Countries Of My Life: Zoo, Tokyo Tower and Rainbow Bridge

Because it was my last weekend in Japan for this year, I decided to go to the zoo in Ueno (part of Tokyo). It is probably the oldest zoo in Japan and is recommended by every tour guide book (at least the one I read ;).

Not everyone welcomed me at first sight ;)

I started with the monkeys. By the time I've been here in Japan, I really started to like the Japanese monkeys. Whenever I went to places outside of Tokyo, I saw pictures, old woodcuts or antique stone carvings on temple walls. Hell, I even saw them just centimeters away from me (Kyoto). So whenever I will think about Japan in future, I won't think about Sushi or Ramen (at first) but about monkeys :)

I spent a long time just by watching those two :D

Of course, within the zoo were other species as well, I don't really think that someone was missing :D It was also often very hard to find the animals, because in every compound I saw they had bushes or other possibilities to hide. Of course it's a bit sad if you can't see the animals but in my opinion this is better than animals who can't hide and are just tired and stressed from it.

Seems like the elephant is relieving stress ;)

It was a great trip, I left the zoo when it was about to close and I still missed many animals. Well, that's for another time ^^

Right on to the next station!

The next station of the day was Tokyo Tower. There I met with Patryk, a trainee from Poland who came like me with AIESEC to Japan. Okay, technically I got here by myself, but actually I wanted to come with AIESEC. Well so much for taking plans into reality ... they always need some adjustments ;)

First time I noticed something like this in Japan.
Hope I won't need it :)

Patryk was in Japan since just a few days or so, so I went with him to Tokyo Tower. I don't really know when I will stop coming here ^^ The special platform was still closed (how long will they need?), so we got to the main platform. As always, you buy the tickets outside, then you go inside and wait for the lift. Actually the list has a really relaxing music. I had to watch out to not fall asleep ;)

We had a good timing, because a group of young female singers performed that evening :) Yes, I didn't come here just to see temples ;)
Anyway, the performance was nice, I think. Suddenly I had too much stuff to think about :P

If they would arrest me? ;)

After taking (just some) fotos (and no video), we concentrated on the skyline of Tokyo by night again. From time to time, they also put the lights out for a few minutes which was really helpful for us photographers ^^

Rainbow Bridge from Tokyo Tower

The last station of the day was Odaiba, the place for watching the famous Rainbow Bridge. If you look closely to the photo, you might see a similarity with the Golden Gate Bridge :D

Rainbow Bridge from Odaiba

By the way, I recommend to mute this video, because you can only hear the strong wind ^^
And to make things more "american", they even have their own Statue Of Liberty there :)

Actually, this one is a bit smaller than the one in NY ^^

But anyway, the Rainbow Bridge had a fantastic light-up and Odaiba is really a good place for spending. I mean who wouldn't love a gigantic Gundam Wing Robot? ^^

Reason to love Japan #935: Giant Robots

Or monkeys, they're pretty easy-going here ^^

What was he saying?

Time To Send a Letter ^^

This compound had two floors to see the birds from above too :)

He was actually pretty busy running around oO

You can't hear it now but this one had a funny voice ^^

Now I won't go into the compound even more :D

Human: Servant for the Elephant ;)

That was strange: The monkeys could weigh themselves with this scale.
Do you think they knew what it meant?
They have the time and intelligence to do so ...