This is our third full day in Tokyo - what to do in Tokyo today? We finally ran into a little snag last night at dinner which you can read about below. In the mean time, to catch up, see our posts (in reverse chronological order) Meiji Jingu Shrine and Cherry Blossoms in Tokyo and 3 movies, 2 meals and some sleep – how long to get to Japan.
We found an area just next door to our hotel with 10 different restaurants so we thought we give it a try for dinner. Surely we can find something good to eat there. And normally we're very adventurous when it comes to eating. But with a gluten allergy and Rosemary allergy, we need to be more careful in a different country. The restaurant directory was clear enough: pictures with English descriptions. But when we went to each place here's what we found:
We finally found a Thai place where they not only spoke English but explained the menu item by item. They were so nice and the food was SO good. As was the plum wine!
Now, we have to decide what to do in Tokyo today.
So today on our last full day in Tokyo we have some choices to make. What should we do in Tokyo today? We realized we had seen pretty much all the top sites of Tokyo in our last two days. We asked the concierge for some suggestions and she had a great list:
Each sounded great. Which one to choose?
We decided against any of these. Somehow the prospect of 1 - 2 hours on a train each way followed by other trams or monorail just sounded like way too much travel for us. We've been on the go for several days now. We decided that we wanted a "down day" given that we still had 14 more days of touring to go in Vietnam and Cambodia. Sometimes building in some relaxation time makes sense.
So our answer to what to do in Tokyo today is....go to the zoo!. It's supposed to be 73 F today and sunny - and there's a baby panda bears at the zoo - decision made.
The Tokyo Zoo (Ueno Zoological Gardens) is an easy 20 minute metro ride on the Ginza line from our hotel (ANA Intercontinental). It's located in a very large park (Ueno Park) and is very popular. It only cost us about $6 each to get in (600 Yen). Features include the Panda bears (featuring a baby Panda), Shoebill Storks, Japanese birds, and snow monkeys. How can you not love snow monkey?
Apparently everyone else in Tokyo had the same idea - we waited in line about 30 minutes to get into the park. Seeing the baby Panda (Xiang-Xiang) required timed entry tickets. Each group of 12 people got 30 seconds in each of four separate viewing locations. Doesn't sound like a lot, but actually it was enough time. As you can see there's a lot of sleeping going on with Pandas.
Try the zoo in Ueno Park!
We spent about 5 hours total in the park and saw just about all the exhibits while having time for a leisurely snack. For dinner we ended up stopping off at Ginza shopping area on the way back for an early dinner. This time we ate at a Okonomitaki place. The server was fantastic and recommended several great dishes including an eggplant rice dish and shrimp Okonomitaki - each of which was terrific.
Tomorrow we leave Tokyo early and start our trip to Vietnam.
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