Zoo La La
Do you love blurry pictures of animals? Well then you're in luck!! That's exactly what I have for you today.
I should back up a bit. For the last couple weeks, my friend Kiersten has been staying with me as part of her attempt to see as much of the world as possible. Major props to her for that. Over the weekend, it occurred to me that despite my extensive zoo-related experience, I've never been to a zoo in Japan. So, we headed over to Ueno park, to show Kiersten the park and to visit the zoo.
The first thing you'll notice about the Ueno Zoo is the prevalent panda motif.
Kiersten with Pandas.
The second thing you'll notice is the lack of pandas.
The giant panda house is devoted to Red Pandas, which are cute, but they're no giant pandas.
The Ueno zoo has an extensive collection of birds.
Hedwig!
Bird that could probably eat me.
And the iconic Japanese crane. It even decided to do some iconic poses for me.
But it's not just birds. There were also...
Lions!
Tigers!
and Bears!
Oh my! Apparently the sloths are slow enough that they figure they can't run away, so they're allowed to wander in the trees next to their cage.
This giant anteater's long tongue freaked Kiersten out.
The otters could swim out through a big pipe to a fiberglass box in the middle of the crowd if they wanted to. I <3 otters!
Some of the cutest and bizarrest things we saw were in the nocturnal small mammals house, but the darkness made it hard to get pictures. We spent a long time squealing over a baby cotton top tamarin. This is a "slow lorry" peeking out of its box, and it is adorable! I want one!
Tapers are a personal favorite. This one ever got out of the water and pranced around the enclosure.
Giant Japanese salamander is indeed giant. They can get up to 6 feet long. Remind me not to swim in any Japanese ponds.
Wait... what's that?
It's baby kangaroo! Cuuuute!
Galapagos tortoise says "Bye bye!"
I should back up a bit. For the last couple weeks, my friend Kiersten has been staying with me as part of her attempt to see as much of the world as possible. Major props to her for that. Over the weekend, it occurred to me that despite my extensive zoo-related experience, I've never been to a zoo in Japan. So, we headed over to Ueno park, to show Kiersten the park and to visit the zoo.
The first thing you'll notice about the Ueno Zoo is the prevalent panda motif.
Kiersten with Pandas.
The second thing you'll notice is the lack of pandas.
The giant panda house is devoted to Red Pandas, which are cute, but they're no giant pandas.
The Ueno zoo has an extensive collection of birds.
Hedwig!
Bird that could probably eat me.
And the iconic Japanese crane. It even decided to do some iconic poses for me.
But it's not just birds. There were also...
Lions!
Tigers!
and Bears!
Oh my! Apparently the sloths are slow enough that they figure they can't run away, so they're allowed to wander in the trees next to their cage.
This giant anteater's long tongue freaked Kiersten out.
The otters could swim out through a big pipe to a fiberglass box in the middle of the crowd if they wanted to. I <3 otters!
Some of the cutest and bizarrest things we saw were in the nocturnal small mammals house, but the darkness made it hard to get pictures. We spent a long time squealing over a baby cotton top tamarin. This is a "slow lorry" peeking out of its box, and it is adorable! I want one!
Tapers are a personal favorite. This one ever got out of the water and pranced around the enclosure.
Giant Japanese salamander is indeed giant. They can get up to 6 feet long. Remind me not to swim in any Japanese ponds.
Wait... what's that?
It's baby kangaroo! Cuuuute!
Galapagos tortoise says "Bye bye!"