Sunday, October 5--Don't Feed the Monkeys

Off to Tokyo today, on a combined adventure. I wanted to go to the zoo, and Jim and Rudy had been plotting for days to find Shakey’s Pizza. First, to the Ueno Zoo. I visited the zoo when we were here last summer, and thought it would be a nice place to take Jim and Rudy now that the weather has turned cooler. Didn’t know till we had been walking around the zoo for nearly three hours that Jim isn’t a huge fan of zoos—if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. Oops. Duly noted.

I enjoyed it though, and since my camera battery died right after taking pictures of the giant panda (first exhibit when you enter the zoo) last summer, I was glad to get a second walk-through. Good thing I got those panda photos last year…the zoo’s only panda died this past April. See this year’s pictures in the Ueno Zoo photo album (link on right).

Now starving, we got back on the train and went to Shibuya (another district of Tokyo) where Rudy swore a Shakey’s Pizza was located (he’d seen it on a previous trip to the city, and thought he had committed its location to memory). We walked half a dozen blocks out of each of the train station’s four exits and could not find it. We finally found some other Americans on the crowded sidewalk and asked them if they had any idea where it was. They excitedly said, “Yes, we just ate there—if you hurry you can still make the buffet!” Elated, we asked where it was—only to find out it wasn’t in this part of town. We’d have to get back on the train and go up another stop. Too hungry to continue the hunt, we retreated to the train station and settled for tonkatsu (a battered and fried pork cutlet, served on a huge bed of shredded cabbage, with sides of steamed rice and miso soup). I’m not sure anything ever tasted so delicious!

Rudy promises to do more research on the exact location of Shakey’s and take us there on our next trip to Tokyo.