Tokyo - Part III

On Tuesday, Brock and I headed to the Ueno Zoo - Japan's oldest zoo dating back to 1882 when the Imperial family bestowed the land to the Japanese government.

We were there to see the Giant Pandas! This place was not like the Louvre where they make you walk all the way to the back to see the Mona Lisa... the Giant Pandas where the very first exhibit upon entering the park!

This place was all about the Pandas! No, Brock did not want to wear the Panda ears with me.

It wasn't until we saw the next set of animals that I realized how different this zoo is from anything in the States. These animals are confined to some pretty small cages. Yes, we were able to get really close to a lot of these animals, but seeing how they're living? Totally not worth it. I was telling Brent, the lion's habitat was about as big as the footprint of our home. The Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle may not have a quarter of the species of this zoo, but they are all living a lot better life. As we continued on, I just felt bad for these animals.

Okay... let's make this post a little happier! Brock loved the gorillas! He waved to the baby gorilla and it came over to him!

Brock was cute with the polar bear too - every time he saw it, he would roar just like I do when I read him his books. I told him the polar bear has big feet like Diesel so he can walk on the snow - and he seemed very satisfied with that answer - "ohhh".

Who screams for ice cream? Oh yeah, that would be Brock - Brock has started screaming in the middle of every sit-down meal. Thanks Brock to start that while we are out of town.

The meerkats were hilarious with Brock. It was like they were really playing with him - running back and forth playing "tag". Wish I got a video, but alas I did not. We even saw a cotton-top tamarin and I told him his great-grandfather had one! Did you know the monkey is at "critically endangered" status?

Above is a good picture to show how the cages were almost lined up - not very many of them were fixed up to emulate their typical habitat. Poor kangeroos were lying on dirt with one tree for shade. The penguins were sitting on, what looked to be, the side of a pool with water as a moat. Ugh. The place was landscaped beautifully and it was clean and we felt safe.... so there was that.

No $25 stuffed Panda for Brock. I did get him a panda fork though - super cute

We were there to see the Pandas. I don't know if I'm happy I went and paid the 600 yen to help for the zoo's expenses or if I'm sad I went, making the Japanese government think this is okay. Anyway, Brock was happy.

And one more from our way through Ueno Park to catch the train. Can you imagine this place in spring when the whole walkway is blooming with Cherry Blossoms?

Oh and we did return to the hotel and after a quick bath (it was HOT at the zoo), Brock was off to lalaland by 2pm local time. We were also invited to dinner at one of Brent's coworker's home, but I didn't take any pictures. It was nice to see a Japanese home and eat a home-cooked meal. Brock enjoyed playing with the children's toys there too!