Sustainable Business in Rural Japan with Adorable Donkeys at Donkey Paradise

<p>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.</p><p>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. </p><p>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. </p><p>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.</p><p>See the video I took for this podcast here: <a href="https://youtu.be/XkzBBky-5PE" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/XkzBBky-5PE</a></p><p>See more about Donkey Paradise on their social media channels or website: <a href="https://donkeyparadise.jp/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://donkeyparadise.jp/</a></p>