We stopped in for a snack and the girls got sand eel hot dogs which they really enjoyed. They were quite hungry as they ate the whole thing. We spent a bit of time looking at the turtle exhibit and others as we made our way around the giant central aquarium and continueing to marvel at the Whale Sharks. We also spent a fair amount of time looking at the jellyfish exhibits which were quite interesting.
We made it to the main attraction at the Osaka Aquarium, the giant tank around which the aquarium is built. Inside the tank are two whale sharks and other sharks and fish. Watching the two whale sharks swim through the aquarium was mesmerising as it reminded us of how we got to swim with these giant sharks in the ocean off the coast of Western Australia. As fantastic as the main tank was, we also enjoyed looking at the smaller tanks surrounding it. KT particularly nejoyed the tank with the two moa moa and squids. The girls also loved the little sand eels and clown fish.
We were very excited to be heading to the Osaka Aquarium which is one of the unique aquariums in the world. You will soon see why we were so exccited about visiting, there are some clues in the photographs below. The museum starts with some interestinf exhibits with otters and rainforest based fish. It then moves on to penguins and dolphins. All of these were well done and interesting. The animals were quite lively and we enjoyed watching them. All of these were a good warm up for the main event.
We went to Umeda Station so that KT could get a massage and hair treatment. While she did that the rest of us visited Yodobashi Multimedia Store which is huge. It was really fun to visit and see everything it has to offer, which was to say something for everyone. It was really fun to see all the cool stuff they had and it was all we could do not to buy too many things there. The suffed animal section proved to be too irresistable though.
When we arrived into Osaka our accomodation was a bit tight, so TV took the smaller two kids to the playground while KT unpacked and figured things out. We ended up exploring quite a bit of the neighborhood and visited 4 playgrounds. EV and MV enjoyed several of the features across the playgrounds but the most unique thing was to see a tame albino peacock who was on an outing with its owner. TV enjoyed all of the flowers in every park, particularly the cherry and plum blossoms everywhere. After a couple of hours of playing we caught up with KT and SV for a lovely udon dinner in a small family restaurant.
