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☆

大阪 part 1

Hey everyone.

Look at this! I'm finally updating! And I only have a month left so I'm going to finish up my blog before I go home. I hope I can do it!

Let's start off with the LONG over-due trip about Osaka from when I went back in FEBRUARY! I'm sorry it's taken so long. There's been a lot going on in my life recently, so please forgive me!

I don't remember every detail as clearly as if I had just come back, but I'll do my best. Also, on the bright side, my camera can be read by my computer again so I'm able to put pictures up along with my stories!

We got to Osaka easily from Kyoto. It was a short train ride away and found the hotel rather easily as well. It was VERY windy and a little unnerving, but we were excited upon learning that our hotel had an onsen we could use for FREE in it! Onsen (温泉) is a public bath (separated for sexes) that goes through an amazing little procedure before you actually get in. First you have to wash yourself COMPLETELY outside the bath. I mean like the hair, the butt, the body, everything. And you're next to people while you do this. Onsen in hotels have towels and washing material provided for you, but small ones on its own require you to bring your own stuff. you can't go in if you have a tattoo (unless you can cover it up) because tattoos in Japan are VERY taboo. Most of the time people associate you to the Yakuza (Japanese mob). Also, no running, talking in loud voices, or drinking before coming in. This is a giant room full of hot HOT water (sometimes even having saunas), so it's not a good idea to do that. This is a place to relax and feel totally clean.

Anyways, we were starving so we wandered for awhile to find a small cafe and eat some lunch. We rested up for a bit at the hotel before we found our way at the main station of all of Osaka and one of the most famous places in Japan! I was shocked! We had found it by accident!

The name of the area we were at. It's near a train station so everyone calls it Nanba.
It was selling Takoyaki (fried ocotopus)! So good! Osaka is FAMOUS for it's food.
17 stories of shops! Awesome! And shiny.
This is a famous crab sign as it moves and was one of the first in Japan to be made. There are shops like it all over Japan now.
Osaka is extremely famous for Fuku (puffer fish), but I'll never try it. Puffer fish is the most deadly meal ever because, if not prepared correctly, it can kill you. Puffer fish are actually poisonous and every year, no matter what, people die from it.
Another section we stumbled upon that's VERY famous! It was awesome! The nightlife is crazy here!
This is a spa.
One thing Osaka is known for is it's "craziness" compared to the REST of Japan. There was a show a few years back that showed the difference between the West (Osaka) and the East (Tokyo). A man with a fake sword ran up to people in Tokyo and pretended to be a samurai, slicing and dicing at them. The people in Tokyo either walked away or stared and walked away. But when this same test was done in Osaka, the people played along, even going so far as to put on a little show.
I saw this for sure as there were a LOT more drunk people and tons more places to eat and hang out or gamble. It was great.
Another thing that Osaka is well known for is their love of sports, mainly baseball. This river is where fans jump into a lot when the Hanshin Tigers (Osaka's baseball team) wins the World Series. They do it often. It's really hysterical to see it when it happens.
This is the world's first neon light AD ever made. It's still in use and is an extremely famous icon in and outside Japan.
IT'S A GIANT BEER AD!
Osaka reminded me a bit of Texas in the sense that "everything's better..." or "everything's bigger..." kind of mindset.
So after Nanba, we went home to sleep.

The next day, there was an amusement park nearby that I really wanted to go to, but some of the group wanted to go see Osaka Castle first. So we split up and some of us went to the amusement park while the others went to Osaka Castle. We trucked through that blasted wind for hours or so because we got lost. We found this place....AND IT WAS CLOSED!

But I took a picture just to SHOW that I got to this actual place!
CURSE YOU FUNLAND!!!

Anyways, so next up is Osaka Castle!
The inside wasn't much to scream about as it was mainly explaining the life of Tokugawa and... I already know about that dude. Yay, all right... He unified Japan. Sweet beans.

The outside, though, was beautiful and there was a lot of mystery to just the stone walls surrounding it!
The rocks inside the inner wall are HUGE and one of them weighs over 2 tons and yet was able to be dragged with the same procedure as the blocks in Egypt were to make the pyramids. However, they have NO idea where these stones came from and in that perfect of condition.
So here's the actual castle. It's an extremely famous landmark of Japan (I'd have to say the second or third most iconic symbol of Japan).
A close-up of the detail. Yes, that's real gold. The tigers are symbols to protect the citizens of Osaka.

(Please go to part 2 to see what happens next! I'm not allowed to put up anymore pictures in this post...tragic.)

~星子☆