Tennoji & Tsutenkaku

We woke up a little later than hoped, and after a little deliberation, got dressed and headed to the Tennoji zoo. It was about 3 blocks away and about 15$ for the whole family, so it was an easy sell.

The zoo was pretty good as zoos go, a decent variety of animals, some focus on Japanese animals, of course, which is fun.

Once again, the vibe was of the 80s and 90s when people used to throw good to the animals, which made them excited to see people, which brought them out of their little houses.

I'm torn on whether this is a good or bad thing. The purpose of a zoo is to show animals to people, and we saw more animals than most zoos I've been to. That said, it's probably worse for them, food wise. That said, being in a zoo is kind of terrible. Tough to say.

It was only 90°s today, so the sunblock was mostly effective and after seeing all of the animals, we grabbed a quick lunch at the zoo cafe.

Charlie declined getting another super long hot dog, this time disguised as a giraffe.

We slept off the morning sun and headed out into the Tsutenkaku neighborhood. Named for a 108m Hitachi tower that replaced a wooden tower replica that burned during the war, the neighborhood is now all arcade/carnival games and little shops with crazy signs, similar to Dotonburi.

We headed to Kura sushi, an old family favorite, and it was different from home, but still fun and the whole family got stuffed on sushi for less than 100$.

We headed home to watch a movie and pack up for the long travel day to Takayama tomorrow.