New Additions to Japan's Oldest Zoo

April 24th, 2011:

March 22nd marked the entrance of Japan's 2 most popular new residents.  Ueno Zoo in Ueno, Tokyo held an opening ceremony for Li Li and Shin Shin, the 2 new pandas given to the zoo by China.  Ueno Zoo is Japan's oldest and most famous zoo and is now home to Japan's newest, instantly famous celebrities.  Ueno Zoo has been without a panda since 2008 when Ling Ling died.  We've been wanting to go since we heard the news and today was our first opportunity.  This would be the second time to visit the zoo, as this was the last trip I took while studying abroad here.

Ueno Zoo opened on March 20th, 1882 at that time under the Imperial Household Ministry.  All of Ueno Park was under control of the Emperor's household after the Meiji Restoration in 1868. [1]  The zoo was attached to the Honkan, which is the main building of Tokyo National Museum, Japan's first museum.  The museum began March 10th, 1872 and had control of the land of Ueno Park granted by the Imperial Household Ministry.  So in 1876 they chose to build a new building in the park that would be completed and opened to the public in 1882 along with the zoo. [2]

In 1924, Ueno Park and the zoo were given to the Tokyo government as a wedding present of Emperor Hirohito's wedding (Emperor Showa).  It would now be a public park administered by Tokyo, which it remains as today.  At this time, the Honkan was heavily damaged by the great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 and was closed.  A new Honkan building was finished in 1938. [3]

The years of World War II would be Ueno Zoo's darkest and most tragic history.  This history revolves around incidents in 1943 and 1945.  In 1943, the governor of Tokyo ordered the killing of some of the zoo's animals due to the ongoing war situation, which was then executed by the zoo director.  Similar orders were also carried out in German and British zoos to protect the populace, in case air raids allowed for dangerous animals to escape the zoos. [4]  What makes this a dark page in the history of Ueno Zoo and not just a tragic one is the reasoning for the order (war propaganda instead of general safety), as well as the way it was carried out (poison, and especially starvation over shooting). [5]

There is much more to this story than what I have written here.  I have purposely shortened and simplified the events here so people would not take this as a final word but a starting point to look into further.  Writing out the whole story now would detract from what I'm trying to write about and would go against the purpose of this post.  If I find that there is further interest in this topic, then I will write a new post about it, taking the time, space and care that is needed for such a history as it is quite a controversial and complex event.  In the meantime, if you are interested I will leave the two sources I came across while doing the research on the subject, which are both worth a read to get a better understanding of what happened and the motives behind the main actors.

1. Frederick S. Litten, "Starving the Elephants: The Slaughter of Animals in Wartime Tokyo's Ueno Zoo," The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, Vol. 38-3-09 (September 21, 2009),

http://japanfocus.org/-Frederick_S_-Litten/3225

2. Ariko Kawabata and Kay E. Vandergrift, "History Into Myth The Anatomy of a Picture Book," Bookbird, Vol. 36-2 (1998),

http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/professional-development/childlit/books/elephant.pdf 

The other terrible action by the zoo during the war years was what they did to Raymond Halloran, an American B-29 pilot who was captured during World War II in Japan after his B-29 bomber was shot down on a bombing run over Japan in 1945.  The zoo decided to keep Raymond Halloran in the now empty Tiger Cage naked for a month as a spectacle between March and April of 1945 after the March 10th fire raid on Tokyo before being transferred again to a prisoner of war facility and stayed there for the remainder of the war until liberation. [6]

Ueno Zoo after the war has been a gradual rebuilding into Japan's leading zoo that we can see again today.  In the early years, the zoo still had many animals missing due to the events during the war.  Elephants were especially missed and on June 18th, 1949 'Elephant Trains' took children starting in Tokyo, but then other trains from around the country to Nagoya's Higashiyama Zoo, where Japan's last two elephants were.  During that summer over 10,000 children took these trains to see the elephants there. [7]  Ueno Zoo would have elephants again that fall, first on September 4th, 1949 when one was given to the zoo as a gift by Thailand.  The next elephant gift stole the spotlight, as it was a gift from India in response to a letter campaign. [8]  The elephant, Indira was given to Ueno Zoo by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru with the elephant named after his daughter; after learning of the wish of Tokyo's children.  This gift came with a message of,

"... I hope that when the children of India and the children of Japan will grow up, they will serve not only their great countries, but also the cause of peace and cooperation all over Asia and the world.  So you must look upon this elephant, Indira by name, as a messenger of affection and goodwill from the children of India..." [9]

This elephant arrived to Ueno Zoo on September 25th, 1949 and was greeted by 2,000 people upon her entrance into the zoo.  The next day over 10,000 people came to the zoo to see the new elephant. [10]  The new elephants were some of the important beginnings to rebuilding the zoo and turning it back into the important zoo that it is today.  Through the years, more has been brought to the zoo.  In 1957, Japan's first monorail would be built in the zoo, connecting the east and west sides of the zoo.

The monorail as it looked in 1957.  It's still in operation today. [11]

The 1950s also saw Ueno Zoo make a moving zoo, which created a 'Zoo Boom' in Japan with many zoos being built around the country. [12]  In the 1990s zoos all over Japan had a difficult time with attendance numbers falling due to a combination of smaller child populations, more activities to choose from and the unappealing way the animals were displayed in cages. [13]  Zoos still often had the small cages common in older zoos.  The falling attendance numbers created a need for action and many zoos changed their exhibits to create more natural environments for the animals at this time.  For Ueno Zoo, the 'Gorilla Woods' and 'Tiger Forest' are two of these types of exhibits and have helped Ueno Zoo and other zoos around the country become popular again.  Ueno Zoo now has over 2600 animals from 464 different species. [14]  It also has the world's three unusual animals of giant panda, okapi and pygmy hippopotamus. [15]

The Okapi at Ueno Zoo.

The Pygmy Hippopotamus at Ueno Zoo.

Here are some more of the interesting animals that can be found at Ueno Zoo:

One of the only exotic animal survivors of World War II, giraffes are still at Ueno Zoo today.

The elephants are still some of the most popular of the animals at the zoo.  They sometimes do tricks too, like in this picture, which gather huge crowds and lots of girls yelling out kawaii (かわいい), or cute.

The tiger in his 'Tiger Forest' area.

One of the gorillas in the "Gorilla Woods' exhibit.  Both times I've gone this gorilla has been the funniest animal in the zoo.   It's always wearing something and chills out by himself.

The same gorilla when I went to the zoo as a study abroad student.

There's also a large mountain where about 50 of these Japan-native monkeys are.  There always seems to be a few young ones playing about too.

When we went this time, the Polar Bear Exhibit was being renovated so I'm not sure when  it'll be ready and they'll be back at the zoo.

The zoo also has a wide variety of Asian and native animals that might be hard to see at other zoos.  The zoo has a few red pandas.

It also has the native Japanese Giant Salamander.  Only found in the southern part of Japan, these salamanders can be over 5 feet long and live up to 80 years.  They are the 2nd largest salamander on earth.

The main purpose of visiting the zoo this time was to see the new pandas.  Pandas have long been an important diplomatic gift between China and Japan.  In 685, they were first sent as a gift from China to Japan from the Chinese Tang Dynasty Empress to the Japanese Emperor at that time. [16]  In modern times, Ueno Zoo received the first pandas from China after normalizing relations in 1972 with Kang Kang and Lan Lan (Kan Kan and Ran Ran in Japan). [17]  The Ueno Zoo has worked with China and other zoos in trying to breed pandas that have been in their care.  Lan Lan was the first panda pregnancy outside of China, but unfortunately died before giving birth on September 4th, 1979.  China then gave Japan Huan Huan as a new mate for Kang Kang, but Kang Kang died on June 30th, 1980.  So on November 9th, 1982, Fei Fei was given to Ueno Zoo to be a mate for Huan Huan. [18]

Fei Fei and Huan Huan would have three offspring, but the first, Chu Chu died when he was only 2 days old.  Tong Tong and You You would both live and became the first pandas born in Japan.  Tong Tong on June 1st, 1986 and You You on June 23rd, 1988.  You You would be traded for Ling Ling to prevent in-breeding / provide more breeding opportunities on November 5th, 1992. [19]  Tong Tong would be the only panda born in Japan left at the zoo and became one of the major stars of the zoo until her death on July 8th, 2000.  Ling Ling was the last remaining panda at Ueno Zoo.  China also stopped giving pandas as gifts in the 1980s and now only leases the animals. [20]  Shuan Shuan was leased to Ueno Zoo to be a breeding partner for Ling Ling from December 3rd, 2003 to September 26th, 2005. [21]  When Ling Ling died on April 30th, 2008 it would be the first time Ueno Zoo had been without a panda, since relations between China and Japan normalized in 1972.  Ling Ling was also the last panda to be owned by Japan.  All other pandas are leased from China. [22]

The new pandas to Ueno Zoo are no exception.  Li Li and Shin Shin will be leased to the zoo for 10 years and cost $950,000 a year to do so. [23]  Ueno Zoo will again try and breed the pandas and are happy to have pandas be a part of the zoo again for the first time since 2008.  It was easy to see the people and Ueno were very happy and excited about the new arrivals as well.  Ueno has turned into Panda Mania when we went.  All over town there are pictures of pandas everywhere, and all of the shops have been selling basically anything imaginable that a panda can be stuck onto, both souvenirs and edible items.  Ueno's train station even set up a display in the middle of the station of bamboo and 2 big panda stuffed animals to mark the occasion.  After wading through the stands of panda goods, we waited in line for our tickets.

While the ticket line was short and easy to get through, our wait for the pandas was not.  We got to the zoo pretty early and headed to the panda exhibit first.  Just like everything new or popular in Tokyo, it involves waiting in an incredibly long line to see.  Ropes and zoo officials directed the lines up and down throughout the avenues of the zoo as the line stretched farther and farther from the exhibit.  It felt like almost everyone had come to the zoo just to see the pandas.

Although, the lines did give me a good chance to take some pictures of the new panda display.

After 45 minutes to an hour of waiting, our chance to see the pandas had finally come.  Our time to see what we had finally come for had us for one last surprise that we could basically only laugh about.

Both of them were asleep by the time we got to see them.  They're still cute though.  We'll have to come back to the zoo another time to see them again.  Next time, hopefully with a shorter line and while they're awake.

References:

1. "The first national museum in Japan stands still with history," Taito City.
http://taito-culture.jp/culture/touhaku/english/page_01.html.

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid.

4. Frederick S. Litten, "Starving the Elephants: The Slaughter of Animals in Wartime Tokyo's Ueno Zoo," The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, Vol. 
38-3-09 (September 21, 2009),
http://japanfocus.org/-Frederick_S_-Litten/3225.


5. Ibid.


6. "The Autobiography of Raymond "Hap" Halloran," Hap Halloran The Official Site.
http://www.haphalloran.com/autobiography.asp.


7. Frederick S. Litten, "Starving the Elephants: The Slaughter of Animals in Wartime Tokyo's Ueno Zoo,"


8. Ibid.


9. "Japanese Culture and Daily Life Gifts from Animals to People," The Japan Forum.
http://www.tjf.or.jp/eng/content/japaneseculture/37giftsfromanimals.htm.


10. Frederick S. Litten, "Starving the Elephants: The Slaughter of Animals in Wartime Tokyo's Ueno Zoo,"


11. "Monorails in History - Part II," The Monorail Society.
http://monorails.org/tMspages/History2.html.


12. "Japanese Culture and Daily Life Gifts from Animals to People," The Japan Forum.


13. Ibid.


14. Tokyo Zoological Park Society, "About Ueno Zoo," Tokyo Zoo Net.
http://www.tokyo-zoo.net/english/ueno/.


15. Captain Tours, "Ueno Area," Japan Travel Navi.
http://www.j-travelnavi.com/sightseeing-spot/tokyo/ueno-area.


16. Ed. 梁军, "Giant Panda Pair go to Japan," English People's Daily Online, July 28th, 2010,
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90776/90882/7083914.html.

17. Giant Panda Zoo, "Ueno Zoo," Giant Panda Zoo.
http://www.giantpandazoo.com/UenoZoo.html.

18. Ibid.

19. Ibid.

20. Ed. 梁军, "Giant Panda Pair go to Japan," English People's Daily Online.


21. Giant Panda Zoo, "Ueno Zoo," Giant Panda Zoo.

22. Kyodo News, "Giant Panda Ling Ling Dies at Ueno Zoo," The Japan Times Online, May 1st, 2008,
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20080501a3.html.

23. Giant Panda Zoo, "Ueno Zoo," Giant Panda Zoo.

Yebisu Beer: Home of Tokyo's Biggest Beer Garden

Feb. 26th, 2011:

When people think of Japanese alcohol, they are most likely to think of sake.  However, there are many more offerings in Japan when it comes to alcohol besides sake.  Besides sake and sochu (another Japanese drink made from fermented sweet potatoes popular in Kyushu), Japanese people also enjoy a whole host of western origin drinks as well.  Quite possibly the most popular every day drink would be beer.  Japan's taking to beer along with Japan having a heavy drinking culture has brought on the enamoring of beer gardens in the German style, complete with large size drinking glasses (rare in Japan otherwise) and popular German food (think pretzels and sausages).  The biggest and most famous of them all in Tokyo is Yebisu Beer Garden in Ebisu, Tokyo.

This gigantic complex is home to not only the beer garden, but to Yebisu Beer and its museum as well.  Yebisu Beer today is owned by Sapporo, the most famous and first brewery of Japan.  In my opinion, Yebisu is the best of the macrobreweries that Japan has to offer because it still retains some of its roots  from its history of being more European in style and has more flavor and a larger variety of tastes compared to the other macros.  The other macros are basically all the same as typical Japanese beer and even its varieties basically being more a change in can than a change of flavor.  The beer is good and refreshing enough, but gets a bit bland and boring quickly (if you couldn't tell, one of the things I miss is easily accessible American and European beer).  Yebisu suffers the least from this and has a couple of good offerings with a dark beer and a hoppier beer called fittingly enough, The Hop.  Here is Yebisu's current lineup that I have found and tasted with a small review of each.

The whole lineup of Yebisu Beer that I have found in cans.

The three most common varieties, from left to right: Premium Yebisu, Silk Yebisu and Yebisu Black.

Premium Yebisu: The standard Yebisu.  Similar to many of the other macro Japanese beers, but a bit deeper and more complex taste than the usual crisp and light Japanese beers.  The malt definitely helps provide a fuller taste than other common beers here.  Yebisu comes the closest of the mass-produced beer to being different from the typical Japanese beer and being more like a pilsner you might find in other places around the world.

Silk Yebisu:  Very similar to Premium Yebisu, but a little lighter and smoother.  Not much else to say here.

Yebisu Black:  One of the rare dark beer options to be had here from one of the major Japanese breweries.  Nice mixing of malt flavors, with a deeper malt flavor in the beginning and the aftertaste of a sweet and slightly bitter caramel malt.  Although compared with beer outside of Japan, I think most people would consider it a bit 'watery.'  Even so, I'm happy that the option exists for a major Japanese beer.

Kohaku Yebisu: The can on the left is from 2010, the can on the right from 2011.

Kohaku Yebisu: Yebisu's amber ale.  I've only had the new one once, but the taste from the previous one and this new one seem to be really different.  In 2010 - early 2011, it started as a mild flavor, but then a strong hop flavor comes in.  In the canned Kohaku this was too sharp and bitter for my liking, but at the tasting salon it was much better blended and had a pleasant hop taste that was rare to find in a Japanese beer.  The one I've had more recently had an overpowering malt flavor and the hop taste was gone.  The malt taste was bitter and too overpowering in my opinion.

The last three that I've found so far, although these are hard to come by.  From left to right: Yebisu The Hop, Yebisu Cho-choki-jukusei and Yebisu Asuka Cruise. 

Yebisu the Hop:  Easily my favorite Japanese macro beer.  One of the few that realizes hops can be a taste used in beer and doesn't have to be bad.  Still a weak flavor, but noticeable hop taste while drinking and even a slight hoppy aftertaste with a pretty good balance of sweet and bitter.  The only bad things about it considering its Japanese macro beer status is the difficulty in finding one.

Yebisu Cho-choki-kujusei: Definitely the most interesting and complex tasting of the beers here.  Some slight malt taste, but masked by a variety of sweet flavors and a slightly bitter aftertaste.  An interesting effort, especially in a place with little experimentation, but wasn't my favorite.

Yebisu Asuka Cruise: The deal with the name is that it was originally a special edition served on the Asuka II cruise ship.  Otherwise it was a limited edition beer and one that I doubt will be sold again.  Not much of a difference from the Premium Yebisu, but slightly lighter, smoother and slight tastes of bitterness.

Yebisu Beer's name and logo come from the god Ebisu (Yebisu), one of the Seven Gods of Good Luck (Shichi Fukujin) that I briefly mentioned at the end of my experience in Shibamata's Taishakuten.  Yebisu is the only of the Shichi Fukujin to originate in Japan, as the rest are of Chinese origin.  Yebisu is the god of fishermen, luck, business prosperity and fair dealing.  Yebisu usually is wearing formal court clothing and holding a fishing rod and a red sea bream or red snapper.  The fish is a mark of good luck. [1]

The statue of Yebisu in the entrance hall of the Yebisu Beer Museum.

You might have noticed that I have been using Yebisu and Ebisu interchangeably so far.  However, there is a reason for this.  The character Ye in Japanese, ゑ/ヱ is an old character that was dropped following orthographic reforms after World War II.  The Ye character was done away with and is pronounced the same way as the E character in Japanese today.  So when talking about the god or the neighborhood today the correct spelling would be Ebisu, but the brewery kept the historical character of Ye in its name.  Otherwise, there is no difference between the two.

Before going straight to the drinking, we decided to do the museum tour.  Despite its small size and being a subsidiary of Sapporo now, Yebisu Beer has had a long and impressive history of its own.  Yebisu was also one of the pioneers in brewing in Japan starting in 1890 (Sapporo brewery was founded in 1876).  At the time, they brought German brewmasters to brew beer and teach the Japanese how to do it.  They built the brewery out in the farmlands of then sparsely populated present day Meguro Ward. [2]

A picture of the original building, now on the outside of the present building.  It might be too small to see, but the sign was written in German and not English, 'Yebisu-Brauerei' noting its German roots in brewing.

This gave its beer a higher quality than others in the area and even brought some of the first international recognition for Japanese beer.  These awards included a gold prize in the Paris Expo of 1900 and the grand prix of the 1904 St. Louis Expo.  This is more impressive considering the time it took to transport these bottles to the competitions in a time when it could take a month or more to transport them there. [3]

A 1900s era gift box of Yebisu Beer.  Besides the logo carved in the wooden box, the two medals they won can also be seen in the top left and right.

On August 4th, 1899, Yebisu opened the first beer hall ever in Japan.  It opened in Ginza, Tokyo headed by Kyohei Magoshi who was the head of Japan Beer Brewery Company. [4]

A model of the original beer hall building in the museum.

Beer at the time was sold at 10 sen.  Considering a bowl of noodles was sold for only 1 sen at the time, beer was an expensive luxury item.  However, the beer hall increased not only the popularity of Yebisu Beer, but beer as a whole.  In fact, the original beer hall still exists today, but under the name Sapporo Lion Beer Hall denoting its ownership by Sapporo.

This increased popularity created the need for a train station at the Yebisu plant.  In February of 1901, a freight station was built at the Yebisu factory and in 1906 the current Ebisu station was built and also started passenger service.  By 1928, the surrounding area was renamed Ebisu, one of the few places in Japan where an area and train station were named after a company. [5]

The old Yebisu station.

Yebisu Beer was very successful until World War II.  Due to the war effort, money and resources couldn't be wasted on leisure items, so the government heavily regulated the industry.  At first, the government enforced a set price for beer.  In 1940, distribution was controlled by the government and by 1943 all brand labels were abolished, meaning beer could still be produced, but no long received any label besides a standard government label. [6]

The government labeled beer from the late war period.

Much different from these labels the year before brand labels were abolished.

With brand labels abolished, brewing companies were blocked from operating and many of Japan's breweries never reopened.  Only the largest of them reopened, Asahi, Sapporo and a few others.  Small breweries were gone, only to return in recent years.  Yebisu seemed to share the same fate; its doors seemingly closed forever.  However, in December of 1971, Sapporo brought Yebisu back to life due to customer request and Yebisu has now continued ever since. [7]

After the museum tour it was time for some tastings.  The tastings were included with the tour.  It was two free drinks and some nice Yebisu Beer Hall snacks.  However, they only gave you 10-15 minutes for the whole tasting and gave a 5 minute introduction which you're supposed to wait for so the free tasting time felt rushed and wasn't the nicest.  Next to the free tasting area is a tasting salon, which while costing money, has nice food options and your choice of 4 different varieties and no time limit.  We spent a lot more time here.

The first step is to get special Yebisu tasting salon coins.  Everything on the menu costs 1, 2 or 3 of these coins.  (Drinks cost 1 and only the best entrees cost 3).  In the front of the tasting salon are vending machines just for these coins (you'll find that there are vending machines for everything imaginable here).

What those two coins went to.  Yebisu Black on the left and Kohaku Yebisu on the right.

Both beers were much tastier at the tasting salon, but especially the Kohaku Yebisu.  I had mentioned above in the reviews about the difference between in the can and at the tasting salon, but it was a much larger difference than I was expecting.  It actually made for a really nice beer while there.  I initially bought it only because I wanted to try all of the beers that they were offering and wasn't expecting much because of my previous experiences, but it ended up being a pleasant surprise.

At the tasting salon we also lucked out, because we had happened to come to the museum during their 1 year anniversary, so we received some nice glassware to take home when we got our drinks.

Front and back.

Of course, the museum visit wouldn't be complete without taking a picture of the giant Yebisu can in the front.

This is about 6 feet tall.

After the museum, we decided to walk around the beer garden and have dinner there.  The beer garden itself is a beautiful area combing stores and restaurants that look like an old German town and mashing it perfectly with the spectacular modern glass arch over the rest of the beer garden.  It's a really pleasant place to take a stroll, or you know, have a beer.

We had dinner in one of the smaller restaurant buildings.  Everything was set up as a beer garden experience, but in a restaurant and with Beatles songs playing the whole time (European feel here almost always automatically means Beatles music).  Dinner was quite good, as we had typical German beer garden food such as sausages, pretzels and the like.  I also had Yebisu Creamy Top Stout, which is a very nice stout, that's smooth and creamy but not much else going for it.  It was very good for what it is.  After dinner, we finished our trip to Yebisu Beer Garden and returned home.  If you happen to be in Tokyo after a long day, this might be just the spot to take a rest.

References:

1. Mark Schumaker, "Ebisu (Yebisu)," Onmarkproductions.com.
http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/ebisu.shtml.

2. "Yebisu Tour English," Museum of Yebisu Beer, February, 2011.

3. Ibid.

4. Ibid.

5. Ibid.

6. Ibid.

7. Ibid.