Osaka is mirror world Tokyo: people stand on the right side of the elevators, walk up the other side of the steps, sometimes walk on the right instead of the left, and the city is a bit more laid back. It lacks the sleek, polished vibe of Tokyo, but what it lacks in outer charm, it makes up for by having a weird mish-mosh of stuff to do.
Osaka Aquarium (Kaiyuukan)
I am a sucker for a good aquarium, especially aquariums abroad as they usually house fish I don’t see normally in the States. The Osaka Aquarium frequently tops world best lists and I was excited to get real with the fishes today.
It didn’t disappoint – it was a tall structure, and crews were busy hanging Christmas lights up front when we arrived.
It was located near Legoland so I did get to enjoy this giraffe:
The Village People Christmas was blasting from speakers near the entrance, which included some kind of Santa songs to the tune of YMCA and Macho Man. I could not.
We ran inside as fast as possible to get away from the christmas music, and up several floors to the top of the aquarium. They have a series of tanks and habitats which don’t appear to be very deep, but you soon discover that the tanks are all about four or five stories tall and different marine wildlife is visible on each floor as you wind your way down and around. It features zones such as the Pacific Northwest, Japan, Whale Shark and Stingray Land (I didn’t get the name of this one, ok!?), Great Barrier Reef, and other habitats.
On top of the tanks, they had otters (yay!), a capybara, and a few other mammals that rely on the water to live. They even had four types of penguins – yay!
We took a detour to Dotombori for kaitenzushi (sushi on a conveyor belt where you’re billed by the plate) for lunch. It was divine.
Osaka Castle
Yesterday was Himeji, with its fully restored and entirely wooden inside. Today was Osaka Castle. Osaka Castle looks like it might be like Himeji inside since the outside is beautifully redone and maintained, but it’s not. It’s a modern, sleek museum inside, displaying artifacts on the history of the castle, many dating back to the mid-1600s or earlier. Toyotomi Hideyoshi and the Tokugawas would be rolling in their collective graves.
They had dioramas on battles at the castle, and old gold leaf screens depicting warriors and their clans clashing for great justice. The level of detail on the screens was incredible, allowing historians to identify over twenty generals and leaders on the golden battlefield. Alas, pictures were not allowed on these floors.
In the evening, we went to the Umeda Sky Tower, which is a convenient eight minute walk from our apartment. My bedroom even overlooks it. It looks like it’s a space ship launchpad or a teleporter of some sort, with its giant observation deck with a hole in the middle. It vaguely reminded me of the Hyperion satellite from Borderlands 2 – it is almost an H shape.
In between the two towers was….a German Christmas Market. Yep. Of all the things I was expecting to find at the base, that was definitely not one of them. I guess I should have not been surprised because Japan.
We ate our fill of wieners and pretzels (which are hard enough to say in English, deciphering the Japanese signs was exciting and confusing) and gluhwein and trundled up to the top of the tower. It was an outdoor observation deck and raining, and while it was very beautiful, it was cold and wet and relatively unpleasant.
And now if someone asks me, “What did you do in Osaka?” I will tell them I went to a German Christmas Market, of course!