You didn't see any of the tuna at Monterey Aquarium? They have been exhibiting blue tuna and other species there since 1996 when the deep ocean tank opened.
Unfortunately I didn't make it that far north. Next time I'm in California the aquarium is at the top of my to do list! ~Thylo
Whenever you get a chance to visit it I hope you enjoy it as I think it is a truly lovely aquarium. The open ocean tank and the two large kelp forests tanks in particular are sights to behold.
Incidentally, Tokyo Sea Life has a small living kelp exhibit with a plaque explaining the relationship between themselves and Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Did you get a chance to see the "glow-worm cave" in the insect house? I've always been curious what that exhibit is like.
Ueno Zoo - 16th January 2019 'Ueno friend of mine' If you came to Ueno expecting a good zoo you'd be disappointed, but if you were expecting a bad one you'd be very pleasantly surprised. Ueno's weakness is its large ABC mammal collection. It's far too big for the site and as a result much of it is held in too small exhibits. The saving graces are the gorilla, lion and tiger enclosures, which are to a very high standard and give a lot of hope for the future. Strengths: A diverse and comprehensive bird collection, with a lot of things that you won't see in Europe. Great slaty woodpecker was a highlight, as was a fantastic common kingfisher exhibit with pool (still on the small side). A great selection of small mammals, with the tarsiers being the jewel in the crown. A really lovely reptile house, with a fantastic endemics room (the metropolitan zoos excel in this area). An innovative approach to enclosure design that ameliorates some of the problems with older exhibits, like the famous otter tube. A certain, hard to quantify, 'feel'; it's an attractive site and a nice place to walk through (if you like concrete and tiles). I liked Ueno more than I expected to (a bit of a theme on this trip so far). It has a charm that cuts across a lot of its flaws; like Tama one of the best things about it is that it feels like it will be a better zoo in five years. This is already a city I'm looking forward to coming back to.
The Winter 2017/18 edition of Zoo Grapevine & International Zoo News has a brilliant, 12-page section on 4 Tokyo zoos and the large, full-colour reviews are ones that I've already read on several occasions. The magazine is a must-own for every zoo enthusiast and it is intriguing to hear of @FunkyGibbon 's thoughts in relation to those written by Tim Brown in the magazine. Ueno Zoo: There are plenty of rarities mentioned in the article, including Chinese Pangolin, Ryukyu Flying Fox, Sulawesi Tarsier, Aye-aye (the zoo had 10 of them a year ago!), Japanese Giant Salamander, Giant Panda, Shoebill, etc. Exhibit quality is apparently hit-and-miss, like most major urban collections, but Ueno Zoo is a must-visit establishment. Tama Zoo: A big, 129-acre zoo with two of the finest insect houses in the world. "You will need at least an hour (or two) to properly appreciate Tama's outstanding invertebrate displays." A huge butterfly house, Insectarium, Glow-worm Cave, Mole House, Orangutan Skywalk, Koala House, plus tons of rarities never seen in North American zoos. I wish that I could visit tomorrow! Inokashira Park Zoo: A zoo that surprisingly opened during WWII (1942) and I'm curious if @FunkyGibbon will visit. The zoo has Tsushima Leopard Cat, which is "regarded as an island population of the Amur Leopard Cat (Prionailurus bengalensis euptilurus). Tokyo Sea Life Park: The huge Pacific Bluefin Tuna tank is famous and again there are apparently plenty of Japanese rarities that are never displayed elsewhere. There is an exhibit for a lot of penguins (25 Southern Rockhopper and more than 100 Humboldt's) and even Little Penguins in a separate exhibit.
Zoorasia - 17th January 2019 'Zoorasia me up' Well, it had to happen at some point on the trip. I hit a zoo that I didn't particularly enjoy. Didn't expect it to be this one though! I had a tricky start to the day because I missed several connections on my journey to the zoo. Nothing disasterous but it was frustrating as I watched buses with zoo written on them sweeping past my bus-stand without stopping. That was eventually sorted thanks to kind locals and I arrived at the zoo gate to see a sign saying 'douc langurs and proboscis monkeys off-show today'... In fairness, these are both species I've seen a few times so it really wasn't the end of the world. So, why didn't 'Asia's Best Zoo' do it for me? Hard to put a finger on it exactly, but I think you'll see where I'm going with this if I tell you that the zoo it most reminded me of was Zoom Gelsenkirchen. It's a very technically accomplished place, with lots of nice species and enclosures, but somehow these new-build zoos always lack.....soul? Neither scientific nor objective but there we go. Zoorasia does a bit better than most of its ilk in terms of aviaries, although herps and fishes were all but absent. And really it must be said that its mammal collection is top-notch. On paper and in the flesh this is a zoo that goes toe to toe with some of the best in Europe (and loses perhaps, but it makes it to the ring). The cheetah/savannah ungulates mix is very interesting, the signage is really fantastic throughout and Tsushima leopard cat was very cool to see. However, even as I write this I'm digging in my bag for my map because I can't bring things I loved to mind. A criticism that I would make a bit more seriously is that even though most of the zoo delivers on quality the elephant and all three bear exhibits don't really. It might be unfair to bring this up when they are better than Ueno's but there are different standards in play here (maybe?). It's hard to imagine visiting Tokyo and not doing Zoorasia, and obviously you should come and make your own mind up. That being said, when I come back I'm not sure I'll be coming back here.
The language barrier is killing me actually. All the tourist advice makes it clear that Japanese people don't like being spoken to in English if they aren't fluent so I'm limited to Konichiwa and Arigato. And I constantly have to stop myself speaking in Chinese (also a faux-pas one suspects). I'm actually in Yokohama's Chinatown tonight and it's been so good to have actual conversations with local people for once, even if I'm literally looking at a thousand per cent markup in dish price compared to 'home'. Japan started 'westernising' in the 1870s and China in the 1980s (the latter very much an ongoing project), so they aren't really comparable at all to be honest. If anything the standard of living in Japan seems to be higher than in Europe, although obviously I'm only seeing a small slice of what is essentially the world's largest city. It was a bit of a let-down to be honest; kind of like looking at a very dimly lit circuit board. I had imagine something like walking into a grotto studded with stars but it was just a dark room with the exhibit at one end. Still unique and worth seeing of course but not a highlight of the zoo in my eyes. @snowleopard I certainly will be visiting Inokashira in a few days; I'll let you know how I view the four of them as a totality then.
Hakkeijima Sea Paradise - 18th January 2019 This is a great place for marine mammals, unless you are a marine mammal. Like many Asian aquariums (possibly aquariums in general), Hakkeijima frustratingly combines excellent fish tanks with abysmal mammal exhibits. Here, both are taken to extremes (it must also be said that there were also a selection of perfectly decent mammal enclosures). There are four different aquariums on site; only one is truly noteworthy. The second is two large tanks, one of which has dolphins. The third is a fish farm, but unless you pay extra to actually catch the fish (I didn't) the experience literally consists of walking some empty pontoons with no signage. Four is sort of a marine mammal petting zoo, with dolphins, beluga, walrus, largha seal and Californian sea lion all in rather lacklustre lagoons; I was incredibly rushed for time when I did that bit so I didn't do any of the touching. The first is the Aqua Museum. It's basically a classic mega-aquarium. The top floor has some terrestrial exhibits and also the very large show pool. In side pools, which can be seen easily, are beluga, bottlenose dolphin, pacific white-sided dolphin and false orca. The side pools are really not very large,so it's quite frustrating that they don't seem to have access to the main pool outside of show hours. Indoor exhibits for pinnipeds verged from adequate (grey seals) to really ugly (Californian sea lion). Polar bear also did not pass the gut wrench test. Nice penguin pool though, with Kings, Gentoos, Adelies, Rockhoppers and Magellanics. The centerpiece fish tank is very big, with an escalator through one side. The main viewing window is sadly not one panoramic pane, but a sort of curved semidome with lots of separate pieces. This means you never really get that breathtaking moment. There are however plenty of other view points to choose from, so you won't miss anything. The whale shark is the obvious pull here, but it's actually the shoals of sardines that constantly swirl and split and combine that kept me sat by the window for a very long time. One of those things that makes you wonder why every aquarium isn't doing it. I watched the shows because I wanted good views of the cetaceans. The white-sided dolphins are really, really gorgeous. The false orcas totally played up and held up the whole show for twenty five minutes, which was fun in a kind of schadenfreude kind of way. The best thing in Hakkeijima, and really I'm surprised that it isn't mentioned in the same breath as Tana's Mole House, is the Sea Slug Room. They must have twenty species in a variety of set ups. Very, very cool. Overall verdict? There is more than enough here to justify the hefty (by Japanese standards) pricetag. You will almost certainly see things you've never seen before. It's just a shame that in a place where so much money has been spent on so many things they couldn't find a little extra for the world class exhibits the animals (and frankly this facility) deserve.
Yes, a different animal was placed on-show around September 2018 as part of the aquarium's 25th anniversary celebrations. There was some trouble with electricity outages shortly after its arrival but it fortunately survived. As @FunkyGibbon mentions, it's displayed in the main reef tank.
Sounds like the short-finned pilot whale previously kept in Fureai lagoon has died - I see it's no longer on the JAZA website. The sea slug & starfish room is pleasant and intriguing, but the lack of signage and curved viewing panes (as a lot of the tanks were spherical) were not ideal. I thought it might have been a temporary display - assuming you're talking about the underwater stadium viewing room - on my 2016 visit there were mainly jellyfish and starfish scattered around, with less of a theme.
Are you doing any wildlife watching while in Japan? Other than snow monkeys, is there much wildlife in Japan to see?
Inokashira Zoo - 19th January 2019 'Inokashira kashira! Oh baby when you talk like that....' Inokashira Zoo is situated on a relatively small site, or sites actually, as most of the aquatic birds and an impressive Aquatic Building are situated down by a lake away from the main collection. Most of the enclosures are relatively small as well, though as usual birds seem to do a bit better here. The collection is almost totally focused on Japanese native species, making it in theory a tempting proposition for the zoonerd. In actual fact if you've already done Ueno and Tama there isn't too much new stuff here for you, but if you have the time it's worth the trip. The highlights for me were the pygmy woodpeckers and the crested kingfisher, although I'd have liked better views of the latter. The previously mentioned Aquatics Building, mostly focused on herps and inverts, is absolutely world class; water spiders were a very cool species to see. Because of its location, Inokashira is best paired with an evening visit to Shibuya, the world's busiest human intersection and a Tokyo must see. I do think it's a zoo you can afford to drop from a crowded schedule, but given that with the Grutto pass it's basically free if you do the other Tokyo zoos and one museum it is a good value proposition, and it's always nice to complete the set. Interesting titbit: this small park zoo gets 850,000 visitors a year!
Well, that might be the worst pun I've ever read! Jokes aside, I've been following this thread with much interest! I rather like the 140 word limit format, because it gives us readers a good perspective of what the general feel of the zoo is like, but it's easier for the writer to keep up (something I can learn a lot from, with travel threads from 2016 and 2017 that I still haven't finished writing...). The last place in particular sounds interesting! I've never heard of it before, but it sounds great. Always good to see collections focus on native species, and the two bird species you mentioned are definitely ones I'd like to see!
