Ueno

With a half day off work we went in to Tokyo to see the Nezu Shrine and go to the zoo.

We happened upon the Shrine in Azalea festival and the grounds were beautiful!

The main reason I wanted to see this shrine was for their long tunnel made of short Torri. As you walked through them it felt like you'd end up somewhere magical like Narnia or something.

With the Azalea festival there also came a lot of people. Instead of Narnia we poped out into a mass of vendors selling all sorts of food and carnival type games.

The zoo seemed just as busy. The main attraction at the Ueno Zoo is their two giant pandas but all we saw was a fuzzy rump of sleeping fluff. The real bears we pretty active that day though. I watched this polar bear diving into the water playing for awhile.

Hokkaido Brown Bear (Grizzly)

Their adorable red panda was also putting on a show (with his tongue out the whole time).

Another highlight was this zebra giraffe thing called an Okapi. I strongly suspected foul play in the animal kingdom long ago. Or Animal Frankenstein?