Ueno Zoo and the Museum of Western Art

Well, I had quite the day! I slept 7 hours...FINALLY!  I wanted to keep sleeping but I made myself get up so that I could go to bed at a normal time tonight.  Yesterday when I was at the NTT Intercommunication center, I bought a Grutt Pass, which has admission tickets or discount tickets to 75 places around Japan.  They are mostly museums, but also include Zoos, an aquarium, and a few gardens.  I decided to head back to Ueno to give the Museums there another try after our dismal trip there on Sunday.  It was such a fun day!  After about a half hour train ride, I got to the Ueno stop and headed towards the zoo (after stopping at Starbucks for an iced coffee).  They stamped my pass at the Zoo since it was the first time I had used it, and as you can see, it expires in two months, so I'll be gone by the time it expires.  I wish I had known about this earlier, as it has 2 places I've already been, but, at least I found it now! It was super hot out today, and very humid.  Plus, the sun was out, which was a nice change of pace from the rain, but made it even hotter when you weren't in the shade.  I toughed it out though, and so did a lot of other people!

Here's the entrance to the zoo:

Of course, there was a mini carnival outside. These things are everywhere!

I was really excited to see the Giant Panda! Mike and I went to the San Diego Zoo a few years ago and the line to see the pandas was over an hour long, so we skipped it.  This time though, there was no line at all!  Also, this kid was in my picture.  I think he was really happy about the pandas...

 The sign, explaining that the Panda is a sign of their friendship with China:

 The panda was sleeping, so I just got some panda butt views:

 The panda didn't wake up, so I moved on. Kind of a bummer, but what can you do?

 Here's my favorite kid again! Ha! Underneath the Thai Pavillion in the zoo:

 These kids were EVERYWHERE.  They were on a field trip, I think, and they all had these uniforms on and hats on.  At first I thought they were really cute.  Then, after spending the entire day surrounded by them...I changed my mind:

 Hedwig!?

Here's a Japanese Badger.  Fun fact: I saw one of these in the "wild" when I was at the Meiji Shrine, but I had no idea what it was at the time.

 Here was his badger friend, just badgering around:

 This owl closed its eyes right as I took the picture.  It had bright yellow eyes, and was pretty cool looking:

 Scary looking Condor:

 This is what I first saw as I got to the Lion's Den:  A giant, bloody bone.  Seriously, I have no idea what it could ven be from.  Are cow bones that big??

 Mama lion:

 Daddy lion:

 Tiger!

 Then I got to "Monkey Mountain" where there was this picture....I interpreted it as the following: If you're wearing lederhosen and having a bad hair day, don't give a monkey an orange, because it will promptly get pregnant and go into labor.  Good thing I didn't have an orange.

 Monkeys! These two were just hanging out, eating bugs off of each other:

  

 Then this pair of old people came along, and assumed similar positions to the monkeys, although I don't think it was on purpose:

 Through this cave were...Gorillas!!

 Here's their hand and foot prints:

 It's a baby gorilla!!! SO CUTE!

 Momma gorilla came along after the baby came towards me:

 The baby did a cute little dancing thing that I couldn't get a good picture of:

 Momma sat down by herself, and was alone with her thoughts for awhile:

 Then she went over towards the baby:

 Sat and thought for awhile more:

 After itching her armpit for awhile, she moved away, and so did the baby. Here's a parting gorilla butt shot:

 I have no idea what a Dhole is, but it must be Japanese for "invisible animal" because I couldn't see a darn thing:

 Bear Hill, here I come!

 All I could see was this cute little black bear though...Bear Hill didn't really live up to it's name:

 Then, I got to the elephants.  They were cool! I don't think I've ever been this close to an elephant before:

 This elephant was working on breaking free and getting those chains open:

 Then, a polar bear! And no, that's not real ice.  I think he was really hot (so was I), so he spent a lot of time in the water:

 Some sea lions:

 Snoozing:

Back to my bear friend!

 Here he is, half underwater, half above water.  Kind of a cool picture, right?

 I imagine his thoughts are: This isn't ice! Where am I? Why is it so hot?! Why is the water so blue?

 At this point I was a hot, sweaty mess.  I had only done the East side of the zoo, and in order to get to the west side you could either walk or pay 150 yen and take an air conditioned monorail.  Guess what I picked?

 The whole ride, all I could think of was this:

No one burst out in song though...so I sat in silence:

 Here's my map: I was taking that squiggly line in the middle from the right to the left:

 Some monorail views:

 Hipster kid sitting next to me:  Yes, those are houndstooth pants.

 First view of the other side, it was beautiful! A whole pond filled with the biggest water lilies and lily pads I have ever seen!

 One bonus of the heat and humidity: My map stuck to my arm! I didn't even have to hold it.  Score.

 Penguins!

 Flamingo Party:

 Kangaroo:

 Cute kid, but WHY IS SHE WEARING A HAT!?! It's 90 degrees out!!!

 Giant anteater:

This thing..monkey? Lemur?  Can't remember...Sorry!

Naked mole rat:

 Timon? Is that you?

Here was an armadillo, who kept pacing his cage.  Poor little guy.

Gross bat thing with a zoo keeper holding it:

 Entrance to the nocturnal house...kind of creepy, right?

I couldn't get any pictures down there, so I headed out, and found some zebras!

 And, my new favorite animal (besides Norman, of course)...the pygmy hippopotamus!   It was SO CUTE!

 Here it is, thinking about going into the water:

 Wooosh!

 Just hanging out!

 Here's the normal sized hippo, which seemed like a giant in comparison to the little guys I had just seen.  What's that? You can't see him?  That's because he was underwater the whole time! He only popped up once every 2-3 minutes for air.

 Here he is, getting some air.  I waited awhile for this picture, so enjoy it!

 And back down again.

 I tried to get a picture through the water, but that obviously didn't happen:

Here's another hippo, who was more cooperative:

 And his water was a little clearer.  He was having fun playing with a log:

After hippos we have the Rhinos! there were two, a boy and a girl.  They were both enjoying rolling around in the mud!

 I tried to take a picture of him, and at the last minute he turned around, so here's a rhino butt.  Anyone sensing a theme here yet??

 Giraffe!

 Ok, this was crazy, because that skyscraper was right behind the giraffe's.  See his head poking up below, right above the stone wall?

 Here's a kind of better shot, not exactly two things you would expect to see together!:

After I was done with the animals outside, I headed into a building that had reptiles, amphibians, and fish!
 Here's a creepy looking eel:

 Here's the alligator cage.  It was so scratched up, it's crazy! You could barely see through it.  I think the alligator was NOT happy and must have scratched it up himself.

 This was the best picture (and view) I could get through the scratched plexi-glass:

 Snake-necked Turtle.  This picture doesn't quite do it justice, but he had a really long neck...like a snake! Go figure.

 Lizard thing??? I forgot! Sorry!

 Cool looking fish:

This crocodile was just staring at me, not moving at all.  I didn't smile at him...thank you Peter Pan for this valuable life lesson!

Ok, I could be wrong, but I think these were Komodo Dragons?

 A Galapagos Turtle! He was huge! I loved him...and there's those darn kids...did not love them.

Giant snake...this picture doesn't do it justice, but it was huge.  

 Just hanging out:

 Here was a giant anaconda, but it was mostly underwater:

 Anaconda head:

 Turtle, just doing his turtle thing:

 Japanese Rat Snake...creepy:

 No clue what this guy is, but he was cute:

Here's some more views of the lily pad pond.  There was a cute little bridge that cut through it:

 I saw one lily! Below:

 I think some of the bigger ones were 2-3 feet in diameter.  Seriously, crazy big!

 I was hot.  Super, duper hot.  So, when I saw an ice cream machine that told me I could get an ice cream bar for 250 yen, I thought I might have found heaven.  Turns out, it was just Lady Borden (weird name for ice cream, right?)  She? It? Was delicious.

 I passed a cafe that sold this for lunch...it's a panda made out of rice, beans, pork, and noodles.  Cute.

 Here's a 5 tiered pagoda, just hanging out in the middle of the zoo:

 After a solid 2 hours at the zoo, I decided it was time to head for air conditioning.  Right across the park was the Museum for Western Art.  I know, I know, why go to Japan to see Western Art??  Because I love Western Art! And my pass got me in at a discount!   I couldn't take pictures inside, but there was an entire room filled with Monet paintings! They also had works from Picasso, Pissaro, Manet, Renoir, Rodin, and my first time seeing a Jackson Polluck! It was really exciting...I was glad Mike wasn't with though...he probably wouldn't have been nearly as excited.  Here's the outside of the museum:

There were a few Rodin sculptures outside of the museum, including The Thinker! I looked it up, because I distinctly remember seeing this in France as well, and I guess Rodin made 20 castings from the original mold.  So there are 20 of these floating around the world.

 All I could think about was Jesse Ventura...any other Minnesotans with me??  Here's a reminder:

 Cool shot, right?  I'm becoming quite the photographer! (haha)

 Here's Rodin's "The Gates of Hell"...according to wikipedia, this is one of 3 in the world.  Pretty cool, right?

 I headed back to the station, after an awesome day of seeing the sights.  My Grutt Pass cost me 2000 yen, and just today I saved 660 yen.  So, I should definitely save a lot, since there are more places I want to see!

We'll see where tomorrow takes me... I have some ideas, but I'm not committing to anything until I see the weather!

One more thing....Happy Fourth of July! Hope everyone is having a fun and safe day! Shout out to my parents, participating in the Chisago Lake Boat Parade (I'm slightly bummed I'm missing that!).