On the 11th, which was my birthday, my wife said she wanted to go somewhere, so we went to Sensoji Temple and the Ueno Zoo, just as we do up there.
Since it was the Tuesday after a three-day weekend, I thought there would be few people, but both Sensoji Temple and Ueno Zoo were crowded with many people.
Perhaps due to the fact that the festival has been almost free to accept tourists from overseas since that day, tourists from overseas were seen here and there at the Kaminarimon and Nakamise-dori in Senso-ji Temple. Since Western countries have almost no mask regulations, people without masks were noticeable, but it seemed more natural and desirable.
I had assumed that Senso-ji Temple was founded in the Edo period (1603-1868), but it is said that its history dates back to the Asuka period (628).
It is said that the temple became prosperous as it is today after Ieyasu Tokugawa designated it as a place of prayer in Edo (present-day Tokyo).
In the nakamise that lined both sides of the approach, there were many stores selling "ningyo-yaki" dolls, fans, yukata (summer kimonos), etc. for foreign tourists.
They must have been closed for a long time due to the Corona disaster, but now that Japan has finally opened its borders, business is expected to flourish.
Since we had come all the way to Asakusa, we were planning to have something to eat at an eel or soba noodle restaurant for lunch, but Tsuma wanted meat, so we ended up eating at the ROYAL HOST. After lunch, we ordered a large chocolate parfait and ate it together.
No diet today.
We took the subway from Tawaramachi to Ueno to visit the Ueno Zoo.
Surprisingly, there were many families with children. Admission was 600 yen for adults, but since I am over 65 years old, it was half price, 300 yen. Admission is free for elementary school students and 200 yen for junior high school students (free for junior high school students who live or go to school in Tokyo).
The Ueno Zoo is all about pandas. Pandas can be seen at two locations, the Panda Forest in the West Garden and the Panda House in the East Garden, both of which had long lines. We lined up at the Panda Forest in the West Garden. After 40 minutes in line, we met the pandas. But the panda was sleeping. It was a pity.
I prefer red pandas to pandas because they are cuter. On this day, the red panda was running around energetically, and I was very satisfied.
My wife is an animal lover, so she took many pictures of animals. Come to think of it, she was watching fish with great interest in front of several tanks at the aquarium in Singapore. Next time, I should take her to a larger zoo.
Due to time constraints, I ended up seeing only the animals in the West Garden and not those in the East Garden.
I thought that since the Ueno Zoo is small, each animal's enclosure is small. I felt sorry for the animals, as I thought they would be stressed out as if they were in a prison.
After leaving the zoo, We bought a cake at Ueno station and headed home.
