Tokyo Ueno Zoo - 22 August, 2012

Finally. We went to the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo, and had a blast! Oh, it was so fun. The craziest part is that we stayed from opening time to closing time. There was no need for any of the other plans I’d made for the day. I can’t believe how big the zoo is!

We started early, meeting Keilani and Dani in the station at about 7:45 and boarding the train at a little after 8. All of us snoozed at least a little on our way to Ueno. (Who gets up so early in summer, right?) Once we left the Ueno station, we just followed the crowd – almost everyone heading out the park exit. The Ueno Park is full of fun things other than the wonderful greenery and picnic areas – shrines, something like six museums, and the zoo!

The most crowded spot that morning looked to be the Museum of Western Art. Not many entered the zoo as it opened, lucky for us. At the ticket window, the ticket-seller asked if we had our passports. As luck would have it, we did! With our passports to show, we got a 20% discount off the already low price of 600 yen. So it cost about 5 bucks per person.

The Ueno Zoo’s pride and joy is the pandas gifted to Japan from China. So right within the gate, behind the shelf full of pamphlets and maps, is a cutesy panda statue. Nearly everyone stops to take pictures with it as they head in, and we were no exception.

Though nearly everyone went to see the Giant Pandas immediately, we veered the other direction to see some Japanese birds first.

The Giant Panda exhibit already had a line only 20 minutes after the zoo opened, and I can’t imagine how busy it must get as the day wears on. Outside of it, we caught some photos of the mosaics, and these little peep holes shaped like panda heads. The pandas just sat behind their glass eating the bamboo piled around them as people took pictures. Their area is huge! I wondered if they often ventured out to play on any of their habitat, but we never did get a chance to go back and see if they’d moved. (I hope I have their names right below - I'm not actually sure which was which.)

giant panda -Liilii

giant panda -Shinshin

   

Next we passed something called Sala Thai. “This Thai Pavilion (Sala Thai) is a gift from the Royal Thai Government to mark the 126^th Anniversary of Diplomatic Relations between Thailand and Japan on the 26^th September 2007, and to serve as a symbol of the close ties between the two countries.” Very pretty.

The zoo boasted what seemed like hundreds of birds. Here are some of my favorites, not in any particular order.

nap time

red-crowned crane

red ibis

sea eagle

secretary bird

small tucan

Also, here’s the sign pleading with visitors to not feed the monkeys. It's cute and funny, the little picture of the monkey that's sick after being fed something it shouldn't eat (or being fed too much). There were a lot of fun little signs that talked about different animals, mostly for the visiting children. Cute little ways to explain strane physical characteristics, where they were from, or other fun facts.

The monkeys were fun to watch, of course. The baby monkey was the cutest, and definitely had the most energy. Most were gathered down in the shade of their area, resting out of the sun. The baby monkey followed them down there, but still wanted to play. He kept bouncing around and jumping on an older monkey near him. So fun to watch!

japanese macaque

japanese macaque

white mantled black colobus

There were several more types of monkeys, and some gibbons. One of the gibbons liked to show off, so he was very hard to get a picture of. The Spider Monkeys were asleep. In this next picture are some colobi. They mostly lounged, but they look cool, and there was also a baby with that group of monkeys. His hid is just visible between the bigger monkey's feet. (It really is too bad my camera consistently focused on bars instead of animals.)

 We passed a traditional tea house at one point. It was interesting to see something like this in the zoo, but it was pretty. All the greenery in the zoo is fantastic. It kept almost all of the pathways shaded, keeping visitors a little cooler as well as protecting from the sun.

After a couple of hours, we stopped for a snack and a rest. A Wisteria provided shade in the pavilion where we found ourselves seats. It must be gorgeous when in bloom!

Here is some more greenery. We enjoyed that even the trees and various plants had labels on them. So not only did we get to see and learn the names of many different animals, we also got to learn about some of the foliage the animals inhabit. The second photo here is a view of the large pond in the park against the backdrop of city buildings of the area outside the park.

Another fun photo opportunity. Sadly, my face is not centered in this photo, but it's the only one I have here. I didn't get good pictures of the gorillas. Those that weren't lounging in the shade had their backs to us. They were fun to watch though, and one did pose for us - too bad he was so far away.

The zoo has a wonderful set-up. We easily navigated through everything, and enjoyed the scenery as well as the animals. Here's a bas relief I found near the zebras. Many of the walls had this kind of stuff, and it's so cool!

The Tokyo Sky Tree was visible from the far side of the zoo. It succeeded in distracting us from the strip-tailed lemurs for a few minutes.

More animals!

tiger

southern tamandua

elephant - male

polar bear

polar bear taking a dip

funny that he's small for a polar bear, being so big and all

meerkat

asian leopard cat - nocturnal

bushbaby - nocturnal

some large type of kangaroo rat

flying fox (large fruit bat)

japanese black bear

lemur

tamarin

stripe tailed lemur

red panda ears peeking from the leaves

red panda!!

penguins all lined up

anteater

tortoise - i really liked this little guy

okapi, from the Democratric Republic of the Congo

maned wolf, from South America

These were just my favorites. All the animals one would expect to find at the zoo (giraffes, lions, hippos, etc.), but while narrowing down I decided to post animals not seen as often. Then again, I can't remember the last time I went to the zoo before this week, and maybe there were more animals than I remember at the zoo near us in the States. Ah, well. Regardless, I had an amazing experience. At one point, I even felt so touched by knowing that the Lord created all the beauty and variety of the world for us, the children He loves without end. It was a good moment, and a very enjoyable day. With bearable heat and few crowds, we really couldn't have chosen a better day to go!