Weekend Adventure in Osaka

Now, Russell has been working at home these last few months and while I think it was going well for him when he was using Internet at the school where I work, since he has had Internet at home, he has been developing some serious cabin fever. He has been combating this by running in the mornings after he finishes with teleconferences, but he's still often pretty house happy by the time I get home. This weekend, we both agreed it was time to get out of Kobe. We didn't go far - but we did manage to spend an entire day in Osaka. 

The main draw to Osaka as the aquarium. I had heard that it was outstanding and not to be missed, but previous trips had been taken over by guitar shopping. Not this time. The aquarium was our first stop - almost. We arrived around lunch, so we ducked into an all-you-can-eat vegetarian buffet (incidentally, all-you-can-eat buffet's in Japan are referred to as "Vikings"). 

So next we went to the aquarium - I will mostly let the pictures tell the story. To set it up, the first thing you do when you walk in the door is take a picture with the giant plastic shark. These pictures are professional (similar to the kinds taken on roller coasters) and you can pick your picture up when you exit for a jaw-dropping fee. Russell and I played foreigner and bypassed the line as if we didn't understand. 

Once we got into the proper aquarium, we went up and up and up an escalator. At the top of the display were a variety of sea mammals - river otters, sea otters, seals, dolphins, etc . Very cute, as is the prerequisite. The cool thing about this aquarium, though, was that it was modeled after the Pacific Rim and each ecosystem had a common mammal at the top and then deeper and deeper ecosystems (still in the same pool, but deeper down) as you descended. This meant that sometimes the mammals from above would decide to play and you would see them again deeper in the water - but it also it gave an idea of how the ocean changed as you went farther and farther down. It was a very cool effect. So anyway, on to the pictures:

Here some other aquarium patrons were playing with an octopus. The octopus was following their finger. Its amazing to see them move in the water. Incidentally, I had heard rumors that instead of saying "pretty" when they see tropical fish, Japanese children say, "oishii!" or "tasty!" I never heard this during our trip this weekend, but the girl playing with the octopus did say, "kawaii!" or "cute!"


The main attraction at this aquarium is the center aquarium. It is about three stories deep, and is in the very center of the building. You continue to skirt the tank for most of the aquarium and it is filled with huge schools of fish, enormous sharks and sting rays. It was also feeding time when we arrived, so we got to watch a scuba diver taunting the rays with dead squid (yes, they were hand fed - note the picture.)

This fellow was enjoying doing summersaults through the bubbles put off by the scuba diver. He pretty much just looped and looped and looped and looped. Sometimes he would come out of his reverie and change directions, but then back to looping. He was one happy, happy ray. I don't remember if you can see it in this pictures, but there was a fish hovering just over his back that would do all the loops with him. At first I thought he was trying to dislodge the fish, but in the end I didn't get the impression that the fish was attached.

This isn't one of my more dramatic photos, but its one of my favorite displays. Sardines and anchovies in large numbers. I have seen such displays in other aquariums before, and I can spend hours watching them dash around and around a tank in huge droves. Its hypnotizing. Unfortunately, the seating areas were in other parts of the aquarium - or perhaps fortunately, since I would probably still be there if I could have gotten comfortable.
Near the center tank was another, smaller, but equally deep tank that housed a variety of tropical fish and HUGE SEA TURTLES. It was feeding time for them too, so we watched as the turtles munched down on squid that were slowly thrown into the pool and then the fish around them would eat the bits that the turtles didn't finish chewing. If the fish at one level missed a bit of squid or sardine, the fish at the next level would get it. The biggest turtle got first dibs on what entered the tank, and the smaller turtle mostly hung out towards the bottom of the dank and ate what made it past the bigger turtle.

These fellows were especially fun to watch. They were in a huge school in the center tank. Under normal conditions, they were sleek and fish-like (for lack of a better description), but then they would suddenly change directions as if of one mind and unhinge their jaws into SILVER BANSHEES. It was hard to catch this in a pictures, but you can see a contrast between the open and closed mouth fish. As far as I could tell, the open mouths were a feeding technique - Its certainly what I would do at meal time.


And what would a good Japanese attraction be without an extensive souvenir shop? Here you can see the sea-life shaped utensils on display. Excellent.

After the aquarium, Russell and I went back toward the center of the city (the aquarium is more on the outside downtown by the docks). We were both tired of being on our feet so we enjoyed and ENORMOUS parfait complete with fruit, vanilla and matcha ice cream, fresh fruit on top, whipped cream and a cherry. After that, still not relishing spending any more time on our feet and yet also wanting to hang around long enough to enjoy dinner in Osaka ('cause what else do you focus on after a viking and a parfait the size of a house??) we decided to watch a movie. We had already come to terms with paying Japan prices to watch Star Trek. We had heard it was good, and while it seemed to be everything I would expect to dislike in a Hollywood movie, we had heard so many recommendations, that we decided to see it. It also seemed best suited to the big screen, so we gave up and paid the $18 each to see it. Granted, its a lot of money, but the experience of going to a movie in Japan is much superior to that of the U.S. The seats are more vertical (like newer fancier theaters in the U.S.) you have reserved seating, there are theatre workers everywhere to guide you, clean up after you and wish you well after the show, and the theaters are truly spotless. Not that I plan to go often (or possibly ever again) but it was fun to go once. In terms of the movie, I was very impressed. While a few parts seemed somewhat overdone for the sake of playing with the CG - it was clever, entertaining, and respectful of the original - even though the characters were recast to be played by younger actors. I expect to see many more movies in the franchise.

After the movie, it was finally dinner time. After so many hours in an aquarium, how could we eat anything other than sushi? We found a kaiten sushi joint (carousel sushi) and dug in. The fish was, as I'm sure you can guess, tastier and fresher than what I am used to in the U.S. and all of the plates on the carousel were only $1.30. Russell and I each polished off more than ten plates and were quite pleased. For those of you who have never tried kaiten sushi, the sushi chefs prepare a variety of sushi and put them on plastic plates which are then arranged on a moving carousel. The diners sit on the outside of the carousel and grab whatever they want off as it shuffles by. At the end, the waiter counts your plates and you pay accordingly. Definitely an entertaining way to eat.