I'm Going to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo, How About You, You, You...

~As I've mentioned before, the Japanese system of public transportation is fantastic. It's this system that let me take a trip all the way to Tokyo and back in just one day, a journey of a bit over 100 minutes by bullet train. Over the weekend, I did just that, visiting the famous Ueno Zoo in downtown Tokyo.

After some minor problems involving a lost ticket (Mom and Dad, thanks for the honest face!), I exited JR Ueno Station at the gates of the park, only five minutes from the zoo by foot.

^ This is a famous fountain in the heart of Ueno Park, a splash of green in the midst of the largest urban area on the planet. The size and intensity of the fountain jets changes every 30 seconds or so, and in a light wind, it creates a refreshing spray to cool down pedestrians.

Ueno Park is filled with cultural buildings, including museums, concert halls, and a baseball field. My main goal was to visit the zoo, which is the oldest zoo in Japan. It was founded in 1882, but has undergone many changes since then. After a friendly Japanese family helped me use the automatic ticket machine, I stepped inside the zoo and was given a crummy photocopied zoo map...but the map was in English, so I could hardly complain.

^ Far and away, the #1 attraction of the Ueno Zoo are the giant pandas. The Japanese are obsessed with pandas. The kids absolutely adore them. I had to stand in line for around ten minutes just to shuffle past the panda cage, which was quite spacious and well-appointed. The panda was completely bored and lethargic (hey, you wouldn't be too energetic if your diet consisted solely of bamboo), and lay on his bed, idly glancing at the squealing human children and the adults taking pictures. Including me.

There were also a couple of red pandas, which looked like overgrown red racoons, but I couldn't get decent pictures.

^ The zoo has several elephants, although they didn't seem to have much room. From what I understand, there's a larger zoo outside of Tokyo that's set up more like a wildlife preserve, where the animals get lots of space to wander around. I think they rotate the animals between the zoos, to give them space to spread out.

^ De Brazza's Guenon (Cercopithicus neglectus). The "beard" on this monkey inspired some French children to ask their father if the monkey was very old. His reply was, "Oui, oui."

^ Ring-tailed Lemurs (Lemur Catta). Lemurs in the wild are found only in Madagascar.

I took many pictures of monkeys, but looking at them now, I don't like the way most of them came out. They all have cage bars in front of them; it's kind of sad. So instead, here's a video I made of a spider monkey who shows us just how useful a tail can be (click the picture below to play the video):



My own feelings on zoos are mixed. On one side, I think they're great fun to visit, and do an important part in preserving animals that would otherwise go extinct from the tender love and care that human civilization accords them. It's like Pi Patel says, as long as the animals have their own territory, they're happy; it doesn't matter if said territory is large or small. This assumes, of course, that you're not in a boat with Richard Parker...

But another part of me doesn't like how the animals are kept in cages, especially the larger ones that were built to run around. As Dr. Alan Grant says of another kind of captive animal, "[He] doesn't want to be fed, he wants to hunt!" I can't help but feel that if a highly-advanced alien race were to suddenly descend on Earth and conquer it, perhaps they'd keep us in zoos, to gawk at and take pictures of. Doubtless, the alien overlords would think they were doing us a favor by preserving us, a species that would otherwise go extinct.

I doubt the animals have the intelligence or sentience to appreciate this, but seeing monkeys jumping around in a cage the size of my apartment bedroom is kind of depressing. I'd rather watch animals in the wild and take pictures of them without the bars. Or rather, without the bars in my face. Which raises an interesting question: if the walls of a prison are far away, rather than in front of us, is it still a prison? Don't we all live in prisons, if only in our minds?

I've been trying to get more sleep lately, so that's it for tonight. Check back later for more!
~Oyasumi.