Tokyo day 5

Peter was working again today, so Robin and I headed back to Ueno park to go to the zoo. As soon as we walked in, there was an otter enclosure with a swim through and tank that they could play in. One otter took particular interest in Robin and was swimming right in front of him. Robin was very entertained. Next we saw some tigers and birds of pray, which Robin wasn’t too fussed with. He showed a bit of interest in the tiger, but was keen to keep moving.

It was quite a hot day, so the zoo had a misting path set up near the gorillas. It was literally gorillas in the mist haha! The monkeys were a bit too loud and scary for Robin, so we went and had a look at the nocturnal area. The enclosure was air conditioned, dark and quiet, so we sat down and had a breastfeed whole watching the bats fly around.

For lunch, we shared a strawberry gelati, I think Robin actually ate more of it than I did! He loves trying new foods! Next was the elephants, which we were lucky enough to see getting a brush from the keepers, then they linked tail and trunk and walked around the enclosure. Robin though they were fantastic! Unfortunately, this is the point I realised that Robins elephant toy had fallen off of the pram and was gone 🙁

We walked to the pandas to see them before they closed the viewing for the day, but Robin was asleep by the time we got to them. They seemed happy and healthy though, and Ueno zoo has a lot of “save the panda” initiatives around.

For the last part of our visit, we went the other side of the zoo, across a long path and bridge, to see the red pandas, flamingos and pigmy hippos. I thought the flamingos were incredible! There were about 20 of them and almost red or orange in colour. They were making quite a lot of noise though, which started to upset Robin. He was much more impressed with the pigmy hippo.

Next we went to the aquarium area, where they had turtles, fish and crocodiles in tanks. Robin loved the turtles swimming in front of him! The zoo was about to close, so they started playing classical music through the speakers to indicate there was 15 minutes left. We quickly had a look at the lemurs, who had an amazing enclosure over a massive lotus pond. There was even a baby lemur clinging to its mum.

After a busy day at the zoo, we headed back to the hotel, then went for dinner at a French restaurant. Oo La La.