Japan Trip - Day 4

Today, we went to Osakako to visit the Osaka Aquarium in Osaka Bay area.

It was amazing.

But unfortunately, it was raining as soon as the subway approached the Bay area. We bought umbrellas at Lawsons (a popular convenience store in Japan).

We ate lunch at the restaurant on the second floor called “Harbour View”. I had the “special curry hamburger beef with set meal A” which included a potage soup and a drink. It was yummy! I noticed a horrifying trend; I have been eating a lot of curry on this trip. Wonder why? (hmm…)

In the Aquarium, it was tank after tank of these cool species of animals from otters to the jellyfish. The main attraction and star of the Aquarium is the whale shark. It was so cute that I ended up buying a mini stuff plushy of a smiling whale shark. Viewing of the tanks starts at the top of the escalator and you go down from there. Between floor levels, there were signs saying where the area of water is located and its latitude, longitude, and temperature.

Descriptions of animals were also labeled by the tanks. I rented a portable English-speaking guide which hangs around your neck and you listen to a narrator through one earpiece. Unfortunately, my earpiece always fell out of my ear so I gave up on wearing it. My brother-in-law’s earpiece was fine but for some reason, the narrator was speaking in Japanese and not in English. ;p

There was a demonstration by the staff in the seal tank. The seals put on a little show for the visitors by clapping and twirling around. The manta ray was huge, both in physical size and stardom. It had a small shark riding him upside down and the same thing was happening to the whale shark. There are some serious lazy fish out there! :) The sun fish and porcupine fish were hilarious to look at. They are very sensitive to the sun so no one was allowed to use the flash on their camera around those tanks (although I didn’t see the sign till my brother-in-law pointed it out but I swear I only used the flash once). There were turtles in one tank but they were sleeping and hiding so it was hard to take photos of them. The octopus with their suckers against the tank wall was so funny to look at. ;p It was so difficult to get any good photos of the whale shark till the last floor. I took some really nice photos (finally!). The Japanese crabs were freaking scary to look at. They were huge and had some really long legs. Definitely not cute nor cuddly… The last exhibit was the jellyfish and they were so odd yet wonderful to look at. I took a video clip of one tank of jellyfish that changed their colour every few seconds or so.

My travel mates and I parted ways at the end of the Aquarium walk. They wanted to go back to Namba to shop while I wanted to explore more of the Osaka Bay area since I already paid for the one-day metro pass. We started out to the Aquarium at 11am and we finished the tour around 3:45pm. Fortunately it stopped raining but was still muggy and damp.

While they headed back to Namba, I bought a ticket for the 50minute Santa Maria Cruise around the Bay area. It was really nice and comfortable. I sat inside the ship but I wanted the top of the boat (the seats at the top were soaked). There was a family of three sitting in front of me speaking in my dialect. I spoke to them during the cruise and they told me of the places they’ve been to already such as the Trade Centre.

The Cruise ended at quarter to five and since the sun hasn’t set yet, I bought a ticket for the 15minute Ferris wheel ride. It was cool to be so high up and looking down. The Ferris wheel (according to the sign) is the tallest Ferris wheel in the world. Now everything will seem so small in comparison. (haha)

Afterwards, I went to the Tempozan Marketplace which is a three-storey complex of shopping stores and restaurants. I went to a 100yen store at the Marketplace but I didn’t like what they had. Actually, I think the one-dollar stores in my home city are better.

At around quarter past six, I took the subway back to the hotel in Namba. By the time I got back to the hotel, it was 6:50pm and my travel mates were not back yet from shopping, so I went out to dinner by myself at the same place as last night. I had the dumpling set meal. It was delicious but so spicy that I am currently drinking my fifth cup of Chinese tea to settle my stomach.

Tomorrow is another huge and tiring day for us. We are traveling to Nara for a full day trip via the rail system. This should be interesting. It’ll be the first time for us to travel by rail. Cool… deer park, here I come!!