Tokyo - Ueno Zoo » Ueno Zoo

Tokyo - Ueno Zoo
06-07-2008

This link has some basic info on the zoo in English.

Ueno is in in the north of Tokyo near a large station for trains to N.E. Japan. The park has museums and galleries as well as the zoo split into two sections.

Here's a map

The map is quite descriptive so I'll just talk about the highlights. The zoo had pandas when I visited, the enclosure isn't that interesting with a glass fronted tiled indoor area and a nicely planted but small outside enclosure. Red pandas are nearby.

The Sumatran tigers and gorillas have the best enclosures which are aesthetically pleasing at least quite green and relatively densely planted with various viewing points. Certainly I remember with the gorillas you feel they aren't just plonked in front of you. Not sure about enrichment but compared with many zoo experiences in Japan, it's not bad as a zoo experience.

Dholes are also here in a moated enclosure with a grotto-ish background which isn't huge but nicely planted and looks nice.

There's a nocturnal house where I may or may not have seen a kiwi!

Polar bears have a typical grotto but other bears have small but slightly more interesting enclosures than is the norm in Japan.

The Asian elephant enclosure is unremarkable.

The other half of the zoo has shoebill storks (first time I'd seen them) in a netted aviary next to flamingos.

The African area here is a row of ungulate enclosures including okapi, zebra and barbary sheep in high-fenced pens, not very attractive. Possibly the most bizarre in appearance is the hippo enclosure - it looks like an old-style polar bear or seal enclosure, all concrete and swimming pool looking.

There are steller's sea eagles on an island on a big lake which is interesting. Like Nagoya, Ueno feels like it has a lot of concrete and lots of wide open spaces. It isn't an awful place but just doesn't feel like a pleasant place to wander around, certainly no sense of immersion but perhaps the tiger and gorilla areas point towards the future.