If you google “Japan national animal” right now, what do you see?
Photos would show pandas, right? Heh.
These cuddle-worthy animals can be seen all throughout the Tokyo -in billboards, posters, and even on a teenager’s bag.
Are pandas declared as the national animal of Japan? Japanese seem to have a fascination with the black and white mammal.
To know more about their panda-ddiction, we proceeded to visit a zoo located in Ueno right after going to the Kitkat boutique in Ikebukuro.
This is our first time to see a panda so we’re really excited!!
We arrived at around 4pm in the afternoon, near its closing hours. Good thing, it’s a weekday so the zoo’s not packed.
Look! They have a panda mail box! So cute!
Before we actually went inside, we stopped by this ice cream / crepe shop outside the zoo first so we’re energized.
Afterwards we proceeded to the ticketing booth. Here are the admission fees. We paid 600 yen per head.
First stop near the entrance is the point of our trip: the pandas!!!
Many visitors are observing the panda and all they do is sit right there and be cute all day. Haha! I have a video where they roam around their place!
Then we saw another kind –the red panda, hanging lazily in the branch of a tree. It has reddish-brown fur, a long, shaggy tail, and shorter front legs.
Just like the giant panda, it feeds mainly on bamboo, but can also eats insects, birds, eggs, and small mammals. It is an unsociable animal, mainly active from dusk to dawn just like me haha. If not for its color and size, it could be mistaken for a bigger kind of cat.
Happy Feet! Now here’s my part of the trip: If my sister came for the pandas, I came for the penguins.
When I was a kid, I’ve always thought that I have to go to Antarctica before I get to see a penguin.
Flap, flap, flap.
Then we proceeded to roam around the zoo and I noticed these people. For some reason, all the Japanese senior look adorable. The way they dress and carry themselves is youthful –not necessarily the type who hasn’t deal with their age yet– they just look and feel young to me.
Then we saw this camera-shy rhino(?) I’m not sure haha!
Hedwig was there, too. Trying to fit in the urban muggle living.
And the evil queen’s raven too?
There are pink flamingoes over there!
Some friends of Misty are over here –the sealions. I wish they’re comfortable in that tiny space, though…
Here comes the planet of the apes!
Thousand-fold origamis!
An elephant wanting to roam? They say that elephants hardly forget… So I wish the zoo will fill these animals with nothing but good memories.
Two birds. Two humans.
Now for the store goodies!
Not for sale. Lol!
A big panda stuffed toy for a photo op. located near the entrance.
A park located near the exit.
And me again with the pandas!!