Sunday, December 2, 2012

Kansai 2012 Day 5 - Osaka-Jo, Kaiyukan & The Monocle Shop in Umeda.

Although we knew it was going to be a wet day today (according to online weather reports), we set off without a brolly as it was nice and crispy in the morning. We figured that since today was aquarium day, we'd be pretty safe if it rains. We had breakfast at Kinryu ramen, Jamie said it was acceptable but i thought it sucked. In our rush to board the train, i almost stepped into the women only carriage. How interesting THAT would be huh? Walking past the Osaka-Jo stadium, i spotted this Luna Sea poster. Too bad there's no way to just rip it off and run away. These trucks will probably have some poster images splashed on them soon. As we headed towards the Osaka castle, Jamie decides to levitate instead of walk. Osaka castle in view! We saw this mixed dachshund on the way up and wondered if this is what will happen if Chiro and Momo had a baby. Cute though. Arty Farty shot. >.< Spotted this Garfield cat as i was walking around, soon after i took this shot, a really big crowded started forming around and taking pictures of the cat. We decided not to pay to go in since museums are not really our thing. We took some parting shots and went on our way to the aquarium. The walk back to the train station took longer then expected though. But it was a nice walk through a park. Jamie thought some bits of the park looked like North Korea. It started to drizzle on our way to the Kaiyukan and Jamie found yet another brolly while on the train! Inside the Kaiyukan, you start off by going all the way up and making your way down. There were other creatures besides the fish. Like this funny otter. They looked like the doggies of the sea. Other "landed" creatures. The fuzzy thing on top is supposed to be the largest species of rats in the World. I won't disagree, it's bigger than Chiro or Momo! Big ass freshwater monster above. I wouldn't want to encounter one of those while swimming. The penguins were all literally just chilling out. Stingrays always look like there are smiling. Here's what a sotong looks like when it's not on a plate. Turtle looking at Jamie. The big one, a whale shark. Although i was kind of expecting something bigger, but that's just being greedy right? This bugger was already pretty huge. We managed to see it getting fed and seeing this big fish swim almost vertically upwards is pretty cool. You can literally see it suck up a huge amount of water as it feeds, this water gets pushed out from the gills (i think) just as quickly. Like a giant hoover... with gills... Just for scale. A sample of the acrylic used in the big tank. About 30cm thick. Supposedly the amont of acrylic used in the biggest tank exceeds the total annual acrylic output volume. Some other creatures of the deep. The octopus after moving around for a bit fell asleep right in front of us. Zzz... This guy's just chilling out too i guess. Jamie likes jellyfishes, but i think they are freaky. No brains, stinging tentacles. Not a big fan. As we were leaving the Kaiyukan it started to really really pour down, so we were sort of stuck and decided to visit the gift shop. With the rain not relenting, and the brolly pretty much useless in such heavy rain, we decided to take a short cab ride to the train station. At least we stayed mostly dry. Heading back into Umeda, i pestered Jamie to the nearby Yodabashi Camera, although large, the toy section here still does not compare with the Akiba joint. I picked up some accessories for the camera though. We also picked up dinner here. Omu-rice. The servings we BIG! Lesson learnt, when in Japan, trust the size of the window displays. We popped by the HEP-5 shopping centre and walked around the underground malls. Remembering there was a Monocle Shop in the Umeda Hankyu, we headed in to find it. With help from the information counter of course. They had some interesting stuff but the prices were well, out of our range at that moment. There was also a cafe, but i guess since it was almost closing time, there was nobody there. Jamie trying on some clothes before we headed back to Namba. As it was somewhat late and we were somewhat tired, we headed back to our room for some nice rest. Tomorrow we shop!

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