Day 15: Race Around Osaka

DID: Osaka in one (very hot) day. Started with the castle, then over to the aquarium (the largest in the world), then the big ferris wheel, boat over to universal studios, wandered around universal city, crashed.

Where Kyoto was very shy and private with its charms, Osaka lays it all out there. I was sad we only had a day to spend (and even at that we were mostly in the tourist complex with the aquarium/universal.) Much more my style. Liked it from the second we arrived at the central train station. Packed with people, street food, interesting shops, energy, and lots of young women (even some men!) with big smiles for Rhys and Gavin. Stark contrast to older/conservative Kyoto.

Gavin was very interested in ‘following the emperor’s maze’ (as we called it) to the top of the castle.  At least it kept him from asking the normal series of questions: ‘are we there yet? How many steps? What do I have to count to until we are there? Why does Rhys get to ride in the stroller?’ Several moats, ramparts, bridges, sentry towers etc to check out on the way. Best part was that for $4 he got to dress up in a samurai uniform.

The aquarium was very interesting. You take a long ride up a steep (STEEP!) escalator – kind of the like the first up hill on a roller coaster  - to the top floor of the building then work your way down in a spiral. Smaller tanks along the outer walls wind around a huge floor-ceiling tank in the core of the building. Largest fish I’ve ever seen indoors. Particularly unique because you get to see the top/middle/bottom dwellers in depth as you make your way down. There was also a shark/manta ray petting tank which was a lot of fun. Not as artistically done as the Seoul aquarium.

We then took a spin on the ferris wheel which is “one of the 3 tallest in Japan”. We see a lot of this ‘one of the 3…’ around here – very superlative-shy.  It did take us to literally dizzying heights (at least I was dizzy). This could be because Rhys insisted on jumping in the car causing it to swing and bounce right as we were reaching the apex…

Toyed with going into the Universal Studios park but by the time we got there it was only open another 2 hours. $60/each (and this was just for the twilight ticket!) seemed a bit much. Had dinner in Universal City hoping that there would be some characters wandering around or other activities but they do a good job saving the fun stuff just for the park. They did have a Museum of Takoyaki (the octopus balls we ate in Nara) which was interesting to one of us.

The Japanese aversion to the sun is even more obvious in Osaka than Kyoto. The women somehow make arm warmers and elbow-length gloves fashionable – even in the summer heat!  They also wear black leggings and not just knee length ones – full length ones but with stir-ups. Absolutely no places for eating/drinking outside. In spite of harbor location of the aquarium/universal, most of the stuff to do is indoors (there are no nice harbor walkways etc.)

ATE: Pretty boring food day, it must be said – but today was more about convenience than anything else. Breakfast pastries from a café on the way to the train, tried to find a Lotteria (Japanese burger chain) for lunch but failed. Gavin had been promised fries (he’s tired of rice) so we had no choice but McDonalds. Incidentally, the happy meals prizes were really good. Jason and I had gyoza and beer at a small booth near the aquarium, no complaints from me! Ramen at a restaurant in Universal City. Jason’s came with wontons in the soup, mine with gyoza.

SLEPT: another great night in the Simmons beautyrest at the Unizo.