Animals & Electronics

Ah, relief from the Japan heatwave, finally. A temporate morning, around 25c with minimum humidity and a morning breeze.
We're just riding the edge atm with fortune, fatigue, morale. Zander doesn't have a cot at this hotel, so instead the hotel hired us two mini bed barriers and a random folding chair which don't fully incase our little bulldozer. Well last night he wasn't interested in alot of dozing, waking up to party from 130am to around 430am, and the second he was done, Axel decided to descend.
We tried to start the day with a well regarded pancake breakfast place, just 15min walk, but of course it had minimal/ non suitable seating and was overcrowded. We had to settle for mini Waffles at a nearby coffee shop.
Our primary destination was Ueno Zoo. Just a handful of stops on the metro. It was a bittersweet attraction. Before dad suddenly died a bit over 3 months ago, today was the day we were supposed to meet both he and mum to all tour the zoo together. I did make sure to at least give mum a video call on site to chat with the boys.
It was a jekyll and Hyde, hit and miss kind of zoo. The range of animals was incredible, Polar bears, Japanese black bears, Hokkaido Brown Bears, Pandas, Spoonbills, Condors, Chameleons, Pangolin and a whole bunch of exotic, rare or unheard of creatures I'd never seen. The obvious setback was enclosures for some of the larger animals.. the Elephants lay bored to death, Giraffe sad in a plain, gravel enclosure smaller than a tennis court and Rhino pacing a tiny, empty cage. Many animals looked sad and bored. It wasn't quite the Deer of Nara but not far off.
Incredibly, there was a 40 minute wait to see the panda.. im not sure I've queued like a Disney ride to see an animal at a zoo before. Was it worth it? Probably not, but we did it anyway. We spent probably 5+ hours there, catching the short train to Akihabara Electric Town around 5pm. The boys were on the hunt for a special Action figure from Japan. Alot of the action figures here seemed somewhat inappropriate for young lads, a little more promiscuous and sexualised than they were after.. but they saw plenty of things. Eventually we found what they were after and they both left happy, Ryland with Luke Skywalker and Axel a Ghostbusters Transformer.
To finish the evening, we ordered Tonkatsu via Uber while I watched the last two thirds of the Hawks preliminary final on my phone.
The food was better than the entertainment on this occasion. Four sleeps, three and a half loosely planned days remain. Let's see what tomorrow brings.Read more