Ueno Zoo

Li Li getting some much needed rest.

This weekend, we finally visited Ueno Zoo, or, more importantly, its giant pandas. It turned out, however, that this was not a good way of looking at the outing. When the two new pandas arrived from China more than a year ago, Tokyo went into a bit of a panda craze. It was the news of the moment, and all around Ueno panda decorations exploded. We thought it wise to wait for the first rush to see Li Li and Shin Shin to abate, and then ended up not going. But after having enjoyed so much seeing the pandas in Hong Kong last year, we had to remedy this omission. We managed to arrive before the biggest crowds (a weekend day is not an ideal choice), but of course everyone immediately threw themselves into the queue to see the pandas. It’s a general truth that in Tokyo, you can’t do anything that’s supposed to be fun without standing in line. The wait itself could have been worse. The pandas have an indoors and an outdoors area, and yesterday, the were indoors. They were, umm, sleeping. No sitting up, no munching on bamboo, no looking cute. So, yes, our long-awaited encounter with the giant pandas consisted in us passing in a slowly moving line several meters away from the glass, where in the background you could make out a sleeping panda, being largely turned away from the public. And it’s not like you can wait and see if they move, because of all the people following from behind. Of course you could try to stand in line once more an hour later, to see whether they woke up in the meantime. But our enthusiasm for queuing does not match up to local standards.

The people who came to see the panda and Shin Shin, the panda

But after having gotten the pandas out of our system, the enjoyable part of the visit started. Ueno Zoo is fairly big and has loads of other animals which are fun to see. There are tigers and lions, a number of bears, rhinos, hippos, you name it. The upper and lower part of the zoo are connected by a short monorail, and the lower part is located pleasantly on Shinobazu Pond. A special favorite of mine was the Small Mammals House, full of partially very well done displays of all sorts of mice, squirrels, Kangaroo Rats, Cavies, etc, some of which really made me laugh. There is also a dark part where you can see nocturnal species.

At the Small Mammals House

Overall, our experience at Ueno Zoo was pleasant. If you enjoy seeing animals, totally go for it. If you mostly just want to see the pandas, you may be less lucky. Going during the week may be an advantage.

All hail Hypnotoad!

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