The next day I woke up feeling slightly better than death warmed over. My sore throat which had shown up on Monday in Fuji-Yoshida had now erupted into full-blown miscellaneous cold/flu-ness. However, this was our last day of exploration before we were planning to head back to Misawa, so I ventured forth anyway! Especially considering this day we had planned something I had been looking forward to in particular; visiting Osaka Aquarium!
We took the subway to Kaiyuka.
We walked what seemed like miles (my fluid-addled brain may have exaggerated the length of the journey) through streets of vendors trying to sell their wares. The media had blown the radiation and earthquake damage so much out of proportion that Osaka, who gets something like 80% of their income from tourists, was hurting badly - we were pretty much the only gaijin in sight. Keep in mind Osaka is some 200 miles away from the actual affected earthquake area, and yet we saw signs in English promising their goods to be "100% radiation free!"
We crossed by a pack of teenage or adolescent boys who shouted out "Lady Gaga!" as we walked by. I still don't know what to think about that. Coming closer to the aquarium we saw "Tempozan Daikanransha", one of the biggest ferris wheels in the world!
Michael got a chance to Free Willy!
Here is the aquarium (check out the crowds):
The aquarium was set up in a way that led you in circles around the building that gradually got higher and higher. Each segment of the circle represented a different area of the volcanic ring. The main exhibit, however, was astonishing.
The attention grabber tank at Osaka Aquarium. Yes, that is a (young) whale shark!
That friendly guy in the middle is my new favorite marine animal; the Bowmouth Guitarfish (seriously)!
There was also this amazingly graceful weird and wonderful thing called a "finless porpoise" (give it a few seconds):
We got to see them feed the rays (I apologize for the rotating camera - I didn't think through the fact that the video wouldn't auto-correct)!
We walked through all the exhibits and I started to feel much much worse. We decided to get a bite to eat at the Harbor View Restaurant which had yummy curry over rice which helped my congestion a little bit. The restaurant did indeed have a harbor view and we got lucky enough to see this cool boat (that is a dragon at it's head!):
As I drudged we walked back towards the subway station we came across this endlessly amusing sign:
I'm not sure whether to leave it to the Japanese or to leave it to McDonald's to have this...
Also I can't confirm if it's actual yogurt or merely 'yogurt flavor' ice cream...
We got back to the hotel (it was around 2pm or so) and I stayed there with the curtains drawn and SLEEEPPPPTT for about 8 or 9 hours before sleeping dead through the night. Meanwhile, Billy and Michael went off to have their own adventure... coming up next post.
