Ueno Zoo, Keitai, Cheese and Wine.

 

I hope you like animals!
I haven't really been doing much lately, studying mostly! The only exciting thing i've done is go to Ueno Zoo! I took loads of pictures of everything. I'll spare you all and only post my favourites. The Zoo is huge, considering it's in the center of the city and i'd definitely recommened visiting there if you are ever in Tokyo. I know i'll be going back before the year is out! It's pretty cheap too, only 600 yen entry, which works out at about a fiver. In honour of my trip to the Zoo, I took a few animals of my own with me;

Very exciting times, because it was the first time I've ever saw a real panda!! This one was being shy and hiding behind some bamboo, but I got a nice shot of the other one. They were behind pretty thick glass so the quality isn't amazing. You get lots of panda pictures, because it was my favourite part of the day!

For some strange reason, you had to walk under this covered area to see the pandas, and they were spraying a thick mist of water from the roof. So as i'm sure all of you who know me can see, I really wanted to see the pandas! Suppose I wasn't too worried about my hair anyway, as it had already turned afro on me 5 minutes after leaving my dormitory...

Some other panda cuteness;

My Ueno Zoo souvenir!

So enough about pandas! Here's a temple thingy next to the Panda exhibit. Some said it was a gift from either the Thai or Taiwanese government, but I don't recall which now... it's very grand anyway.

You also get lots of Ellies, because they are my ultimate favourite of the Animal Kingdom! Maybe i'll take Chester to the Zoo next time I go... (he's my stuffed Elephant :D) These are Asian Elephants (smaller ears, smaller/no tusks.)

The Zoo also had African elephants, which was really cool! I got to see both kinds in comparison to one another for the first time.

Some other random elephant sightings;

Not sure what this was, but I thought there seemed to be a problem...

Eagle;

Snoozy Lions;

 Tiger;



Mummy and baby Gorilla and cute cartoon gorillas;

A sacred Ibis, for Simon to impress people at work with ;-)

Black bear;

Hokkaido Brown bear, i'll try to avoid these if I go on any trips to Hokkaido!



Japanese Macaques;

This is not in the zoo, this is just a standard Japanese crow that flew near me. Just wanted to show you how huge they are.

Red Panda;

A sloth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! At last, I meet my animal alter ego! How I envy the life of a sloth...

More miscellianous animal snaps;

Pengiuns - how they must be fantisising of antarctic winters about now...I know I am!

 Kangaroos;

Anteater;

Why it's just a friendly resident of Meerkovo!

Armadillo snuggled up;

I'm sure you can figure these out for yourselves!

Awww, baby hippo!

Some more nice buildings in the zoo;

And so that was my visit to Ueno Zoo. It was a great way to spend the day :)

And on my way back, the most miraculous miracle occured...the gods must be trying to aplogise for all the bad luck i've had since coming to Japan. Behold, a supermarket near the train station by my dormitory, which gave me the gift of...imports!!!! Cheese! Wine! Tomato and mascerpone pasta sauce!! I was a right posh bird, and feasted on cheese, crackers and wine for the next 3 evenings and unashamedly enjoyed every single second of it!

Also got my Keitai (mobile phone) today! Here it is;

Was intending on saving to buy something fancier but found out it wouldn't work in the UK anyway, so I just got the cheapest handset I could. It's still pretty neat though :) Thank you for all your help Satomi!!!!

In other news this week, I successfully learned how to cook two different kinds of egg (boiled and scrambled), discovered instant coffee is strong enough to disguise the awful taste of Japanese milk, and i've been listening to the Radio One breakfast show every evening which amuses me greatly!

Well that's all for now folks. I'm afraid i'm just going to be studying for the next couple of days. Have homework already, how unfair is that!

じゃまたね！