Alex Quinn's Japan Journal

On Sunday, Jeremy, Akemi, and I ran around Osaka and saw various places Jeremy had an interest in. I saw some really great places I wouldn't have otherwise gone to, were it not for Jeremy's suggestion.

Ever since I've known her, Akemi has wanted to ride around Osaka on bicycles. Rather than get two bikes, she wanted to get one bike outfitted so we could travel together. In Japan, it is very common for couples to ride around with the guy peddling and the girl sitting or standing on the back, holding on to the guy. You have to put a little bar in the rear axle to make it work. Then, the girl can stand on the bar. She initially took her regular bike to a shop and asked them to put the bar on. However, for some reason, they couldn't add it. Her bike was not capable of supporting such a bar. Since we were planning on going all over Osaka on Sunday, she went out and bought a whole new bike for the task. The new bike has the needed bar for riding in pairs. Jeremy rode her regular bike. Akemi and I rode the new bike.

(Note that some of these pictures were taken by Jeremy. I didn't see the need to take my own picture of something he was taking a picture of. In those cases, I'll make a (J) mark just to give credit where credit is due.)

Throughout the day, we enjoyed the beautiful Japanese architecture that is abundant in Osaka.

Being Christmas, there was quite a setup of shops and Christmas festivities set up in the space between the two towers.

They had around 15 of these huts set up with German people selling various Christmas-related (and unrelated) German tasty things.

This woman sold a delicous vetetable stew. She spoke neither Japanese nor English. Well, she spoke a little English. But, to my wild surprise, I ended up speaking German with her. Albeit, I remember roughly fifty words from my 3 years of German in high school, but they were truly helpful in communicating with this very cute lady. Thank you. Where are you from? I'll have 1 please. That kind of thing. What a shock! Forced to speak German in Japan! It's one of those memories that sticks with you. (J)

We went out to look at an outdoor museum of old houses. We took too long and got there after it had closed. But, we had a nice trip getting there.

Jeremy, who loves video games, ran across a big promotion for Nintendo's new wireless do-all, anytime, anywhere, portable video game. He stopped to check it out.

Notice how she is wearing a custom-made fuzzy white dress just for the occassion. There were about 8 young women wearing these outfits and showing the games. Typical Japanese marketing, I think. Whatever it is, make it cute and it will sell. Make it cute and sexy and you'll sell all you can produce.

As we were walking, we ran across this strange beauty salon. Facial value ¥5000 (≈$50), Luxury for the face ¥10000 (≈$100), Decollte Lymph ¥3000 (≈$30), Chemical Peeling ¥5000 (≈$50), Eye Lashes Perm ¥3000 (≈$30), Hand Care Special ¥3000 (≈$30), Lymph Drainage ¥3000 (≈$80), Lymph Drainage (half) ¥5000 (≈$50), Focus Drainage ¥15000 (≈$150), Domes Treatment ¥3000 (≈$30), Back Treatment ¥4000 (≈$40), Recovering The Upper Half Of The Body ¥4000 (≈$40), Recovering The Lower Half Of The Body ¥4000 (≈$40).... weird, huh?

In the evening, we went to the Osaka Aquarium (Kaiyuukan). It was an amazing place. I was blown away at how beautiful, organized, interesting, and well-maintained it was. It was as though it was Japan's big national initiative to open the world's greatest aquarium and they had just opened yesterday and were having the grand opening. But, there weren't many people. Admission was ¥2000 (≈$20).

You start out by walking through this tunnel where you have water and fish all around you. I've never been diving, but I have to imagine it looks a little like this. (J)

They had some amazing, rare fish and giant sea turtles. I saw a two (or was it three) toed sloth. At least one monkey. Birds. Otters. Seals. Sea lions. All manner of tropical fish I'd never seen before. Many were unbelievably large. Extremely realistic habitats. Huge rocks covered in moss and vines that looked like they'd been growing that way, naturally, for years and years. It was phenomenal. I just can't imagine how they were able to make it all work indoors. And, everything was perfectly maintained. Nothing was dead or dirty. I just don't get how they can do it so well. For better for for worse, I we were so engrossed in the exhibits, that we didn't take many pictures of the fish and animals. I'm sure somebody else has already taken plenty of pictures of the Osaka Aquarium exhibits anyway.

There was an exhibit on Antarctica, too. A bunch of penguins and stuff. Sorry, no pictures of the Antarctican animals.

Here's something I didn't expect. Huge crab living underwater. Nearby, they also had a sizeable exhibit on jellyfish. (J)

Throughout the aquarium tour, I was asking questions to myself and others about how many accountants keep track of the food for the sea urchins, and what kind of glass they used, and how thick, and how much, and blah blah blah. I don't know why, but I always have questions like that when I see something truly great. Well, I got a few answers at the end.

A sign with some facts about the acrylic glass they used. Generally, the glass is 30 centimeters (≈1 foot) thick. The whole aquarium uses 103 panes weighing a total of 314 tons, 1.5 times heavier than the world's annual output. One notable exhibit uses a single piece that weighs 10 tons. That exhibit contains 5400 tons of water with a depth of 9 meters (≈29.5 feet).

They also had a nice bathroom at the aquarium. I had to wait a while until nobody was in the bathroom before I could take this picture. It's not really kosher to have a camera out in a public restroom, especially if other people are in there.

After the aquarium, we went on a giant ferris wheel. It is one of the world's largest, at 112.5 meters high (≈369 feet).

I quietly arranged with Jeremy ahead of time to have him ride in a car alone so Akemi and I could have our own little space to enjoy... the scenery. She was initially rather annoyed with me. She thought I had been rude to my friend in doing so. However, with a little time (We're talking seconds here.) she softened up and saw the romance in it. The scenery was great. We even saw some fireworks. Apparently, they set off some relatively simple aerial fireworks periodically in Osaka, year-round, as a regular thing for tourists or whoever. But, the scenery was indeed really nice.

After concluding our sightseeing, we went for some okonomiyaki. Osaka and Aioi are both in the region of Japan known as Kansai. Kansai is known for various specialty foods including their own style of okonomiyaki. Osaka is said to be the heart of okonomiyaki in Kansai. So, Jeremy really wanted to have some Osaka okonomiyaki. And, we found some.

Jeremy elected to make his own okonomiyaki, right there in the middle of our table. Akemi and I let the waiter do it for us.

Maybe it doesn't look so delicious, but take my word. It is scrumptious. All of them had egg, cabbage, and some other standard stuff. Mine had raw oysters. Akemi's had cheese and rice flour dough (mochi). Jeremy's had kim-chee. They were all good, but I liked mine the best.

Jeremy and I caught the last train back. (Akemi lives in Osaka.) We got home at 12:30 AM, Monday morning. It was Jeremy's last day in Kansai. He left the next day. A fine end to a great visit.

Alex Quinn's Japan Journal

12/5/2004, Sightseeing around Osaka with Jeremy and Akemi