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Ueno Zoo's "Escaped Animal Drill" is one of Tokyo's oddest annual events, but one that has built up a cult following among elementary school-aged children, and lovers of the absurd. Each year, zookeepers dress up in elaborate animal costumes and make a break for it, while 150 of their colleagues, together with police and emergency workers, practice how they would handle the situation if an animal really were to break loose.
Recent years have seen fake tranquilizer darts shot into zookeepers in zebra and rhino costumes, and nets thrown over men in monkey suits. The once-sober safety drill has now become such an attraction in its own right that other Japanese zoos have started to copy the idea.
