I would have to say: give the Ueno Zoological Gardens a miss. The fact that we visited it at a time of vivid yellows and browns enhanced its charm. And it was awesome that the zoo personnel somehow ensured that the two pandas were fervently eating bamboo during my visit. (Must not have been easy to arrange that, given that pandas sleep for long hours.) However, it was troubling to see many animals trapped in their cages. Some of these animals only had one representative, so it must have been lonely for it to live its days without any company. Also, after waiting for 1.5 hours to view the pandas, we still had to wait for 15 mins to observe the hippos. There are better zoos than this, including the Singapore Zoological Gardens.