Ueno zoo

I have been in Japan 2 months now, and it is totally inacceptable that I have not yet been to Tokyo! So today I decided to visit Ueno park, as it is easily accessible and has bunches of things to see all right there. However I kind of misjuged the size of the park. So my first visit of Tokyo.... turned into the visit of only Ueno zoo.

Well that's not completely true... I had promissed myself not to leave Japan without seeing a Shinkansen. Today I saw 6 in 15 minutes, so guess that's a success. They are not only bullet trains but they go every 3 minutes!

And I also got to experience a tokyoite sakura fever, which is a bit more exuberant than the countryside ones. Here is the main alley of Ueno park at 9am ....

.... and at 3pm (note the sakura-fan on the step ladder, and the red power-ranger in the distance who turned around too late for the photo so you can't see where he had the little golden bells attached ...)(He did, yes. This is what the japanese do when they're not being extremely quite and well behaved.)

This zoo was quite different from the Kanazawa one. The cages themselves aren't landscaped, but they have enough space in this one that they can have their own lotus lake (not growing yet), with a monorail going around the parc and everything.

They have all sorts of animals, from lions and tigers to gorillas, and bunches of different birds. They're very into establishing breeding colonies of endangered species, so it was like walking through a Gerald Durrell book. They even had the flat toads that he gets in Argentina! They really are flat, and do look squished a bit. And of course they had all the japanese endemic species, including the giant salamander, and the cranes, and the monkeys.

As well as the animals there is also a 5 story pagoda in the zoo, which is the 'home' of some cranes, ducks, geese and swans, as well as the ever present crows. I am getting into the sakura habit, so here is the pagoda with and without blossoms. The cherry trees are just getting into swing. In a couple of weeks you won't be able to move in that park it'll be so packed full of people.

Kanazawa Zoo

This week-end was the (15th?) anniversary of the Kanazawa zoo, and so they were open for free for the 3 days. Today was a very sunny but not too warm day. The zoo opens at 9:30 and it was packed full right from the start, with the zoo mascots there to welcome everyone.

The zoo is part of a big park complex with several botanical gardens on different themes and the zoo. The zoo was very nice, with fake-rock walls and moats to seperate the cages instead of bars, and flowers and trees all over.

The animals all seemed happy, except the african mule-type thing that looked in a filthy mood, but that's pretty normal for any mule. There were several babies but none of them new-born, although a baby rhino is probably pretty big to start with.

As there has been some quite warm weather lately most of the animals were shedding like mad. But for once the moose didn't look the worst! And all the animals were really active. I guess it was the combination of sun and cool weather. And of course for a given value of 'really active'. By that I mean most of the animals were running around all over the place, the wombat was scratching itself and moving about, and one of the koalas had it's eyes open. You can't expect supernatural behaviour either....

And as well as being a very nice zoo, it has something I have never seen anywhere else before. You have all seen aviaries. Well this zoo has a ....

Stag-beetle-ary!

It's just like an aviary: you walk through the mesh doors, noting the little sign saying don't squish the beetles, and inside there are open boxes full of dirt. And in the dirt and humongous white grubs, which will, eventually, hatch into stag beetles. And yes, that stage beetles will be free inside the tent just like birds in aviaries. Cool, eh? They even have special boxes of dirt set out special so that you can dig in them yourself to try and find yourself a grub. You don't get to keep them, however. Must be great fun in summer time in there.

Spring! literally.

It is officially spring! And Japan is on vacation and planning on making the most of it. The part around Yokosuka and Kanazawa feels that way anyway. It's party time all over the place. It is also really truly spring, with cherry blossoms and pigreons making nests (note how much prettier Japanese pigeons are).

I had seen a poster a way back about a guided hike starting at Kanazawa-bunko station, 11km long. Sounded good, so this morning I showed up a bit early, hoping I could find it. Well it was quite easy... all you needed to do was to follow the huge signs all over the place, and stand in line to sign up and be assigned to one of the 10 guides. And that was just for the 9am hike. They had others starting later.... Guess I shouldn't have worried.

We were a group of 9 with a very nice guide. In red on the map is where we went, starting from the Kanazawa-bunko station (left), and ending up.... at Oppama station! In the middle is the little badge I got for doing the walk. Some people signing up already had 5 or 6 of them....

We saw lots of neat stuff along the way. The temple complex is near the Kanazawa bunko station and is very picturesque, with lirrle red bridges, and carp and stuff. Then we went to someplace that was very pretty .... if what you like is toilets. It seemed to have been important , maybe as the emperor's summer house or something, but every room had a different type of toilet in it. A bit special...

From the island where the weird house is you get a wonderful view of the clam diggers and, behind, Natsushima and the red square things in front of JAMSTEC. And right next to that, a new take on the pick-nick grounds: the barbecue grounds. It was only 11 then, but quite a lot of the pits were taken already.

At Oppama station they had bands, food stalls, garage sales, dancing groups. A really good show! It's a pity abour the wind, which is nearly blowing the food off the stalls, but still a great day.

Sagami bay Cruise

Guess this was my first real oceanographic cruise, with everyone on shifts, and never getting any sleep and stuff like that. It was actually great fun, except for the first afternoon when the sea was just an itsy bitsy bit rough (20 knot winds), and everyone was feeling quite queasy by the time dinner time came. We might all have been ok with a bit of good food in us, but this happened to be the day the cook decided on sashimi..... and the sight of raw fish was just not the thing for us. I was actually quite proud of being the 3rd to leave the dinner table rather precipitously, and one boy never even made it to the table. As it was clear we wouldn't be getting any work done in those conditions we anchored on the sheltered side of the bay for the night.

The Tansei-maru is a ship jointly owned by Tokyo university and JAMSTEC. It's about 40m long and, according to Dhugal, does not have a lot of comfort. It "only" has 3 toilets, a washing-mashine room with sinks and a bath room with a shower and a bath tub that is constantly filled and heated till 9pm. As we were only 8 scientists, the lab was more than large enough, and we all had our own table pretty much.

The next morning we started off bright and sunny, at 6am, and pretty much kept going non stop for 3 days. We had 6 hour shifts, and each was responsible for a net. The first day the planning was a bit off, so everyone was on shift when it was the other folk's nets, and also had to be there for their nets, when they were technically off shift. The second day got things straightened out, and on the third day the sea was too rough for nets in the morning so we did only VPR, and then only nets in the afternoon.

There were 3 different nets, the VPR (video plankton recorder), and some sediment traps, so we always had bunches to do. Dhugal and I were responsible of the VPR, and so had battery changes to do, and data downloading and sorting and such. We also got to recuperate the jellies from the ORI net the other group was doing. That was loads of fun, as there were innumerable interesting things in them. We even found several possible new species, and a few Dhugal had hardly ever seen.

From those nets come the samples of my newly started voucher specimen collection. I am now officially a jellyfish weirdo.

Cruise prepatations

A week-end spent preparing for our next cruise, on the Tansei Maru, a "small" ship (40m long) belonging to Tokyo university and JAMSTEC. As it's cold and raining and really miserable, that wasn't such a bad thing to do. The packing went fast, and we had put everything in the truck by 11am on Saturday, so got the afternoon off.

On Sunday, we were to meet the truck at the dock

where the ship is, at Daiba. I got a teensy weensy bit lost, but have learned that if you write the name of the station down and show it to the information clerk they usually draw you a very clear map as to which train to take. And speaking of trains, here is a sight not many people get to see: the electronic board informing you the train will be arriving early!? Not a word I usually associate with trains....

Daiba seems like a very kitsch resort for week-end Tokyo-ites, but actually has a very nice water front with paths through little gardens and benches by the sea-side. There is also a very nice bird population, with ducks and cormorants and sea gulls and lots of others, I'm sure. One sea gull was paddling around pecking at a dead fish belly up in the water, so I guess you never really forget you're still in the outskirts of Tokyo...

The ship loading went well, with more people than actual luggage. Looks like we'll only be 7 scientists instead of the 12 or so they usually have. That means lots of space for everyone, which is nice.

The weather is awful like good spring weather should be. And spring is the time of cherry blossoms! And so they have put up .... pink, plastic ... um ... blossoms ... in the streets. There is a time when I feel they try just a bit too hard.

Well I'm off to eat some bread and butter. We have just been told that it'll be Japanese breakfasts only on the ship, so I only have 2 days left of bread! How horrible! The thought of broth with tofu in it for breaky. Oh dear.... Must run and get some bread!