Part of my Throwback Thursday Series…
Some old photographs preserve more than a destination. They preserve a moment when your world suddenly became much bigger.
In 1995, I took my first-ever international trip, traveling all the way to Tokyo, Japan. Everything about the experience felt new—the language, architecture, food, culture and simply the realization that I was standing on the other side of the world.
Among the places I visited was Ueno Zoo, and nearly three decades later, my photographs from that day have become much more interesting to me than I ever could have imagined when I took them.
More Than a Zoo
Opened in 1882, Ueno Zoo was Japan’s first zoological garden. But one of the things that makes it particularly fascinating is how closely it is intertwined with the history surrounding Ueno Park.
I certainly wasn’t thinking about that in 1995.
I was taking vacation pictures.
One photograph captures the magnificent Former Kan’ei-ji Temple Five-Storied Pagoda, which still stands within Ueno Zoo today. The current pagoda dates to 1639, replacing an earlier pagoda destroyed by fire. Today it is designated an Important Cultural Property of Japan.
Think about that for a moment: when I photographed it in 1995, I was pointing my camera at a building that was already more than 350 years old.
And more than 30 years later, it’s still there.
That’s one of the things I love most about revisiting old travel photographs. Something I photographed simply because I thought it was beautiful has become a personal record of a place with centuries of history.
And Then There Were the Pandas
Of course, one of my photographs that immediately takes me back to Ueno Zoo is my picture of a giant panda happily surrounded by bamboo.
Pandas had already been part of Ueno Zoo’s identity for decades when I arrived. Japan’s first giant pandas, Kang Kang and Lan Lan, came to Ueno in 1972 and quickly became enormously popular.
By the time of my 1995 visit, the zoo’s panda story had entered another chapter. Ling Ling, a male giant panda born at Beijing Zoo, arrived at Ueno Zoo in 1992 and lived there until his death in 2008. That makes it possible that the panda in my photograph is Ling Ling, although without additional records or identifying information, I wouldn’t claim that definitively.
What I can say is that photographing a giant panda at Ueno in 1995 captured a tradition that would eventually span more than half a century.
And in 2026, that story changed dramatically.
Ueno’s final two giant pandas, Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei, returned to China in January 2026, leaving the zoo without giant pandas for the first time in decades. The aging East Garden panda facility—built in 1988 and therefore already standing when I visited—is also being removed.
Suddenly, my old panda photograph isn’t merely a zoo picture.
It’s a little piece of Ueno Zoo history.
Ueno Zoo: 1995 vs. 2026
The pandas aren’t the only difference I would notice if I returned today.
The Ueno Zoo Monorail, which transported generations of visitors between the East and West Gardens, stopped operating in 2019 and was formally abolished in 2023.
Animal habitats and visitor facilities have evolved. Exhibits have been modernized. The Tokyo skyline surrounding Ueno has continued to change.
Yet amid all that change, some remarkable pieces of the past remain.
The five-storied pagoda I photographed is still standing.
Nearby, Shinobazu Pond and Bentendō remain part of the Ueno landscape I explored during that trip. Today I understand their connection to the historic Kan’ei-ji temple complex in a way I certainly didn’t when I first encountered them.
That contrast fascinates me.
What I Would See Differently Today
If I returned to Ueno now, I wouldn’t experience it the same way.
In 1995, I saw a beautiful pagoda.
Today, I’d see a structure dating to 1639 and want to study every architectural detail.
In 1995, I photographed a panda because—well, it was a giant panda in Tokyo!
Today, I’d recognize that photograph as part of a remarkable era in Ueno Zoo’s history that has now come to an end.
Back then, I was capturing memories.
Today, I’d be looking for stories.
And perhaps that is the biggest difference of all.
The Trip That Started It
There’s another reason these photographs will always be special to me.
Japan was my first international trip.
I couldn’t have known in 1995 where travel would eventually take me or how much photography and discovering new places would become part of my life.
But somewhere among these photographs of pandas, temples, pagodas and Tokyo streets was the beginning of something.
I’d love to return to Ueno with these photographs in hand—not simply to see what’s changed, but to search for the places that haven’t.
I’d find that pagoda.
I’d stand where I stood in 1995.
And I’d take the photograph again.
Because sometimes the best reason to return somewhere isn’t to recreate the past.
It’s to see just how far both you and the place have traveled since then.
Throwback Thursday: Have you ever returned to a destination decades after your first visit? Did you find yourself noticing the changes—or searching for the things that somehow stayed the same?
