On my first trip to Japan (in 2012), I paid a visit to a number of different places. I was in Japan for 2 weeks and I was slowly working my way through a number of tourist attractions in Tokyo. One of which was the Ueno Zoo.
It was winter time and I had decided to take the train all the way to Ueno and walk around the area for a day. The moment I arrived, I walked through Ueno Park and made a turn towards Ueno Zoo. It was my first stop of the day.
Admission to the zoo was ¥600 for adults. Below are the full admission prices, which you can find on their website.
Now, it was winter and I knew for a fact they had a bunch of animals from warmer parts of the world and I wanted to see if they were coping with Tokyo's winter better than I was. Surprisingly the lions, deer, birds and other animals were doing quite well. haha
There was a number of families at the zoo that day. It was a weekday, so it wasn't as crowded as it would have been on the weekend. I wandered around the zoo and enjoyed the monkey, elephant and lion enclosures the most as a lot of the animals were out to say hello. :)
The lions were even roaring at each other so that was cool. (ㆁᴗㆁ✿)
The zoo is quite small in my opinion. So if you just planned on entering on a whim, you could finish seeing everything within an hour if you've missed feeding hours. Fortunately, I was in time for the elephant feeding so I managed to watch that.
Here are some of the photos from my visit! (ㆁᴗㆁ✿)
I believe they have a brochure you can take with you that has a map of the whole zoo so you won't get lost. I didn't take one..... So I got lost. Nothing like random dead ends to make your zoo visit a little more enjoyable...........
Overall, it was a cool place to visit if you have some extra time. It's not a place that I would visit again to be honest, but that was probably because I was travelling alone and it was cold. I might go again if I had company and if it was a warmer season.
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Some things to remember:
- Grab a map. Don't get lost like me. You could be wasting precious time you could be using to see the animals!
- Go on a weekday. Weekdays are less crowded. So you can chill and not worry about crowds.
- Take your time. There are a number of little gems hidden here and there like the little squirrel enclosure they had around a tree or the random pagoda.
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Directions:
Keisei Line (Keisei-Takasago Station > Keisei-Ueno Station)
Cost: Approx ¥260
Duration: 20-22 minutes (depending on the trains)
To get to Ueno Zoo from Takasago (where I was staying), I took the Keisei Line from Keisei-Takasago Station towards Ueno and stopped at the Keisei-Ueno Station where I walked to the zoo.
OR
Keihintohoku Line (Tokyo Station > Ueno Station)
Cost: Approx ¥160
Duration: 17-22 minutes (depending on the trains)
To get to Ueno Zoo from Tokyo Station, take the Keihintohoku Line and stop at Ueno Station.
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More about Exploring Ueno Zoo in Tokyo:
To check out my other posts about Japan, click
here.
Or check out my other Travel posts,
here.
