickets are sold online and at the gate. Card and IC payment are accepted at the entrance, but carry some cash for the smaller kiosks inside.
- Closing days
- There are no giant pandas at the park as of June 2025. The former Breeding Center and PANDA LOVE buildings remain, but the animals are gone — do not plan the day around them.
- Another way
- By car it is about 10 minutes from the Nanki-Shirahama IC on the Kisei Expressway, with parking on site. Nanki-Shirahama Airport is a few minutes away, which makes a flight from Tokyo a realistic alternative to the four-hour rail run.
- After you get off
- The bus stops at the park entrance — no walk. Buy tickets at the gate window on your left as you face the entrance plaza.