Ueno Dobutsu Kōen | JBinnacle

I headed off to Ueno because I wanted to wander around the zoo. Don’t ask me why, but it was what I felt like doing. First I dropped by the Shinobazunoike Bentendo [不忍池弁天堂] where I got the shuuin and I entered Ueno Zoo through the new Benten gate. The zoo had not changed much, I think, but I saw things I did not remember seeing the first time around. They have moved the petting zoo to something closed, probably to fight off the heat.

I had lunch at the zoo around 1:30 pm, then continued my way towards the upper part of the zoo. There I was observed by a bird of prey and it made me feel like food XD. I stayed at the zoo until 16:30 I did not get to see the baby panda because it is too small to be up and about.

Then I headed off to Shinjuku [新宿] which was a convenient place to meet up with D****e for dinner and an hour of karaoke. I did some shopping as I waited – and for some once, that was not (only) fandom related. I was in Kinokuniya getting myself some Japanese books (because as I passed N4 I have to continue studying). Bummer. We also stopped by a random electronics shop which had a big Yoshiki poster. That’s always nice to see.

Once more I headed out to Odaiba [お台場], this time to try and get tickets to the VAMPS Tabata Event and buy the single. The whole idea was that if you bought a CD you got entered into a lottery for a ticket to attend the Tanabata Event the following day. If you bought the three versions of the CD, you also got a poster. They were expecting a huge crowd, but it turned out that crowds of fans on a weekday morning… It was all a bit chaotic because… there were two few people. One can expect staff to get overwhelmed, but this was totally… underwhelming for them, and they did not know what to do about it.

I finally managed to get tickets to ensure my and my friend D****e after the third or fourth round. Once that was successfully taken care of, I went to Fuji TV to get myself some Galileo merch, just because I could, and rode back downtown Tokyo to do one of those things I would ever like to do if I had some time to spare – Ueno Zoo, Ueno Dobutsu Koen [上野動物園].

The iconic image of Ueno Zoo is any of their Giant Pandas. Here’s one getting stuffed:

Panda play-eating bamboo

A secretary bird, which made me remember an old movie and greatly amused me:

Secretary bird, a bird similar to a stork with crazy feathers - like a Native American hairdress - on its head

And a friendly and bored Hokkaido bear which came to say hello at the glass:

A Hokkaido bear prowling its enclosure. It could use with some enrichment.

Aside from the animals (I’ll spare you more pics, though I have an amazing close-up of the polar bear), Ueno zoo holds the pagoda of the former Kan-eiji Temple:

Five-story pagoda in reddish-brown wood

After the zoo was closed, I headed for Shibuya [渋谷] where we had scheduled a meeting at the Hachiko Memorial Statue (one of those things you should do in Tokyo at least once), the Chūkenhachikō-zō [忠犬ハチ公像].

Statue of a sitting akita dog