Panda In Ueno

In Japan, you can hardly walk around without saying "Kawai" (it's cute"). The ultimate of all things Cute is now in Japan or specifically at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo. The previous Panda,Ling Ling died in 2008. When I was visited the zoo in December 2009, there was a sign saying there was no longer a giant Panda at the Zoo. Solely dissapointed, I consoled myself by looking at the many animals in the fine Zoo. Ueno is actually a quite small zoo, area-wise but with the ingenuity of space optimisation, the Japanese have managed to fit all them in the small space available to them.

On Monday, I went to Ueno park to see the cherry blossoms. I was also planning to go to the zoo as well but the crowd was too big. Picture below shows it all:

"Sorry I can't upload any photo to blogger, they seem to take forever"

In Ueno, Panda images are everywhere:

Tomorrow I am headed to Kanazawa, a small city in Western Honshu. I will be there until Sunday when I will be flying to Seoul.

PS : I am not sure why many tourists are scared of going to Japan. Other than the areas affected by the Tsunami, everthing else is almost normal in Japan. There are measures to conserve energy : fewer trains, turned off neon lighting and lifts not operational. There are no black outs in the area (Asukasa) that I am staying while in Tokyo.