Today, was our first full day in Osaka, Japan. We had a great morning, sleeping in until 9am Saipan time, which is actually 8pm Osaka time. Our Hotel has a deal worked out with a small cafe' (Marunaka) nearby and for $350 yen a person can receive their choice of coffee, milk, tomato juice, or orange juice with two large slices of buttered bread and a hard boiled egg. It isn't much, but it kept us going for the morning. Amazingly the coffee was not bad at all! The rest of the morning we got ready for the day and decided that today would be the day we visit the Osaka Aquarium mainly because it is one of the largest in the world. The Japanese name for the aquarium is Kaiyukan and it means "Playing in the Sea Pavillion." While visiting the aquarium we saw many wonderful tanks full of sea life. My three favorite tanks were the large tank, which held a "whale shark," the sardine/anchovy tank (so many of them!), and the Giant Spider Crab tank (they look like the baby aliens from the movie "aliens"). Kara really enjoyed the beautiful scenes and seeing King Penguins walking around outside and drawing people to the aquarium. After the aquarium we went to the attraction right next to it, the "The Giant Tempozan Ferris wheel."
The Ferris wheel is a major attraction in Osaka and at can be seen at night glowing green. Kara and I had a lot of fun spending our 15minutes in the air looking over Osaka Bay and seeing from a new vantage point. The height of this wheel is 112.5 meters or approx. 369 feet. It was a romantic 15 minute chance to sit down and relax after walking about the aquarium. After the Ferris wheel, we went into the shopping mall right next to it. We went in and looked a few shops. One thing I found interesting is that they call shopping malls, "shopping arcades."
We didn't find much to buy except for a gray hat for Kara as it is cold and we couldn't find a hat for her in Saipan.
After walking around we decided to head home. That was the majority of our day. We did go out and look for a place to eat dinner, however, and found a local diner with a lot of people inside and we went in for some food. Kara tried her order, but didn't like the taste so I asked for a to go bowl and brought it back to our hotel room's mini-fridge instead of letting it go to waste it will be my dinner tomorrow (there is a microwave in the lobby). Before the diner we did look at some other places, one place was closed until 730pm and another we thought might be a shopping area turned out to be a large video lottery facility, so we promptly left that area. Now, as I am finishing this blog it is time for me to go to bed. Much rest is needed. Again, this is Grant, signing off.
p.s. the pictures are of the Ferris wheel, Kara and I in front of the aquarium, Kara with Giant Spider Crab, and me with my vegetables and seafood over a bed of rice (nice and steamy hot), oh and don't let me forget to let you know that Santa even visits the fish at the Osaka Aquarium over the Christmas season haha (where is his beard? A fish must have nibbled it away)
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