Sanbanchō

Over the years, Nat and I have made a habit of visiting local zoos on our travels. We love animals and most of the time it makes for an easy going, fun and uplifting day. Id read mixed reviews about the Tokyo zoo at Ueno so I hadn't designated the location as a priority.

However, when it turned out that the zoo was a mere 15 minute walk from the hotel and meeting point for our G Adventures tour, I figured I'd seize the opportunity to transform a 'hotel transition day' into something more fun, uplifting and memorable one.

We negotiated our way from Roppongi to Iriya station (via Hibuya line Metro) easy enough. Arriving at the hotel 3 hours before check in, we opted to just store our bags, and set off for lunch, and zootime.

Lunch was a random find. We walked past a place called Ton Kotsu Ramen, and with alluring enough pictures (no English) decided to venture inside. Turns out, at this establishment, all orders are taken via vending machine. It was a matter of finding a picture of food you liked, matching its cost and image to a button, inserting cash credit, making your selection, retrieving change and a ticket, and handing the ticket over to your waiter. Our meals were a bowl of soup, and a bowl of noodles and meat that are mixed to form the delicious combination of Ramen!

With full bellies we wandered through sidestreets and park to find the zoo. A mere 600¥ entry fee gained us admission. Initial impressions of the zoo were quite positive. Most review complaints stemmed from issues with its size and enclosure quality and size. The map showed this was a huge two part zoo, separated by a long bridge and by all accounts animals appeared happy, healthy and comfortable. This zoo had an excellent giant otter exhibit and the best collection of large prey birds and owls I've ever seen, including a showpony Andean Condor! There were some awesome exotic birds, gorillas, bears (brown and polar), lions, seals and more.

After yesterday's Typhoon Lan, today was a stunningly perfect day for a stroll through park and zoo. Not a cloud in the sky. As we crossed the bridge to the other 'older' side of the zoo we understood peoples negative reviews. Most of these exhibits were very old, and small. They looked 70s style. Giraffe, Hippo and Rhinos lived in far too tiny and desolate cages which closer resembled prison cells than enclosures.

Tired feet found our way back to the hotel for a meet, greet and dinner with our tour guide Mari and eight of the 10 tourists to join us (two arriving tomorrow) as follows - Nigel (US), Ramesh (Auckland), Mara (London), Tony (West Australia) and Matthais & Sabrina (Switzerland). Nigel, Tony and Ramesh were a fair bit older (50+) and the other three probably around our age. Dinner was a fantastic feast of various Japanese tapas; croquettes, noodles, salad, fried chicken, cook your own meats, beer and even a sushi boat.

Tomorrow we have a quiet morning before we begin our 4-5 hour journey to Takayama.Read more