Atagawa Tropical & Alligator Garden: Radical Reptiles and Gnarly Nanners www.tofugu.com

In 1955, only ten years after the end of World War II, bananas were scarce in Japan, yet people longed for them. This gave a young man named Kimura Wataru an idea: bring bananas to the Japanese people with a banana theme park.

Of course, Kimura worried his business venture would not be sustainable. What if people got tired of looking at bananas? So he took the next logical step: alligators.