Alvinology goes to Japan – Day 12 of 14

We are nearing the end of the two weeks vacation in Japan. On the twelfth day, we visited the Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan (海遊館). It is one of the largest public aquariums in the world and is located in the ward of Minato in Osaka, Japan, near Osaka Bay.

Rachel and I enjoyed ourselves at the aquarium very much. We saw live whale sharks, sun fish, and other exotic marine creatures for the first time in our lives.

Mark was quite a nuisance at the aquarium, constantly pestering everyone to hurry up and leave the place as he was getting very hungy (all of us had buns for breakfast, provided by our hotel except Mark who claims buns are not for human consumption). It doesn’t help that he cannot appreciate the beauty of the marine lifeforms and regarded all of them as “live seafood”, tempting him to eat them all up.

We had a quick lunch at a Japanese fast food outlet called First Kitchen, located in a shopping mall food court near the aquarium. It was surprisingly good! There were a large variety of sauces for the french fries and the burgers were a nice fusion of Japanese and western flavours.

Thereafter, we headed to Hei Men Fish Market as Mark had a severe craving for fresh seafood after the aquarium visit. The fish market seems to specialise in selling fugu (puffer fish), with a fugu specialty store located practically every alternate store. We spotted a fish store specialising in whale meat. This upset Rachel and I who do not support whale fishing.

After leaving the fish market, we made a short stop at the “Akihabara of Osaka”, Nipponbashi (日本橋). Like Akihabara, this shopping district is packed with electronic gadgets and toys. There were lots of porn shops as well. It is here that we chanced upon the most vile porn video store ever – a shop specialising in all kind of sick fetish videos ranging from hidden cameras to torture to woman urining or defecating…

Anyway, we did not stay long here as all of us were very irritated with Mark  who is constantly hunting for Transformers toys everywhere he goes. If we were to linger there longer, we jolly well might get stuck there for the whole day waiting for him.

We headed to the shopping belt of Dōtonbori (道頓堀) in the evening where we spent the rest of the day shopping. Rachel and I bought quite a bit of clothing from a large Uniqlo store.

Dōtonbori is a single street, running alongside the Dōtonbori canal between the Dōtonboribashi Bridge and the Nipponbashi Bridge in the Namba ward of Osaka. A former pleasure district, Dōtonbori is famous for its historic theaters (all now gone), its shops and restaurants, and its many neon and mechanized signs, including snack/candy manufacturer Glico‘s giant electronic display of a runner crossing the finish line.

We had okonomiyaki (お好み焼き)for dinner; some expensive yakitori(焼き鳥 やきとり) as well as some takoyaki (たこ焼き or 蛸焼)for supper. These are all famous local food in Osaka.

As per our previous nights, we did a quick supermarket sweep and bought some discounted food back to our hotel to eat. That concluded our twelfth day in Japan – a really jam-packed schedule. 🙂

Links to my previous blog entries on my Japan  trip:

Day 1 – Kansai Airport, Hokkaido

Day 2 – Skiing, Otaru

Day 3 – Asahikawa, Asahiyama Zoo

Day 4 – Sledding, Shiroi Koibito, Crab Buffet

Day 5 – The 60th Sapporo Snow Festival

Day 6 – Staying with the Asai, Shōnan

Day 7 – Ueno, Tokyo

Day 8 – Shibuya and Akihabara, Tokyo

Day 9 – Ikeda, Osaka

Day 10 – Kobe

Day 11 – Kyoto

Day 12 – Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan and Dotonbori

Day 13 – Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge and Mt. Rokko

Day 14 – Return to Singapore

Technorati Tags: alvinology goes to japan, japan travel, hua meiyen, mark tan, rachel chan, tokyo travel, alvinology goes to japan, japan travel, hua meiyen, mark tan, rachel chan, tokyo travel, 海遊館, osaka aquarium kaiyukan, osaka aquarium, kaiyukan, whale shark, sun fish, giant stingray, jellyfish, minato japan, osaka bay, sea otters, coral reef fish, school of sardine, sea octopus, giant amazon fish, white arowana, sea seal, hammer head stingray, dolphin, hokkaido king crab, clown fish, sea cucumber, first kitchen fast food, first kitchen japanese fast food, hei men fish market, whale fishing, whale meat, whale specialty store, wasabi plant, fugu, fugu chef, fish tails, nipponbashi, 日本橋, akihabara of osaka, akihabara, 道頓堀, Dōtonbori, dotonburi, dotonboribashi bridge, nipponbashi bridge, namba osaka, dotonburi canal, glico, glico running man, お好み焼き, okonomiyaki, takoyaki, yakitori, 焼き鳥 やきとり, たこ焼き, 蛸焼, uniqlo