Ueno Zoo 2.0

Friday, April 17th--Normally when we go to the zoo, we are in a hurry to get through it all in one day.  However, we currently live in the same city as a zoo....and it is so dang cheap to go inside the Ueno Zoo!  Children 12 years old and younger are FREE!  That means that I paid 800 yen for our whole family yesterday.  The close proximity to the zoo from our home combined with how cheap it is to get in made it so that I could let the kids set the pace yesterday.  We didn't get through the whole zoo, but that is just fine!  That just means that we get to come back today and finish it up! 
As we have celebrated the kids' birthdays here in Japan, we have talked about how they have their birthday in Tokyo, and then the next day their birthday is going on in America.  This means that they have two birthdays--their Japan birthday and their America birthday.  Nathan thought it was great that he got to go to the zoo on his Japan birthday and then the very next day we went back for his American birthday!
Raymond has to work this afternoon, but he wanted to come to the zoo with us for the short time that he had before he had to report to the law office.  The kids were excited to have Dad with us for a few hours.

This is where Ling Ling, the first panda bear to live at the zoo, is enshrined.  This panda bear died in 2008 and was very loved by this zoo and the people who visited it. 
The kids took Dad to see the panda bears, and then Dad wanted to go see the other bears.

This is a Malayan Sun Bear.

We also saw a Japanese black bear.....

...and re-visited the Hokkaido bear.

And, said hello to the polar bear again.

Can you spot the elephant statue in among the foliage and the bamboo trees?

Then, we walked over to the place where we left off yesterday.....(there are still some remaining sakura blooms here and there!)

.....the hippos!

They had regular sized hippos and a couple of pygmy hippos that were really cute!

Zebras....

rhinos....

giraffe....

...and this strange critter.  This is called an okapi.

It was at this point that Dad had to leave to go to work.  We bid him farewell and went on to the Reptile House.  Dad didn't seem to mind that he was going to miss out on the reptiles because he really hates snakes.

Before heading into the Reptile House, we had a snack.  I had bought some mochi at Lawson's and brought them with us to eat today.  Mochi is a popular dessert in Japan.  It is made by grinding dry rice into a powder and then mixing it with water to make a dough.  The dough is steamed and then rolled out thin.  Circle shapes are cut into the dough, and then a dollop of red bean paste (mashed red kidney beans mixed with sugar) is put in the middle.  The rice dough is folded around the paste and ta-da!--you have mochi!  It is a very different tasting treat and one that we had to get used to.  You can't bite into it thinking that it is going to be a "dessert", because you will be disappointed.  If you don't think of it as a dessert, then mochi is pretty good tasting.  We have mochi quite often and the kids all really like it.  I bought these because they are different from the other mochi that we have had.  These have pickled cherry blossom leaves wrapped around them.   The leaves will often be wrapped around mochi in the spring.  I thought it would be fun to try it.

The leaf added to the mochi didn't make it taste any different, just made them less messy.  The kids all liked them.

Now, it was time to enter the Reptile House!

The Reptile House was hot inside to keep the reptiles comfortable. 

The first thing we saw was a crocodile.  Audra was fascinated by him and even after we moved on she kept wandering off to come back and watch him some more.

These fish were kissing!

A big tortoise.

If you look closely, you can find the skin that this orange snake has shed.  It was wrapped around the plant, pretty cool.

The kids found a chameleon and spent a lot of time watching it change.  These two were so hot inside this building and were getting impatient for their older sibs to be ready to move on!

This lotus pond has an island with pelicans and cranes living on it.

Next, we went to the part of the zoo that has several farm animals.  There was a small petting zoo and Audra and Nathan wanted to stand in line for it, but the older kids didn't want to.  They went on to the farm animals while I took these two to the petting zoo line.  We didn't have to stand in line long.  The first thing that the kids petted were bunnies.

Next were guinea pigs.  Audra wanted a guinea pig on her lap, but she wouldn't touch it and was leaning way back.

There were several little white mice that they could pick up and hold.

A rooster...

....and a duck.

Nathan and Audra thought the petting zoo was really neat and when we met up with the older kids they told them all about it.  This made the older ones decide that now they wanted to do it too, so we went back and got in line again.  Everyone petted the bunnies....

....and got a guinea pig on their lap.  Audra insisted on doing it again, but she still wouldn't touch it and kept leaning away from it.

Eww...mice.

The guy next to Logan had a line of mice running up his arm.  They ended up getting on his back and were all over the backpack he was wearing.  For some reason, the mice really liked him.

Seeing the farm animals...

This was a red panda and was a very beautiful animal.  Unfortunately, I couldn't ever get a good shot of his face.

There was a large exhibit for the Japanese snow monkeys.

These are the same type of monkeys that we saw in Arashiyama.

Playing on the elephant statue.

Now we had seen all of the animals in the zoo, but still had a couple of hours before it closed.  The kids wanted to go back to some of the exhibits to see if anything exciting was happening or to watch some of their favorite animals some more.  The first place we went to was the lion cage.  This time, only the lion was out.  He wasn't moving, though.  Lazy bones.

Next, we went back to the tiger.  He was still pacing in the same spot as yesterday, but then he began to wander around his cage....

...and then walked right past the glass where we were standing.  We got so close to him!

He took a drink...

....and then passed by us again.  Very cool!

Next, we went to the gorillas.  The gorilla was just sitting there, and we watched him for a bit.  We were getting ready to leave, when all of a sudden, the gorilla hit the window that he was leaning against with his elbow.  We were up above him, but it still shook the area where we were.  Wow.  The people at the window where he was must have been hitting the window and annoyed him.  At any rate, we felt his power and strength and were very impressed. 

Of course, the kids wanted to go back to the seals.  They loved the seals!

There was one harbor seal, and while we were watching the seals swim around, a couple of zoo keepers got the harbor seal isolated.

They gave him some medicine and eye drops in his eyes and then sent him on his way.  He must be sick.  It was neat to watch them doctor and care for the harbor seal.

We also went inside and watched the seals swim through the tunnel some more.  This guy had a ball and was bouncing it against the glass and the seal was playing with him through the glass.  It was fun to watch.

Some of the kids cried when we left the seals.  They got attached to them and didn't want to leave.

Finally, it was time to go home.  We left the zoo, but went over to the rides that are at the zoo exit.  These rides are locked up when the zoo closes, so we had to watch the time to make sure that we got here before everything shut down for the night. (Tayla in the green airplane)

The kids each got to ride three rides of their choice. (Nathan)

Tayla, Chris, and Logan in the cars.

Caitlin and Audra.

 

It was really nice to just wander through the zoo over two days and take our time at each animal.  Because we were not in a hurry to get through the entire zoo in a single day, we were able to observe more than we normally can.  We were able to have experiences with some of the animals.  These two days were a very memorable time!  We were able to see panda bears, see some animals native to Japan, and to observe the natural tendencies of many animals.  We learned a lot and had a great time!  What a great American birthday Nathan had today!

 

Here's the kids' favorite parts of the zoo (they are long, but this is two days of experiences!):

Caitlin: The Ueno Zoo was one of the few Tokyo trips that, when compared to Kyoto, doesn't have me thinking that meh, it was boring.   It was interesting to me that even though the zoo is massive and has a ton of animals in it, it is really cheap to get into.   I don't understand...must be a very capitalistic country thing. I loved the sea lions, the bush babies, snowy owls that for a Harry Potter fan like myself reminded of Hedwig, and the spotted seal that looked just like the stuffed animal I have at home that was my favorite for years. On day 1, I was wondering if something was wrong with it because it wasn't nearly as active as the sea lions. Day 2 we found out it really was sick as we watched the zookeepers give it medicine. My animal intuition was correct :P. It was also really neat to watch the chameleon change colors as he crawled around on his branch and the lighting around him changed. The tiger, gorillas, and the polar bear were all animals I definitely don't want to meet in the wild. Animals I had never seen before in real life like the panda bears and the spider monkeys and the birds of paradise were neat too. The white mice were just plain icky, even though I knew they were clean and vaccinated. You couldn't pay me a thousand bucks to voluntarily hold one of those. A million bucks, maybe, but not a thousand.

Tayla: My favorite animal was the smallest of the sea lions. I loved it! It kept doing tricks, leaping out of the water, and going in the arch. I thought it was really pretty and I didn't want to leave it. :(  I also really liked the spider monkeys. I thought it was cool to see them swinging on their tales. The gibbons were really cool, and the peacock was pretty. I thought seeing the panda bears was awesome, and they were really cute. I liked watching them eat, climb on their houses, and get in their water. I thought the pagoda was really pretty, too. I also thought the elephants were cool, and I enjoyed watching them. The red pandas were really cute and I really liked watching them climb and play with each other. The zebra was pretty, and the giraffe was awesome! I liked the hippos and the rhinos. I also thought the okapis was cool, and pretty in its own unique way. The polar bear was another of my favorites. It was cool to see it swim, and I got to touch its paw through the glass while it was swimming, which I thought was really, really cool!  The otters, lemurs, and prairie dogs were cute, and I especially liked watching the otters run around and see the stripped, ring-tailed lemurs. The hedge-hogs were also really cute, and I wanted to hold one.  I really liked the zoo, and I thought it was really fun to see Japanese animals, and go to it two days in a row.

Christopher:  I loved all of it! I really liked the rhino. I really wanted to see them fight. They kind of fought they went close to each other and stared each other in the face ....... then they hit....the skinnier one won!  The hippos were really cool, especially when they started to walk around.  One of them opened their mouth and jumped in the water and then hopped out.  There was one hippo who was mooching in the mud.  It was really neat to see the penguins swim around eat fish and wattle around on their pretend icebergs.  The wolf was weird, but it was really cool looking.   The crocodiles were fascinating because of all the scratches that it made on the glass.  I saw a frog eat a bug.  I liked all the frogs.  The chameleon was really fun to watch, especially while it changed colors.  The iguanas were really neat to see in real life.  The crocodile snapping turtle was really weird looking, especially its tongue.  The brown bear--I loved it!  It was really cool how it was on the glass in front of me.  It was cool when the gorilla hit the wall and it shook the ground.  The tiger was really, really cool.  I wanted to take it home with me.  The skunk monkeys' tails were really long.  One skunk monkey started to swing on all of the others' tails.  They jumped down and got on top of him and dog piled on him.  It was really funny.  The petting zoo--I loved it, especially the mice and the turkey.  I loved all the birds!  Oh, and I loved the naked mole-rats! 

Logan:  I really liked the sea lions and the seal. I also liked the polar bear, the otters, the rhinos, and the iguanas.  The spider monkeys were cool because I liked how they use their tails to climb and I also liked the pandas.  My favorite animals were the sea lions. I thought the zebra was pretty. I also like the hippos and tiger. They were cool. I really like gorillas. They were my second favorite animal at the zoo. While we were watching the gorilla, he slammed the cement wall of his habitat, and it shook the window where we were watching as well as the deck we were standing on.  It was cool! I also thought the flamingos were really pretty, and I really liked the crocodile. I also really liked the crocodile-snapping turtle, and the soft-shelled turtle. I thought all the reptiles and amphibians we saw were really cool. I liked the giraffe and the okapis was pretty. I thought the okapis was cool because of its different colors and designs. The zoo was fun.

Nathan:  I liked the whole thing.  My favorite parts were birds with crowns (cockatoos), panda bears, elephants, bears, monkeys, tigers and lions, snow monkeys, gorillas, monkeys, polar bear, sea lions and seals, zebra, hippo and rhinoceros, bunnies, penguins, flamingoes, shoebill storks, giraffe, okapis, reptiles, and red pandas.  I liked the reptiles and the red pandas the best!  We have to go to the zoo on my birthday every year from now on.  Because I am the birthday boy and I said so.  So, that's it.

Audra:  I see pink 'mingoes!  I love elephants.  I love the ducks, they are so pretty.  I pet a bunny, it not bite my hands.  I see fish and crocodiles.  Big crocodiles, and little crocodiles.