Second Day: Ueno Park and Zoo

After "practicing" the walk to Stefan's building, we headed via metro to Ueno Park. There, in the metro station, we had our first "Biz" sighting of the day.












As we walked into the park, there was quite a commotion- probably 20 to 30 paparazzi, with very fancy cameras with long lenses, clustered at the opening, crowded together taking pictures. All the water lilies are just about to bloom, so we thought perhaps that is what they were photographing. The lake was just a sea of those wide, broad, green fronds where Stefan said last time he was here was just water!


But, it turned out that there was a beautiful Japanese woman, dressed in Kimono, posting for the photogs. Of course, I took a picture.


In total, we saw three beautiful women, dressed in kimonos and traditional hairstyles, posing by the lily covered lake. The very last one was particularly beautiful and I snuck into an opening to get a picture. S said she got a very bemused look on her face to see a western woman take her picture.
Later today, I will take my camera to the concierge desk to see if this might be a Japanese celebrity or perhaps just a fashion shoot.

In moments like these, I feel like Japan is a present that unwraps itself every day for me. It's a wonderful, gorgeous treasure, this Tokyo!

The park itself was crowded, it being a Sunday, and has a more natural, less cultivated grounds than in the Imperial Gardens. We saw a Buddhist Shrine, the Hiroshima Memorial and a very old Shinto Shrine, the Tosho-gu Shrine. This Shrine is one of Tokyo's few remaining Edo- era structures. You are supposed to throw some coins into the large bin, clap twice and pray, which many visitors did.

It was especially moving to see the Hiroshima Memorial in person. I never thought that I ever would, and it was profound. On the one hand, it was exactly as it looks in pictures. On the other, it was deeply moving to be in the presence of the flame, kept alive for so long so that we never forget.



At the Buddhist Shrine, it was quite moving to see the tablets where people record their wishes. Some are in English, so I think if you double click on the image, you will be able to read a few. There was also incense burning, and it smelled so smoky and sweet. People wafted it over themselves for their health, as is the custom.



After visiting the shrines, we headed into the zoo! The zoo, of course, was a highlight for me. I took tons, tons of pictures. My favorites were as follows:

Red Panda (looks like a raccoon but so active, I could hardly get a shot!)

The baby monkey (who was so cute and truly hated having his daily grooming- he kept trying to escape but Mom had him firmly by the toe)
















The zebra (who came out just as we walked up, stood very still..and so close I could almost touch him...as if waiting for his picture to be taken and then walked off as soon as I was done)





















And last, but not least, a pygmy hippo! A new favorite for me, a pygmy hippo is a very small dark hippo. A mini-hippo! We were so close here that I could have touched him as well. I took a video so you can see the laps he does around the pool. And his ear shake when he comes up for air. You can hear me talking, how annoying, and yes, the water was really that color. Sick green. But the hippo was beautiful and we watched for a few minutes as he did laps, turning over to expose his pink belly.



I would have loved to touch him- and could have easily reached him- and this was another interesting thing about Japan. The animals were often so close to you, and only the most aggressive ones had a plexiglass partition between you and them (for example, the gorillas). But otherwise, you were only set back a foot from the cage but not once did I see a single person try to touch or feed or even harass the animals. It was refreshing to see that, somewhere in the world, humans can be trusted to behave as they should. Although, I did see one funny sign ensuring that you did not feed the monkeys!


The only sad thing was that Ling Ling, the giant panda, had passed away. So, there were no giant pandas to be seen here in Tokyo. I did just see one at the Vienna zoo at Christmas, but still I think it is appropriate to have a moment of respect for Ling Ling's recent passing.




Afterwards, we came back and hit the gym (seriously, can you believe how much gym going I am doing!). It certainly helps that the view from the gym is unparalleled. It's a panoramic view of the city and at night, the Ferris Wheel lights up and twinkles in the distance. The gym is also top notch and serves amusing little smoothies every day. Today's was grape/red cabbage/carrot/apple and it was exactly the color of the red cabbage in it. I also got Stefan to do some lunges with me and he was surprised at how hard they were! It's a rare day when I teach HIM something, so that was very satisfying.

We ended the day by having dinner in the room. The food at the Mandarin is to die for and room service is no exception. I had (again, something totally new) a candied herring udon soup with soba noodles. The sweet fish was delicious and I gobbled up the spinach in it (green vegetables! yay!). But the noodles were heavenly- I ate them so fast! After a long day of sight seeing and working out, I was starved, even though we got a much later start than yesterday (and only were out for about four hours). We slept until almost 10am and have had a fairly easy adjustment to the time change. But after breakfast, we waited for an hour (a full hour) while our room was serviced before we could pack up for our day in Ueno. The service is clearly impeccable and very, very thorough!