#75 - Ueno Zoo and Tokyo Skytree - 16 June 2013

Ueno Zoo

Ueno Zoo is the oldest zoo in Japan. Also known as 恩賜上野動物園 (Onshi Ueno Doubutsu-en), it was founded in 1882 and currently covers about 14.3 hectares of land. It lies in the Ueno Park grounds, which is a large urban park with museums and galleries and other attractions.

There are over 460 species kept in Ueno Zoo. There were animals such as penguins, kangaroos, giraffes, elephants, tigers, hippos, birds, red pandas - the list goes on! However, perhaps the most famous is the panda. Unfortunately, at the time I visited, the female panda was kept inside, as it was thought she was pregnant, and we couldn't see the male through the enclosure (or the people!). The panda has almost become a symbol of Ueno. Even around Ueno train station, you can see statues of pandas, gifts and sweets in the shape of pandas, pictures, images, and so on!

Polar bear!

Japanese bears!

View of art of Ueno Park
from the hotel room.

I spent a long time watching the polar bear. First, it was playing with a floating orange ball in the water. Then, it managed to get the top from an orange cone, and would throw it into the water and chase it like a fish! Other than the polar bear, there were other bear enclosures too. When I was at the zoo, the weather wasn't great, but I really enjoyed looking at the animals!

Tokyo Skytree

Looking up from near the base.

On the same afternoon, I also visited Tokyo Skytree for the first time. Tokyo Skytree (東京スカイツリー) is one of the newest additions to Tokyo's skyline, standing at 634 metres tall, it became the tallest tower in the world, and the second tallest structure in the world (after the Burj Khalifa in Dubai). You can see Tokyo Skytree in the distance from most areas in Tokyo, so of course it has become a popular photo object!

One of the views.

There are two observation decks, with great views across Tokyo. The Tembo Deck stand at 350 metres and spans across 3 floors. There is a souvenir shop and a restaurant, as well as a cafe and glass panels on the floor to see to the bottom (eep!). The Tembo Gallery is at 450 metres. Here, you can walk up a sloping spiral ramp, which circles the tower to give great views.  

Underneath Skytree there are is a large shopping complex and also an aquarium, so it would be easy to spend a long time there! Here you will also find Tokyo Skytree Station (which used to be called Narihirabashi Station) making it very easy to get to Skytree by train. 

#55 - Berlin Weekend

As part of an excursion with the summercourse, I went on a trip this weekend to Berlin. I had never been to Berlin before, and so I wanted to see it as I had the chance.

On Friday morning at around 7am we left on the bus. The journey to Berlin took about 10 hours, so it felt very long! We arrived at our hostel in the east of Berlin which was actually quite nice. After a few rules from the hostel we shared out the rooms.

On Saturday there was a meeting at Checkpoint Charlie and then a tour organised for the afternoon. I missed otu on both of these due to getting lost on the train and then not being told where the meeting place for the tour was. Nevertheless I wandered around Berlin's 'centre' with a friend and saw most of what we wanted to see, and had fun too. In some ways I think going by ourselves was better, as we had more freedom than we would have on a 3 hour Stadtrundgang.
On Sunday we decided to go to Berlin Zoo. It is very big, and as we had no map of it we got lost very easily. It was quite relaxing to see all the animals, and in the Aquarium it was interesting to see the fish and other water creatures. Unfortunately my battery in my camera ran out just as we arrived at the aquarium so I have very little photos of that!

In the end we ended up having to rush both the Zoo and Aquarium because we were going to join the 4pm boat tour organised for us. Of course we missed this too, so spent a while sitting around Berlin Dome while a small brass band (possibly from a school) started to play music. We eventually met up with the others who went on the tour and followed them (lead by one of the teachers) onto the train and to another part of Berlin. I do not know why we went there, as it consisted of an hour or more just walking around the streets. The only sights to see were Turkish restaurants and the odd quasi-interesting poster on the side of a building. So after reaching a U-Bahn station, I left the group, and because it was getting fairly late evening, went back to the hostel.

Monday morning we had to leave our rooms by 10. As the bus was arriving at 13, I went on a small walk around the area. We headed along the main street just to see what was there, and eventually found ourselves exploring a cemetery, which sounds really grim, but it was actually really interesting. There were of course headstones there, but a little further in and under the older trees and plants were big family graves. It also turned out that the little church in the middle I wanted to take a look at was not a church at all but another big (and no doubt expensive) family tomb!

The bus ride back to Aachen was so long and uncomfortable. It didn't help that the woman in front of me put her seat right back as far as it would go, basically giving me no space to sit. She didn't even lay back on the seat, but she led on the bottom part of it across 2 seats, so why she needed the extra flatness I do not know! And when she wasn't laying down, she sat upright and read magazines!