Monday, October 18, 2010

Japan Day 9: Osaka Aquarium, Hiroshima, Kiyoko

We awoke early and took the train to the Osaka Aquarium. It has one of the largest fish tanks in the world.  When we arrived we saw a sea of little coloured hats and a sign saying that there were 2,500 elementry students visiting for the day.  It recommended to come back later but we were leaving Osaka later in the day so that wasn't possible.



The entrance fee was about $20. We paid and took a long escalator to the top 7th floor.  The aquarium we realized was vertically oriented and we would start at the top and spiral down to the bottom while staying inside the whole time.

The first few floors had some neat exhibits with penguins and seals and otters. The first thing I noticed was that the animals were much more active and easy to see compared to the Vancouver aquarium.

After spiraling down a few floors we came to the main attraction: the whale shark exhibit. It was a massive tank spanning 3 floors vertically containing giant sting rays, sharks, fish, and 2 whale sharks. It was very impressive and amazing to see the whale sharks.





At the end of the exhibits they had a little interactive area with photo ops and a shallow pool where you could touch some small sharks and rays.




Eliza and I managed to stay a few minutes ahead of the hordes of school children so it was pleasently quiet. However my parents went a bit slower through the exhibits and they said it was super noisy the whole time.

After the aquarium we headed for some lunch at a mall close by.  This is where we discovered melon soda aka HULK DRINK.  My new power drink!


We headed back to the train station and unfortunately it was SOO busy and we hadn't booked tickets so we had to wait around for an hour for the next train to take us to Hiroshima.

When we arrived in Hiroshima my 3rd cousin Kiyoko was waiting for us. She was such a sweetheart and had printed up sheets with directions and timetables for us to get around the city. We went upstairs in the train station to a small Japanese restaurant and ate a delicious Japanese meal. I had the pork shabu shabu which came with tempura and some other little goodies all for 1000 yen. Kiyoko insisted it was her treat and would not let us pay. So nice!  Thank you Kiyoko.



We then hopped onto a street tram that took us on a 20 ride to our hotel.  It was quite late so we went to sleep.

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