Ueno Park: Pandas and Art

Starting the day, we had only planned to visit Ueno Park for the National Museum. We kept seeing Pandas images everywhere though, and found out the Zoo was only $5 to visit. None of us had ever seen a Panda (besides the Kung Fu variety) and at that price it was worth a quick dip into the zoo. We ended up loving the zoo across the board though, and saw a Panda, Elephants, Tigers, and the rare North American Prairie Dog. The panda exhibit was a timed exhibit and was indoors as the summer heat isn't for them (us too big guy). Bamboo to him was paper to a shredder; efficient and ruthless. Reminded me of Toph at dinner time.
The museum didn't disappoint either containing hundreds of historical works from 5000BC up to the Meiji Era. The samurai armor and swords were impressive, but I loved the quirky paintings depicting monks or Buddhist gods. The two handled banjo monk might make it into my next D&D session...
We refueled at a "family restaurant" by Tokyo University. They're everywhere, and you order at the front via vending machine/kiosk. The bang for your buck here is insane; a hearty portion of tasty (enough) food for only ~$6.
Chris and I saw some cool stationary in various stores, so we decided to head to THE stationary store; Itoya in Ginza. We windowshopped the fountain pens, and I discovered lefties and fountain pens don't really mix. He went for a traditional fountain pen, and I got a red/black/lead roller ball instead.Baca lagi