Lions and White Tigers and Bears

When I asked my brother what he wanted to do in Tokyo, his list was quite bare.

1. See the Daibutsu
2. Buy shoes
3. See a white tiger

 As it figures, and I only learned of this recently, there is a place a little out of Tokyo where they do hold a white tiger, and that happens to be Tobu Dobutsu Koen - Tobu Zoo. So, sure as hell, we went.

Now, see, the zoo itself actually doubles as a theme park and is located in quite a suburban zone. In spite of the first and due to the second, the park finds itself pretty damn empty on weekdays, asides from old couples and the odd family on vacation. I was actually surprised they kept the theme park running, and as I reckon, most people go in for the zoo.
 And shit, as it so turns out, the zoo is quite nice - it better be, for two and a half times the entry fee of Ueno Zoo, not to mention the long train ride.
 But the zoo is spacious, well kept, and heck, the animals seem a hell of a lot healthier. I don't see lions and bears on a regular basis, but now that I've been to both zoos, even a pedant like myself can tell that the ones in Tobu look hell of better nourished and generally less...stressed out? Than the ones in the big city zoo.

What I also thought was pretty cool was the interactive exhibits one could just walk into a mingle with the animals in. Of course, they don't have these for tigers or elephants or crazy animals like that, but they did do it for the squirrel monkeys and kangaroos. Now if you're Australian, that ain't a thing because you have the damn beasts jumping around your backyard any way, but I've never touched a kangaroo before. They're fuzzy. And they're pretty ugly up close.

And of course, the star of the exhibit, much like Ueno has its pandas, was the white tiger we came for. Almost as interesting as the beast itself was the swarm of middle-aged women around the enclosure. We did come at the right time, though, seeing as the tiger had just recently produced four cubs and we got to see them wrestle and nestle with each other. No doubt it won't be too long before those are sold to some other zoo in another country, so the time was ripe indeed and it was satisfying for the eye.

Ueno Zoo

 I took the chance to visit Ueno Zoo while the weather was good, since it's fairly close to hotel New Koyo. For the small admission fee of 600Y (eight dollars?), I didn't think it would be a very large zoo. It is, after all, in the middle of downtown Tokyo.

 I was wrong.

 I spent two hours in there, after which I had thought I had gone around the whole thing, only to realize that there was a whole other equally big section to the zoo. I got lost in there.

I own this place.

The variety of animals on display is enormous. You name it. They have it. I had never seen an aye-aye in captivity until Ueno Zoo. But by far the stars of the place were the pandas.

And boy, do the Japanese love their god damn pandas. There's a line up to go see the pandas - on a Tuesday morning! Who can blame 'em, though. I've yet to meet someone who could look me in the eye and tell me they hate pandas. Maybe it's a crime here?

Pandas aside, it's also quite educative! I stumbled upon this thing for the first time. Secretarybird, it's called? Man, I almost feel bad for the thing. Sure, it's nice to look at, but come on, it's a freaking eagle on stilts. What covenant of nature would make a bird evolve into having such long legs and such a short beak? An eagle can easily carry its food to its mouth in mid flight, and a crane has a long enough beak to be able to fish efficiently, but man, this poor fellow has to bend all the way down to get nearly anything done. My heart goes out to the secretarybird; you poor, malformed Frankenstein of the animal kingdom.



Almost as surprising as the animals themselves was the number of children in Ueno Zoo. I swear, children are a rare sight in Tokyo; it's a well known fact that the population of Japan is a rapidly aging one. But it was as though every child in Tokyo had converged into this one point. The children are almost as fun to watch as the animals. I say that in the least pedo way I can.





It's interesting to note that Ueno Zoo is surrounded by a residential district in at least two of its four sides. Houses hug the walls of the zoo in such a way that the person living there could open their window and plainly look at the place; maybe even pop out and enjoy it without paying the admission fee.

Once out, I enjoyed a delicious bowl of ramen and watched a few movies with the guys back at the hotel. Altogether, t'was a good time for a good price. And, for the whole day, I spent less than 2200Y? A real steal.

Ueno Zoo gets my dominant fist of approval.