Friday (2/29)

Today I went to Ueno to see Ueno park and go to the Ueno Zoo. I went after the morning rush hour, so that I didn't get packed into the train .. I'm not interested in being a sardine while I'm on vacation. When I got there, I just randomly wandered around the park for a while.







There's something weird about a minivan in front of a temple / shrine.







After looking around for a while, I decided to head into the zoo. There were a bunch of kids there on a field trip. The zoo was a blast, and I could understand kid talk a lot better than adult talk .. of course, most of the time people were just saying "kawaii" (cute) over and over.

One lady wanted me to take a picture of her with the polar bears with her digital camera. When I showed her the picture I took, she jumped a little when I asked "ii desu ka" (is that okay?) and she realized I had understood all the things she was saying (she had been speaking pretty simply since she didn't expect me to understand any of it, anyway).

I overheard one group of kids say "amerikajin" (American), and I turned around, and they said "Haro", and I responded "Konnichiwa", and they got all excited and ran over. One of the kids asked me where I was from, and I told him California. They gave me high fives, said "bye bye" and ran off. I think its a game for them, finding as many Americans as they can on a field trip. I saw them giving another guy the same treatment later.







This bird was so cool .. I've never seen (or heard of) a secretary bird before



Here's one group of kids on their field trip



Then, the sloth cage had a hole with a rope coming out of it to a tree. I guess they're pretty sure the sloth won't try to escape



Then, because the sloth might poop on you, there was this sign hanging from the tree



Then I was sitting on a bench watching the birds, and a little kid runs up and says to his mom, "debu tori" and points at the pelican. His mom and I both laughed a little .. "debu tori" means fatso bird



When I had seen all I wanted to see at the zoo (and I was getting pretty hungry), I left and headed toward downtown, and I found a giant shopping district squeezed around the area under the train tracks. There were people selling fish, clothes, and plenty of little restaurants. I found a stand that was selling takoyaki (octopus in a ball of delicious batter), and bought four. They were extremely hot .. my mouth is still one big blister. Then I found some milk tea with boba (balls of tapioca), and then a little restaurant where I finally had a proper meal. Then it was time to head home.





They love their KFC in Japan





And then the inside of Ueno station just as rush hour is picking back up



Tomorrow I head to Akihabara .. the nerd mecca =)

Here's the rest of the pictures I took today, in case you want to look through all of them.