I wrote a post last month that Tokyo will be getting two new pandas from China for 上野動物園 (Ueno Zoo) to replace the one that died about two years ago.
(Click here to read it.)
Well, I was in the Ueno area of Tokyo yesterday and I noticed the elevator to the underground parking area was decorated with Sakura flowers and a panda and it said 「うえのにパンダを！」 (translates to: “(We want) Pandas in Ueno!“).
So I took a photo of it with my cell-phone camera:
「うえのにパンダを！」 ("(We want) Pandas in Ueno!")
I guess the city’s trying to promote the arrival of the pandas so hopefully many people will visit the zoo to see them once they get here.
I’m sure there will be a huge crowd to see the pandas when they first arrive…and I’m sure they’ll continue to be popular for as long as they’re here. Pandas are always very popular in Japan’s zoos.
Have you ever seen a panda in a zoo? Are they popular in your country like they are in Japan?
Tokyo Five 
Middle Aged?!?! How dare you?!?!
I don’t have to come to a blog to be insulted, I have a family that’s perfectly willing to do that in person!
JK 🙂
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HAHA 😀
That’s why I like that Bon Jovi song “(I’m not old) Just Older“. 😉
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Panda in chinese is 熊貓 (Bear Cat) 🙂
I was lucky..they were having fun and nibbling when I saw them…:)
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>Panda in chinese is 熊貓
Wow, it really is the characters for 熊 (bear) and 猫 (cat)!
One more: in Japanese, “Foolish” / “Dumb” is written 「馬鹿」 …which is the characters for “horse” and “deer”.
Is it the same in Chinese?
>they (Pandas) were having fun and nibbling when I saw them…:)
I’ve seen the pandas at the zoo playing or eating a couple times too…but usually they were sleeping.
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>One more: in Japanese, “Foolish” / “Dumb” is written 「馬鹿」 …which is the characters for “horse” and “deer”.
Is it the same in Chinese?
No..in Chinese – Dumb is 笨
Foolish is 傻
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>No..in Chinese – Dumb is 笨….Foolish is 傻
Oh, so it’s different. Sometimes words are written the same in Japan and Chinese…other times they’re quite different.
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I saw pandas a few times..but the closest ones I saw are HuanHuan and LekLek in Ocean Park in HK. They are sooo cute!
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Yes, panda’s are cute…but they’re usually asleep when I see them in a zoo.
BTW, I heard that in the Chinese language, panda means “Cat bear”.
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I guess you could say it’s…panda-monium!
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Hahaha.
In Japan, when a man our age makes a dry-humor joke like that, it’s called 「親父ギャグ」 (“Middle-age man’s gag“).
I do it often. 😉
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Yes, the 2 giant pandas had died a few months prior to our trip to Tokyo in 2008. We were sad, as we have never seen them in person.
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In 2008, there was only one panda in Ueno Zoo in Tokyo. “Ling-Ling“.
But it’s too bad you weren’t able to see him on your trip here.
You should come to Tokyo again next year to see the two new pandas.
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We were told that TONG TONG and LING LING had died a few months prior due to old age. They were 2 giant pandas and sorely missed.
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Tong-Tong was Ling-Ling‘s “girlfriend”…but she died about ten years ago.
Ling-Ling was alone in the zoo until he died two years ago.
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