A day at the Ueno Zoo

Today is the start of the weeklong holiday called Golden Week. Despite the cloudy morning, we set off to Tokyo's renowned Ueno Zoo armed with our "baon" and camera. We could not bear to miss this very limited chance to see those wild animals as the admission is FREE, which happens very rarely.

As expected, the place was crowded with so many kids around. There were some performers to entertain us before finally entering the Zoo gate. There was this one singer who performs like a band with all his instruments (about 3 or 4) tucked around his body. Luke watched at him so intently to not even move a single second nor wink an eye. He was probably just amazed at how this person could do such a fabulous thing.

Finally, we entered the gate and started our "wild journey." The 14-ha Zoo, which is known to be the oldest one in Japan and strategically located in downtown Tokyo, has a vast collection of animals ranging from birds to monkeys and gorillas, to tigers and lions, and elephants and penguins, too. I wonder why do the gorillas hide their faces from enthusiastic visitors with a sackcloth? Snobbish, huh! While the skimpy monkeys are somewhat determined to be a celebrity posing elegantly at every camera they see flashing at them. And oh, not to forget the giant Panda, which is by far the most popular of all. Ling-ling was in deep sleep, though, when we passed by.

Inside, we spent a good deal of time having our "messy" picnic beneath the awesome trees. As usual, Luke had his kutsarita and enjoyably spattered our precious kanin around the picnic table. Then continued our sightseeing.

It was just soooooo unfortunate that our amusement was cut short early afternoon due to a downpour (the forecast said it will be just cloudy, partly cloudy in fact). Since it's kinda difficult to stroll around while getting wet, and for fear of getting sick, we decided to go home. Sad to say, we were only able to see far less than half of what the Zoo offers. We didn't get the chance to ride the monorail to get to the lower portion of the Zoo and see the water-loving animals.

Oh, boy ... maybe next time we'll be able to see ALL of it. And maybe next time, admission would still be FREE. FYI, next free admission will be in October. ;)

Click here to see more photos.

Here are great sites if you want to know more about Ueno Zoo: Tokyo Zoo Net,Wikipedia. org, TCVB