Ueno Zoo

DISCLAIMER: This post contains many pictures. Just stick it out, I promise you'll enjoy them.

First off, I must dedicate a couple lines to the entire day I experienced two days ago. It started obscenely early around 5:30am. The upside? This sunrise.

I was stuck in a bus waiting for Liz to finish a shoot on location. The next photo is basically the only view I had for 11 hours. 

Here's how I felt about that.

Anyway, that's really the only excitement that came out of that situation. Liz looked beautiful though...from what little I saw of her. I really didn't mind too much, but it was a little annoying. The shoot she did today was a million times better! More on that in the next post though. The rest of this one will be filled with animal pictures.

Yesterday, I went to the zoo. Ueno Zoo is the oldest zoo in Japan, first opened in 1882. Here's a link if you'd like to check out some more about the awesome zoo! http://www.tokyo-zoo.net/english/ueno/
Liz had a shoot all day and castings at night, but no space was available for me so I decided to adventure on my own to Ueno, a neighborhood of Tokyo. The Ueno Zoo is part of a larger Ueno Park which also contains some impressive shrines and art museums. I didn't really have time to check out the shrines or museums, but I plan to go back one day soon to see what I missed. A normal sight seer would easily have fit all of the park in a full day, but obviously I am no normal tourist. I decided to spend most of my time petting goats in the children's petting zoo. The animals in this place were amazing! Smack dab in the middle of the park was a giant pogoda, adding a little Japanese flavor to the already entertaining zoo environment. Before I get excited about the details of the petting zoo, I'll tell/show you about some of the other animals. I really enjoyed the pandas and the elephants. The vivarium (reptile and amphibian house) was definitely a treat as well. I covered every inch of that zoo and enjoyed every second of my time there. Sadly, the enclosures for the gorillas, lions, tigers, and bears (oh my) were undergoing renovation. It's a testament to the zoo that I was still thoroughly entertained without these big budget animals. The red pandas were great, as well as all of the unique exotic birds. Here are some of the better pics.

I took a pic of this guy because you couldn't get a bigger bird food hog. I mean he's literally sleeping in the only food bowl in the cage. What a jerk.

 Loud and annoying, but awesomely expressive family unit. I watched them for at least 15 min.

How amazing is this tree!! Lemurs were just chillin on the bridge next to it. 

Enough said.

This one is for you, Shawn. hehehehe  Love you!

Tamarin cousin of my monkeys at Carleton perhaps?

This Shoebill Stork is creepy creepy creepy.

Look closely. Those are Jackass penguins! Seriously! Ha!

So this is the start of the amazing petting zoo experience. I walked to the west garden portion of the zoo and inadvertently wandered into a little cove of loose goats. Seriously. Goats everywhere. And I could pet them all!! It was phenomenal. Chickens, pigs, bunnies, cows, sheep, llamas, turkeys, and guinea pigs were also in the mix, but they were penned behind little wooden fences to keep them separated. The chickens and roosters could go wherever they liked as long as they could fit under the fence posts. This next pic is a festival of awkward animals. Guinea pigs, bunnies, and chickens were all penned together in this area. I guess I was living a lie to think guinea pigs were completely domesticated. Clearly they live an alternate lifestyle with bunnies...and chickens.

How awesome is this little girl!!??! She picked up a chicken and carried it around for awhile. It was inspiring. I didn't try to pick any up, but I touched the butt feathers of the ugliest one in the zoo (pictured under this adorable princess).

I pet each one of these guys!

The Japanese are ingenious. Little kids want to help clean up after the animals for some reason, so they provide tiny little brooms and dust pans for cleaning up goat poop. This wee one was totally into it.

How awesome is this red panda? So awesome.

Oh hey, I'm just resting my trunk. Don't mind me. 

This giant peacock looking thing is actually a pigeon. Whoa.

How cute are these little prairie dog butts! OMG

THE POGODA

Thanks for the memories!

After the zoo, I wandered back to the subway station. On my way, I snapped a couple pics with some of the more notable architectural elements in the park.

I probably forgot to mention some things, but I think this post is lengthy enough. Hopefully tomorrow I'll remember to post about my day today. Expect some amazing pictures!