We were supposed to go to the zoo yesterday, but as it was raining, we decided to do it today (yesterday, Tuesday). Just as well, because the zoo isn't open Mondays.
To say this zoo is a good size is an understatement. Situated in Ueno Park, (which looks on a map to be the same size as Roma St Parklands), this is deceptive. It's bigger, much bigger, and has tons of animals.
After walking through the bottom end of Ueno Park (an area frequented by bums, hobii and the generally smelly) we got to the zoo. We were a little annoyed because Ling Ling their panda of 30years had died last April, but they have been unable to secure a replacement. The entrance for the Zoo is 600Y (about AUD10 in our monopoly money) so for what took us the next 7hrs to get around, that was money well spent.
After going through the gates, we stuck to the right, first seeing some cool looking pheasants and birds, before my camera batteries finally gave up the ghost. Fortunately Dean had his cameras there, with Whitney using his little point and shoot, and Dean with his SLR. We kept walking, and walking and walking.... Lion and Tigers and Bears, oh my.. Also, otters, predatorial birds, gibbons (a type of ape), lowland gorillas, Hokkaido brown bears, polar bears, penguins, sea lions, sun bears.. Oh damn we need a break... So we had a slight snack of chips...
We decided to look at the map and realised that we had only seen a section of the zoo.... We then headed towards the colobus monkies, Bison (this thing was massive), praire dogs etc.... finally we had finished.... the east section.
We then had to walk across a bridge (its a road overpass) and came to the area with more birds that live on the lake, a Kids zoo (petting and feeding etc), giraffes, hippos, pygmy hippos, black rhinos, and an ocapi. The ocapi were once considered to be a myth of the local people in the D.R of Congo, until they were actually found (very shy and retiring), then hunted to near-extinction, before breeding programs were instigated. One of the zoo's ocapi's were on loan to the Yokohama zoo for rogering, but the other one was here. This is a beautiful creature. With a form like a short necked giraffe, it has beautiful eyes and coat, with horizontal stripes on its back legs. We'll show you pictures.
We kept on walking and found small mammals, including some rodents, feline species (similar to ocelots etc) and nocturnal creatures. Also a maned wolf from South America as well as some funny looking things called kangaroos (don't call them that though, or they'll sit on their tails and rip your stomach out with a couple of kicks...). Also found a vivarium with reptiles, lizards, amphibians etc. How would you like to be 1m from a Salt water croc? Fortunately we were behind 1 inch plexi, but still... Also some cool frogs, turtles, tortoise and stuff...
We headed back about 4.30 towards the hotel. There was a clothes shop in Yaesu Mall that Mum and Whitney wanted to check out, as they had skirts and stuff for 980 and other stuff on special. This meant waiting for Dean and me, so we found somewhere to take the load off our feet and waited. It took them about 15mins to decide that they didn't want anything or couldn't find anything they liked in their sizes. It happens over here as well... All the popular sizes go, and all that's left is stuff for either anorexic midgets or behemoths. We decided to have a beer at a bar and cafe in the mall, as we all were wrecked. Did that, but then we started getting hungry again.. Fortunately the mall has multiple restaurants and eateries...
We had spotted a gyouza place the night before, and as Dean had a hankering for gyouza since we got here, we decided to acquiesce to his whim. What we found was a world medal winner.. they have one gold, silver and bronze for their gyouza at the world food fair. Dean and I ordered the 5 piece beef and pork gyouza, while mum got the bronze pork gyouza and Whitney a massive bowl of Ramen (noodle soup). They were soo good, but after 7 hours of walking, its going to take more than five dumplings and a pint of draught to fill us, so we ordered some of the gold ones... They were awesome, with specially grown beef used to stuff them. We were satiated, but Dean wanted some more, so he ordered the bronze medal pork gyouza as afters.
It was now about 7 pm, so it was definately time to head back to the hotel. All we felt like doing was relaxing and watching TV, which me and Dean did, but it wasn't long before the tiredness took over and we were out of it.
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