The Zoo!

Well I ended up heading out with a friend to the zoo. Unfortunately it was raining, but in this case it was definitely a cloud edged silver lining, because there were virtually no people there. We wandered round, nary seeing a soul the whole time. We also got front row seats to animals being fed, the otters for example, that we otherwise wouldn't have been able to see for the massive throng of people that usually attend these kinds of places. Sometimes I can't really see why Tokyo has the jam-packed reputation it does, and in other instances, like the shop window I'm looking out of right now, I can absolutely see why this is the most populous place on the planet.

If I get the job I'm interviewing for I'll do a bit on average apartment sizes and amenities here. I know exactly what they're like, but some people may well be dismayed at seeing them... I can feel my parents shock at seeing the tiny spaces and cramped conditions I might land in.

So the zoo was really fun, but we ended up walking around for absolutely ages, walking around the entire place, up and down the plentiful number of stairs that exist in this city, and generally becoming very tired...

So we stopped and had lunch in a western style pasta place, they're abound in pasta here, I think it's because of their obsession with noodles. Pasta and noodles are similar, so let's just modernise our diet by pretending to eat western food, but still secretly eat noodles by any other name! This is alright for me, I love pasta, noodles, rice and all the noodle soups, but I could see it being a serious struggle for others.

I would also recommend eating western style in a proportion of about 1/3 versus Japanese style here, because you never really eat western. The pasta places for example, serve either a timid pasta that's kind of tasteless, (without sauce often!!!) with a few bits of indescribable meat on top, or a noodle/pasta crossover that presumably started life as pasta. These places are really cheap, around 4 pounds for a lunch. (Free water provided in most places, served at your table, and even if it's not free it's like 100 yen for each cup) Then you have your 'proper' restaurants that are more expensive, but still have some bizarre Japanese twist to them that's better experienced than described.

After this we played some drums, the game I love but still haven't taken pictures or videos of... Damnit!

Onto the pictures!

So I know it's kind of random to go to the zoo, but being out and about in the rain is no fun.  Especially considering it rained all day.  It's not a torrential kind of rain, it's just persistent.  Like it's trying to be annoying.

Another similarity to England then!

So about the animals, this zoo specialised in cute fluffy things.

And birds.  Lots and lots of birds.  But unlike fish, they don't seem to eat that many.

My companion was even surprised when I mentioned that we eat pheasant, (a few were displayed in one of the bird sections, and I commented, in Japanese, that they are delicious.  The look on her face was one of disbelief in me speaking Japanese, and pain in the thought of eating them.)

So this is literally the best picture of the lions I could get.

If I had a better camera...

But yeah they were pretty wet.  Even hiding under the tree they ended up becoming bedraggled.  It was also funny to see the group weakling sit out in the rain, while the rest were under the tree.  Space is tight even for the animals in Japan!

So the rain rather spoiled this particular shot.  They had quite an interesting setup for the otters; they fed them in this tank that had a little platform for them to sit on, and it was connected to their main habitat by an otter sized pipe, housing a completely independent water system that then fed their main pool via a waterfall.  All in all, it was an immensely complicated system that provided for an amazing close up view of the animals eating.  Typically Japanese, extremely complicated and intricate, but it seemed to work quite well.

Another shot of the otter.  It's mate came and nabbed a few fish, but beat a hasty retreat, barely staying in the feeding box for more than thirty seconds.  This guy ended up just lazing around on the platform rolling around and playing to the audience.

They didn't seem to mind us intruding upon their meal but they were aware of us as they kept watching us move around.

Look at those hands!  Their feet look like their hands too... Weird.

Again, if I had a better camera...

He looked entirely comfortably just sitting there like that; I'm amazed at how quickly they move though.  As soon as he became uncomfortable he was across the enclosure in a few easy bounds.

Ok so this is the tiger.  No zoo is complete without a tiger.  Whether through luck or judgement they placed the dry spot in his cage right next to the window, so easy pictures abound!

There's no way of avoiding the reflection though, I tried taking this photograph from about fifty different angles.

One of the gorrillas in the enclosure, assuming what must be a really uncomfortable pose.

They used to have panda called ling ling here, but it died last year.  Such was the draw of the panda that they had signs up everywhere saying, essentially, 'we no longer have the panda,' and immense numbers of panda merchandise all over the place.

I'm amazed the chinese gave them one in the first place, but damn them for not giving them another one!

The most sorry looking polar bear I have ever seen.

It's almost enough to forgive them for all the baby seals they've torn apart and eaten.

They were in a special misted zone to keep them cool, and I therefore think they spend their entire lives wet.

On a side note, some of the enclosure designs were quite interesting...

I don't really think these things are cute, but my zoo partner did.  Maybe it's a Japanese thing.

All their cartoon characters here are round and fat, and this thing is pretty much devoid of sharp edges and is definitely well fed, so maybe it just fits that aesthetic.

I include this for the name alone.

In something of an editorial oversight I managed to take terrible pictures of the jackasses themselves.

If you notice in this picture, the autofocus on my camera has somehow managed to focus upon the fishing line they've put over the enclosure to stop other birds interferring.

How did it focus on that?  Really now?  That's just unbelievable.

Stupid camera...

Oh, and that penguin is a jackass.

Spot the chameleon!  How good is that camouflage.

I think it was a little cold for the lizards, even here where the lowest temperature I've experienced so far has been 20 degrees.

He still did the crazy eye moving in different directions thing.  That freaks me out every time I see it, but it's the kind of fascinating event that you just have to watch.

He  didn't change colour though... Is it chameleons that do that?

Isn't this just the ugliest thing you've ever seen?  I don't even know if it has eyes!

It's the largest amphibian on earth, and I've a feeling it's native to Japan, although that's another unverifiable fact.

The Japanese word for salamander is upalupa/うぱーるーぱ(I'm not sure if that's the correct spelling) and it really tickled my funny bone to hear the parents going around telling their really small children, in really silly voices the names of these things.  It sounds like oompa loompa, I think that's why I liked it so much...

Strange... yeah I am.

BOO!!!  So they had a random crocodile in the tank to the right after you walk through into the main building.  I don't remember seeing any warnings, so seeing it there came as a bit of a shock.

For some reason it also took offence to me being there, because after a bit of gormless staring on my part, he came right up to the glass, ala this picture, and did some menacing staring of his own.

Whatever I had done wrong, it enabled me to get some good pictures.

This is a long shot of its' body.

Those scratches are teeth and presumably claw marks; not from the guests I can assure you.  No one bar me was within three feet of the tank for fear of a Godzilla-esque breakout I think.

How ugly  is this turtle!

I can't remember the name of it, but it's certainly the ugliest thing in this part of the zoo.

Its' entire body is shaped to make it look like bits  of rock and seaweed; personally speaking I'm not sure how convincing the illusion is, but as long as it's happy that's all that matters.

This looked like some kind of river alligator, but I wasn't about to jump in there and try the water to find out.

Also, for some reason, this thing didn't have English labels.

Maybe it dropped out of high school early and didn't take the mandatory English classes.

Stay in school kids.

This is my favourite thing in the zoo.

It's a Galapagos tortoise, the kind Darwin tried to bring four of back home to England, before him and his crew became hungry enough to eat them.

He kept the shells though, what an inspirational naturalist.

To really get the correct sense of scale I took a photo with my friend standing in front of the enclosure, it

looks something like this.

I can see why the crew in the Darwin expedition were riding them all round the island.  I can't imagine them going very far on them though, in the entire time we watched it; it didn't even twitch its' legs, let alone try to move.

And instead of moving towards food that was too far away it strained and strained to make itself longer.  How lazy!  What a life!

But yeah he was awesome.

And that was my trip to Ueno Zoo.