Osaka Aquarium

Yay! We went to the Osaka Aquarium yesterday! This has been on my to-go-list for a while so I am so happy that I was able to go.

On on way there, I bought an IC card. This is a card you can put money on and use in pretty much all of the subway and train systems. It is easier to use and more efficient than buying a ticket everywhere
you go.(That's a picture of it in front of the penguin enclosure because the card has a cute penguin on it.)

The aquarium was really cool and fun but, unfortunately, a few of the habitats were insufficient. Especially the penguins: there were a bunch in a small area and all I could think of was the film "Happy Feet."


Once we made our way to the aquarium (passing by a Ferris Wheel, Lego Land, and a building with robot statues and a Jar Jar Binx in the window), we entered and I saw a stamp station. There were several throughout the aquarium, so I got some cute ones. Thankfully, I wasn't the only person over five doing it.

One of the coolest parts of the aquarium were the two whale sharks. They were huge and adorable and so cuddly-looking. Watching them swim slowly was so peaceful.


Watching the stingrays and manta rays swim was also peaceful and magical. They have so much grace, it's astounding. I love the ocean and its creatures and being surrounded by them, with an
ever-present blue color and either quiet or the awesome, calming music they had playing was a great experience. I felt the inner merfolk showing.



We came right around feeding time for some of the animals, including a large otter, white sided dolphins, and a capybara. There was a very active leopard eel who was just gorgeous in its grace and agility. It was like watching a dancing dragon - loved it! At one point, there was also a very playful leopard seal. Someone had brought a cat toy (a stick with some short strings on the end) and was sitting on the viewer side of the glass, playing with the seal through the glass and the seal was like a floating cat! It was adorable.

There was a section where we could pet stingrays and small sharks (which I did). Their skin was more rough and textured than I remembered, but it was awesome. I had a conflicting experience though. A child beside me really wanted to pet the animals, but they were always too far. Then a stingray was kind of close, but she didn't notice until it was swimming away. She reached out to pet its tail and almost grabbed it and I instinctively grabbed her arm to stop her. My friend said I shouldn't feel bad about it, but in my performance organization, we are taught to never touch someone's kid, even when we are trying to make sure they avoid injury. It was conflicted. 

After that area we found a Finding Nemo themed section full of animals from the movies! They were so adorable and colorful! I didn't get many good pictures of them though. 

Then, there was a whole section devoted to jellyfish and I knew I had entered paradise. Red jellyfish (long tentacles), Calypso Jellyfish, Flower Hat Jellies, and the Flame Jellyfish.

Okay. Now that I'm done fawning over jellyfish, we can continue. We saw many more species, including interesting fish I have never seen before. I couldn't catch all the names, but they were neat to see. 

As we left, many of us had Whale Shark - themed ice cream: and it was blue!!!! It was some of the best ice-cream I have had in my life and none of us could decide on the flavor. But I kind of felt like

Percy Jackson, which made it all the better.
Also saw a one-piece themed shop on the way to the station and was excited (though really only saw figurines).






We made our way to Dotonburi, a famous district in Osaka, for dinner. It was neat to see it at night, however, we made the mistake of listening to a "guide" and ate at a "restaurant" that turned out to be an expensive bar. We thought we all got one free drink (my mango juice was awesome, by the way), but they were 400 yen each and then we were each charged 480 yen table charge. Even the Japanese
students with us were confused and it took us a long time and questioning the servers to figure out what it was. They eventually gave us an informational card (only in English and Korean, not Japanese), saying that everywhere in Osaka has a table charge and this establishment's was cheap...none of us had ever experienced said "table charge." Today, my host dad said it is not uncommon for dinners in bar-like establishments in Tokyo to do it, but it's rare here and we should be careful. Well, we know now.

Next, the two Japanese students who came with us (and were both extremely helpful and nice the whole day) took us to Purikura - cheap photo booth machines. To be honest, it was okay and a little awkward. We walked down one of the mall streets of Dotonburi and then go to the basement floor of a make-up store and are met with huge advertisements of extremely altered, barbie-like faces of
young women (and one smaller picture of a man) as well as a bunch of young Japanese women giving us weird looks. Half of the group seemed to have a lot of fun and it didn't take long, so I think it was worth it. Also, it is a popular thing in Japan, so I'm glad to say I tried it. It should be noted that even before adding stickers and affects and whatnot, the machine altered our faces - structure, complexion, coloring, and shape. One gave me an extremely sharp diamond face while someone else's face was turned into an alien structure - it was quite funny.

Then, to make up for some of our frustration concerning the bar and the purikura, we went to a Torikizoku (cheap bar at every train station). I had some matcha-chocolate icecream. In fact, the three people on our side of the table all ordered it while the other side didn't order any food. We also tried some famous jiggly cheesecake that the Panda bought at Dotonburi. However, I disagree. It is not cheesecake. It was a fluffy, heavily egg-tasting sweet bread or cake with raisins in the bottom. We played a fun game called Hot Seat (Truth or Dare without the Dare). Stayed out a little late, but it was a Saturday and I've been missing hanging out with friends.

Today I slept in super late (past 10). I had the portions of bamboo root dishes and shrimp tempura I had helped prepare the day before (our aquarium plans ran late so I couldn't make it in time for dinner so decided to eat out....unfortunately). Anyway, I didn't do much else today because, around 3, my host mother and I started the long and fun process of making...sushi! There were so many steps and we were preparing and making sushi from 3 right up to dinner at 6:30. Washing and cooking the rice, making tamagoyaki (difficult and involves slowly adding layers to this rolled omelette), preparing the shrimp (sometimes de-veining ones that had been missed), chopping vegetables, searing mushrooms and eel, and so on. Then, when the rice was ready, I manually fanned it while she poured a sauce mixture of vinegar and something else into it. Finally, we sat down and started rolling, wetting a strip of the seaweed with water to bind it and keep it together. Oh, also, before sitting down, we had to swish the seaweed over open flames a few time - that was scary but she did most of it. It was a lot of fun and we bonded a lot, giggling and learning from each other. And thanks to my host dad's sister who was visiting again, we had matcha mochi with azuki and cream filling. A very Japanese dinner. The sushi was so good and filling. I also learned why Japanese people don't eat it that often - it takes a long time to make! And that was two of us working together.

Since I had midterms last week and plenty of free time during the school week, I did not do any schoolwork this weekend. It was both extra relaxing and slightly stressful (knowing I could have worked ahead even though knowing there's plenty of time and I don't necessarily need to get everything done over the weekend).

It was a fun weekend. I'm still working on my sleeping schedule, but other than that, I'm doing fine. For now, good night and good day!