大阪 part 2

Starting from where I last left off.

View from the top of the castle.
I HAD TO! It's the Osaka edition of Monopoly! I almost bought it, but I got two awesome Osaka Castle.

The next day we headed to the aquarium. I'm pretty sure it either is or WAS the largest aquarium in the world. Still, it was pretty epic. The creator of it centered the design of it and the fish in it to be about the Ring of Fire. I was VERY excited to see an entire section devoted to San Fransisco and Monterey Bay. It felt like home. It didn't help that I was having horrible homesickness.

The way the aquarium was you'd go up to the 8th floor or so and go in circle downwards. While it was kind of the same exact exhibit over and over again, the cool part was you saw the same thing, but from different points of view. When we got to the bottom of the large tank where the world's only captive whale shark lives, I stayed in the same spot, listening to the music, and swaying from side to side with the water and seaweed. It was very relaxing and for a moment, I thought of the Kelp Forest back at Monterey Bay.

The outside of the aquarium.
YAY!
Alaskan otters. THEY'RE GIANT!
So cute! This was on the third floor. First floor was the top, second was just at the water line.
The biggest rodent! It's so cute!
WHALE SHARK! It's huuuuuge! There were two of them! The second was a baby. Technically, they're both babies or else they wouldn't fit in the tank, but yeah...
A manta ray! I've always wanted to see one! :D
MY FAVORITE FISH IN THE ENTIRE WORLD! SUUUUUUN FISH!!! This place had 3 OF THEM! But they were all babies. Still! They're so cute and funny!
They had San Francisco sea lions! It was a week later when I was told that they no longer live in SF bay and are now living in Oregon. Tragic...
This is where I stayed for like 15 minutes just looking up. You can hardly see the other side of the walkway. It was incredibly relaxing.
THE HAPPIEST FISH EVER!
It's name says harisenbon. Don't know what that is...
FIGHTING CRABS! It was amazing because they just faught in the middle in slow motion and the other crabs hid up against the glass like, "HELP US! GET US OUT OF HERE!" But one sat and watched and had this aura about him like, "Don't mess with me or I'll kick your butt". The slow motion fight made me think of Diamonds Are Forever when they chase James Bond in the Moon Landing reenactment and the moon walkers (that aren't really on the moon) chase him in slow motion like they are. It's hilarious.

Finally, once done, we headed to Osaka's small version of Akihabara in Tokyo called Denden town. We took a left and ended up in the wrong area, but somehow STILL landed in a very famous part of Osaka. I think it just follows us, famous landmarks and what not.
The symbol of Osaka is that tower. This area was full of food, gambling, and people (as you can see). If we weren't tired from walking or cold as all hell (Osaka is a port city), we'd have had a great time, but most of us just wanted to get the heck out of there and to Denden town.

We wandered a little while more and I got excited because I finally found the vending machines that sell cigarettes AND alcohol. I've seen one or the other, but not both together! I knew my family would want to see it, so I took pictures for them. HERE THEY ARE! PROOF THEY EXIST!
YES!

Okay, so we eventually FOUND Denden town (we should've taken a RIGHT), but by that time, my camera had died and I was tired.

This ends my trip of Osaka as nothing exciting happened after that. It was a 3 hour bus ride back home and the day we went home was my birthday and I was flying back to the States for 2 weeks.

My next post will be about spring and cherry blossoms coming in. I went to 花見！Don't worry, this update will come a lot faster.

See ya next time!

~星子☆