After a busy couple of days in Tokyo (hitting up Asakusa/Akihabara and Asakusa/Shibuya), we were ready to do some serious exploring and tick a couple of things off of our ‘to do’ list; Ueno Park and the Tokyo Zoo.
We slept in this morning (well, my buddy did) and finally got our lazy asses moving around 1pm. We headed out and got some tempura for lunch at a decent chain (Tempura bowl Tenya Asakusa) – it was cheap and yummy! The tempura cheese was so good!!
After lunch, we walked to Ueno park to visit the zoo. I was a bit nervous about visiting a zoo in Asia, as I’ve heard plenty of awful things about them. The Tokyo zoo wasn’t bad! It was inexpensive, not crowded at all, and the animals seemed to be well taken care of–we even got to see the Giant Pandas! I wasn’t able to get many good shots of the animals, so I just enjoyed looking at them and taking a couple shots of the grounds.
After seeing about ½ the park, we decided to head home since: 1.) We were hot, sweaty and feeling gross, 2.) We needed to get ready for a party in Harajuku and most important, 3.) We wanted beer!
We got ourselves cleaned up, grabbed dinner at a decent tonkatsu place, and finally made it out to Harajuku around 9pm. We didn’t stay at the party long, as it really wasn’t our cup of tea, but it was cool to see what the expat scene was like in Tokyo! We started our epic journey home around 11:30…. The subway was PACKED late at night..I don’t really wanna experience that again!
My Tonkatsu – A little sweeter than I would have liked, but still good!
We survived the 45min ride home – barely – grabbed a few beers, sat out on our balcony, and chit-chatted late in to the night.
What did we get in to next? Stay tuned for my next post about shopping at Tokyo Skytree and visiting the Asakusa Tanabata Festival!
*Check out my first few days in Tokyo: Asakusa & Akihabara / Asakusa & Shibuya