Day 286, Ueno Park, Tokyo, Japan
What’s more crowded than a zoo in Tokyo? Going on the zoo’s anniversary, the only free day of the year. We were waiting for the weather to get a bit warmer before going to the zoo, and so was everyone else. The zoo is free with the Ueno Museum Passports we bought, but we were running out of days in Tokyo, so decided to go today, knowing full well it would be crowded. Ueno Zoo is the oldest zoo in Japan and has 2600 animals in 460 species.
But first we stopped off at the Ueno Park Starbucks for cinnamon buns and hot chocolate, and get accustomed to waiting in long lines with the masses. The zoo is right behind the Starbucks.
The main draw, the two Giant Pandas Lili and Shinshin, were immediately inside the entrance gates on the right. They don’t have to search the park to find them.
With few exceptions, the amazing animal photos were taken by Cali.
Having a little bamboo.
Below is the female Shinshin, napping in the sun.
There were signs describing how the Pandas had been transported from China, and other helpful Panda info.
Next we saw something I’m convinced you can only see in Japan, a gorilla who loves his Hello Kitty blanket.
There were also many other spectacular creatures. Here’s what Cali got on film. We’ve seen many elephants in captivity, and agreed this guy was the happiest we’ve seen. He was very animated and just seems to be enjoying his day.
The polar bears were also very active. This first photo she got is incredible.
Other great animal moments.
But it wasn’t just the animals who were fun to watch. The mass picnic was something equally as interesting. Most families had little plastic picnic blankets, and from somewhere, emerged little picnics packed in compact containers with little dividers, and chopsticks. There are few garbage cans to be found but no littler anywhere. As usual, we were impressed that despite the huge number of people crammed together, people are polite and courteous to one another.
We ended the day with a monorail ride. I’ve never been on train cars that are suspended from the rail. That was a first. 
Just in case you forgot where you were, this pagoda was a good reminder.