Hiroshima is a great place to visit if you are an animal lover- we have deer on Miyajima island, we have rabbits on Okunoshima island, cats in Takehara and Onomichi towns and now the sweetest family of Donkeys at Donkey Paradise.

Donkey Paradise is about 90-minutes drive from Hiroshima city and only 20-minutes from Fukuyama, Onomichi and Tomonoura. The couple who started the petting-zoo were educators for many years as they ran a cram school (juku) in the town. Once they got a donkey of their own and moved to a house on the hill overlooking the sea they thought others might love it too.

Big thanks to Francois who has joined the Donkey Paradise team and took me on a tour around the farm and to meet the super sweet Donkeys and goats. Francois helps run English tours as well as runs the social media for the business.

I was so happy to see how well all of the animals are being treated and cared for and I think this is a great sustainably focused example of how to revive rural communities - follow your passion, focus on education, run operations with low impact, and find a way to integrate learning with nature as well as support local businesses, artists and craftspeople.

See the video I took for this podcast here: https://youtu.be/XkzBBky-5PE

See more about Donkey Paradise on their social media channels or website: https://donkeyparadise.jp/