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Back to Ueno Park today for the Zoo, which those of you who know me personally was one of the reasons I wanted to go on this trip. As one of the sequential profs said in introduction “We know that half of you came on this trip to draw dinosaurs and go to the Zoo, so here you are.”
There was a possibility that we wouldn’t have gone, (and doing something else) which the professors were being rather sneaky about, but as I’m writing this later, I have clairvoyant-like knowledge, so anyway, it’ll come up later…
We were also informed that there was another ‘contest’ to be had today, same rules as last time, but the winners get an original Mark Shultz. I sighed at this and ignored it. Today was a me day, and I wasn’t going to freak out about any contest.
The first thing to not is not on the actual zoo, but the little kiddies visiting. We’d noticed this at the Edo Museum, but I didn’t take any pictures then because it felt a little too close and stalkerish of me. This time, we were huddled at the entrance for a while whilst the
professors and our single Japanese-fluent student attempted to buy group tickets. The visiting school kids (who all looked about kindergarten age) started laughing and pointing at the group of stupid Americans, and we -elated at for once not being ignored- made a compete show of ourselves and gushed at how adorable they were in their matching hats. Each school seems to have a specific colored hat to keep their kids all identifiable. There was even one group whose hats were white with little green stems, resembling radishes.Our profs considered getting up shirts or something before the trip, but really. We glow in the dark here. A
ll I need to do if I get separated is to look for someone tall or blond.The zoo itself was actually not as grand as I expected, though it was still really good. I’ve been spoiled by the Columbus Zoo back home, which seemed to have equally good exhibits, though Columbus’s isn’t nearly as big. Ueno Zoo also had a lot more to offer as far as species diversity went.
The thing that wierded me out was that it was a lot noisier than other zoos I’d been too. Usually the animals in the zoos are bored, and you rarely if ever hear them. In Ueno, there wasn’t a moment when the monkeys weren’t screaming their heads off, and for a while the lion stood and made a ruckus in his exhibit for no clear reason. It was pretty great. Other members of our group also complained of the rowdiness of the kids- but this was a real relief to me. Japanese culture is so quiet. Even when walk
ing through a city, I find there is little conversation, and the bustle of the city doesn’t involve people calling out to each other or the usual rowdiness of human beings in general.Anyway, the kids were a complete contrast, and were possibly crazier than kids their age in the US. It was really refreshing to actually see some personality. Equally cool was when some older kids (about middle school age) came up to me to try their English out, something also made familiar to me at the Edo museum. Drawing the lions, I let them look over my shoulder and stutter “Nice!” I’d often try to respond, but they were usually mystified by English as I was.
As much as I enjoyed the zoo and wanted to finish seeing the rest of it, it as possibly one of the coldest days of the trip. I was
determined to stay, but it started to rain and I took it as a sign.Ironically, I think I lost my plastic flamingo there.
Ate with some friends at a pizza shop. It was really…terrible. The professors had warned us. Dairy products aren’t a regular thing in Japan.
Then we went back to Nakano to shop a bit, and found far too much cool stuff… again.
I found more Zoids that I’d passed over the visit before, freaked out and thought about it for the next day until more cool things came along.
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