Written by Katharina Mungall
Travel writer, photographer and architect
Ueno Zoo was never actually our plan. On the first morning of the Tokyo part of our honeymoon, Gary and I had breakfast in a café near our hotel and walked to Ueno Park to visit the Tokyo National Museum. The queue was gigantic. We had already been inside the museum on our first trip to Japan in 2015, so rather than stand in line for something we had seen before, we went to the zoo instead.
We visited on 22 May 2019. The personal experience in this article comes from that trip and an earlier walk through Ueno Park in September 2015; current practical details were checked against official information on 27 September 2026.
That is the most useful way to think about Ueno Zoo: a cheap, easy part of a day in Ueno rather than a destination you cross Tokyo for. And one big thing has changed since our visit. Japan’s last giant pandas left Ueno in January 2026, so the zoo’s most famous residents are no longer part of the deal.
The short answer
Yes, if you are already in Ueno Park and want an inexpensive couple of hours outdoors, if you are travelling with children, or if the museum queues are as bad as the one that turned us away. At ¥600 for adults, with primary-school-age children free, it is one of the cheapest big attractions in central Tokyo.
Skip it if giant pandas were the main reason you wanted to go, or if older city-zoo enclosures would spoil the day for you.
Ueno Zoo tickets, hours and key facts
| What you need to know | Current information |
|---|---|
| Admission | ¥600 adults; ¥300 aged 65+; ¥200 junior high students; free up to the end of primary school |
| Opening hours | 9.30am–5pm; tickets and entry until 4pm |
| Closed | Usually Mondays (the next day if Monday is a national holiday) and 29 December–1 January; some Mondays are special opening days, so check the live calendar |
| Free-entry days | 20 March, 4 May and 1 October, so expect crowds |
| Giant pandas | None since 27 January 2026; no replacement has been announced |
| Nearest gate | Main Gate, about 5 minutes from the Park Exit of JR Ueno Station |
Why the zoo worked as our plan B
Ueno Park is packed with big museums, and on a busy day the queues can make your plans for you. That is exactly what happened to us. The zoo sits in the same park, so switching cost us nothing but a change of mind.
Our first visit to the park, in September 2015, had been the classic version: a walk past Toshogu Shrine and the Bentendo temple on Shinobazu Pond, a panda-shaped sweet, then the main Honkan building of the Tokyo National Museum. Even that went slightly sideways, because the archaeology galleries were closed for renovation and Gary, who had been looking forward to them, was disappointed.
So by 2019 we knew the museum was worth doing once. What we wanted was something different, and the zoo gave us that without leaving Ueno. If you are building a Ueno day yourself, our five-day Tokyo itinerary pairs the park with Asakusa and an optional boat towards Odaiba. The Ueno, Asakusa and Odaiba day guide explains how to choose your Ueno stop and decide whether the sailing fits.
Is Ueno Zoo still worth visiting without the pandas?
This is the question most people are really asking now. Giant pandas first arrived at Ueno in 1972 and became the zoo’s symbol. Ri Ri and Shin Shin returned to China in September 2024, and their Tokyo-born twins, Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei, left on 27 January 2026. The pandas at Adventure World in Wakayama had already gone back in 2025, so Japan currently has no giant pandas at all, and there is no confirmed date for new arrivals.
If a panda photo was the whole point, I would put the ¥600 towards something else. But the zoo is a lot bigger than one enclosure. It opened in 1882 as Japan’s first zoo and now keeps roughly 2,500–3,000 animals from about 300 species, spread across two quite different halves.
The East Garden, on the hill near the Main Gate, has Gorilla Woods, Tiger Forest, the elephants, Bear Hill and the polar bears and seals. The West Garden, down beside Shinobazu Pond, has the African animals such as giraffes and hippos, the Aye-aye Forest and the Vivarium for reptiles and amphibians. Aye-ayes are not an animal you get to see in many zoos, so look for them if you like your wildlife slightly odd-looking.
Start at the Main Gate or the pond side?
Your entrance decides which animals you meet first. The Main Gate, about five minutes from the Park Exit of JR Ueno Station, brings you into the East Garden near the elephants and polar bears. Bentenmon Gate (five minutes from the Shinobazu Exit) and Ikenohata Gate (five minutes from Nezu Station on the Chiyoda Line) bring you in on the West Garden side.
The two halves are linked by a bridge and a slope. The little monorail stopped running in 2019 and formally closed in 2023. A free electric shuttle now connects the East and West gardens and gives priority to visitors who find the walk difficult; it can carry up to two wheelchairs. The route is only about 300 metres, but the slopes and wider zoo distances still add up.
Coming from the museums, the Main Gate is the obvious choice. If you are heading on towards Nezu or Yanaka afterwards, finishing at Ikenohata Gate saves you walking back through the park. The official Ueno Zoo access page has a map of all three gates.
A word about the enclosures
I have become more uneasy over the years about very large animals kept in limited space. The whale sharks at the Osaka Aquarium made me wonder whether their tank was really enough space for them, and that unease has grown rather than faded with time. I explain more in our comparison of Japan’s aquariums.
Ueno Zoo is a historic city zoo on a hillside in the middle of Tokyo, not a modern safari park, and some visitors come away feeling that parts of it have not kept pace. Go with realistic expectations. If that kind of thing bothers you, Ueno Park has plenty of other ways to spend the morning, from the museums to a walk round Shinobazu Pond.
How long do you need at Ueno Zoo?
Two to three hours covers the main areas of both gardens at a relaxed pace, and you could easily stretch that with children. Ticket sales and entry stop at 4pm and the zoo closes at 5pm, so start in the morning or by early afternoon if you want to see both halves properly.
Current prices and closures are on the official hours and admission page, and online tickets are available as well as the ticket office.
Is Ueno Zoo practical with children or limited mobility?
It is set up better for families than the hillside layout first suggests. The zoo has three nursing rooms, baby-changing facilities and pushchair hire for children aged seven months to four years (up to 18kg). Pushchairs currently cost ¥500 per day and the hire points take cash, so this is one of the rare Tokyo moments when a few coins still help.
Wheelchairs are available free on a first-come, first-served basis at the gates and East Garden information centre. The zoo says every exhibit can be reached by wheelchair, although some slopes are steep. Its accessibility page links to wheelchair, pushchair and sensory maps; use those before choosing a gate if walking distance, noise or strong smells affect your day.
Making a day of Ueno and beyond
The zoo works best as one part of a Ueno day. Choose the Tokyo National Museum if Japanese art and archaeology interest you (and get there early, because we know how that queue can look), then walk down to Shinobazu Pond and Bentendo. Asakusa is a short hop away if you want to follow the zoo with Senso-ji.
We did it differently in 2019. After the zoo we headed across town to Nakameguro, a neighbourhood we had never visited, for its retro shops, bike shops, cafés and bookshops. Dinner was pizza at Seirinkan, and even though we turned up as the doors opened, plenty of other people were already there. Then we walked back along the river.
If you are still deciding where to base yourself, Ueno is one of the areas we compare in our guide to where to stay in Tokyo.
So, should you go?
If you are in Ueno anyway, yes. For ¥600 you get a large, central zoo with gorillas, tigers, elephants, polar bears and aye-ayes, and an easy plan B when the museums are packed. It is particularly good value for families, because primary-school-age children get in free.
If pandas were the draw, or if older enclosures would take the fun out of it for you, skip it without guilt and spend the time in the museums or walking round the pond. For us it was simply the right answer to a queue we did not want to join. For a free and much greener side of central Tokyo, see whether Meiji Jingu is worth visiting, and if you have a spare day, our best day trips from Tokyo compares the ones we have actually done.
Have you been to Ueno Zoo since the pandas left? Let us know in the comments below.
