Day 6 - Temples & Ueno Zoo
Benten-do
We headed out early in the morning to Ueno Zoo, we decided to walk through the park to get to the zoo and stumbled across Benten-do. This wasn't part of our to do list, we didn't even know it existed, although we were planning on visiting Sensō-ji later in the day. We decided to have a quick look around the temple and lit a couple of incense before heading on to Ueno Zoo.
Not far passed the Temple we found a little family of turtles having a little swim, I couldn't get a good photograph but we spent around 10-15min watching them and the fish going up and down, its not something we get to see where we live.
Ueno Zoo
I really enjoyed my time at this zoo but I really thought it was missing something. It's not quite like any other zoo i've been in before, a lot of the animals were in double cages and it made them really difficult to photograph, especially the flamingos, I don't think i've ever seen them caged before, i've seen them fenced in but never caged. I especially liked the nocturnal exhibit as they don't have anything like that in any of the other zoos i've visited.
The main thing that stood out at this zoo - and my parents even mentioned it after seeing one of my videos on Instagram - was the fact that the lion and tiger were actually awake and moving. Every other zoo i've been to they've always been asleep or hiding - except South Lakes Animal Park/Safari Zoo but then they only move around near feeding time and then off they go again.
The main attraction was the giant pandas, every time i've seen a giant panda exhibit i've had to queue up for it, but in Ueno Zoo the queue wasn't as long but they had a bigger exhibition space to work with. They've trained one of the pandas to walk on its back legs to get food, so the room was full of cheering and cameras every time the panda stood up.
I think the pallas cat was my favourite, he just seemed to angsty but would stop and stare through the glass after raging around the room for a few minutes. He just looked like he wanted to come home with me, i'm sure you all agree with that.
Sensō-ji Temple
We spent a bit more time here than we did at Benten-do, we had a good look around the temple grounds, but missed out the shopping streets. We didn't get there until after 5pm and it was still busy but according to the website it was technically closed for the day.
We got our fortunes, they were both good ones, although i'm not sure how mine was good, it said things like "the lost thing WON'T be found", how is that lucky?!
As you leave the temple grounds you will see a pair of buddha to the left, there was no one else in this area so i'm wondering if not many people noticed them sitting there. The one on the right brings mercy and the one on the left brings wisdom.
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