Today’s adventure is taking us to the Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan! BUT… we don’t have tickets until 3pm, so that we can be there when they turn on the evening lighting at 5pm, and we get to see both! That means, we start our Monday like we start most of our Mondays, with Social Studies and math. At least we have something to look forward to when we’re done!
The girls make quick work of their schooling for the day, and then we have lunch. After lunch we get ready and set off for our adventure. Joe has done lots of research into the area, and there are some things he’d like to check out before we go into the actual aquarium.
It takes us two subways and an hour total travel time from where we’re staying to the aquarium, and once we see “it”, we know we’re there! The first “it” is the enormous Ferris Wheel, the second “it” the tall Lego giraffe. Because yes of course, why wouldn’t there also be a Lego Adventureland right next door to the aquarium? This is also a cruise ship port, a sightseeing cruise port and industrial port all around, with lots and lots of visitors from all over the world.
The first thing we do is head into Tenpozan Market, a mall with extensivefood court, Lego, Pokémon, souvenir shops, KFC, Wendy’s and holes in walls traditional comfort food – this is a hungry person’s dream! And yes of course it just so happens that the Cheng family is in dire need of snacks, we know we just had lunch two hours ago, but we also know that we won’t have dinner until AFTER we come out of the aquarium.
Joe finds a table in the food court, and sets off with the girls to get snack number 1. He comes back with a rolled up thingamajiggy that smells heavenly and tastes exactly like that – called a “rolled omelette” but with more substance than just eggs in the wrapping. The filling is squid and shrimp and the mayonnaise and bbq sauce we’d normally see on an okonomiyaki. So tasty! The girls had an order of butter and soy sauce french fries, while Joe and I split the omelette thing.
Snack number 2 was a couple of mochi donuts from Mr. Donut, and we all agreed that maybe we don’t have to get any more stuff from Mr. Donut. I just hope Joe finds out where else to get his mochi donut cravings satisfied, because Mr. Donut just isn’t it any longer.
Snack number 3 was bubble teas! Maylin wanted strawberry milk, mine was a cold matcha latte and Joe had a roasted tea latte. Téa was happier without.
Bubble teas in hand, we took a walk outside as we were getting close to our timed entry slot of 3pm. Lucky we did, I never would have spotted The Little Mermaid otherwise! This is actually a copy of the original, a statue gifted to Port of Osaka from Port of Copenhagen, as the two are sister ports! I’ve visited the original in Denmark a few times, and was so surprised to see her again here. There’s a neat little plaque beside her water feature, that explains the story behind the mermaid, her creator Hans Christian Andersen, his fairytale and the two ports, complete with a world map!
It was FINALLY 3pm, and so we headed for the aquarium. I was quite impressed from the start, and could have easily bored you to bits with allllllll my photos from today! The first animal we got a really good look at was the South American Coati, the cutest little critter that was getting some snacks just as we walked by. We want to bring one of these home, please, where are the forms to fill out??
Next along our path were some very cute penguins. As we were standing there, and most of them were diving and swimming, we noticed the fluffy ones at the back, and were lucky to catch a glimpse of the young ones, when they all looked so alike from afar.
The dolphins came next, white sided dolphins similar to the ones Joe and I are used to from Vancouver Aquarium. They’re notoriously difficult to get a great shot of, so I will jump to the mesmerizing Great Barrier Reef instead:
The main event at the Osaka Aquarium is the whale shark tank. This massive tank is the centre of the entire building, and our route through the aquarium is a spiral that encircles the Pacific Ocean tank. There’s a cube of acryllic glass displayed at one point, 30cm in all directions, and that is the thickness of this glass. Amazing. Incredible. This tank has my full attention. Maylin got tired of me taking pictures and filming all the beautiful creatures within, and because there are about 100 windows from where to watch, I stopped often.
Ok, there was a detour into a coral department:
Oh, would you look at that? My favourite tank is in view again!
The Great Barrier Reef tank is also mind blowing, and because the tanks are several floors deep, our route revisits the different tanks from different angles multiple times.
Ok, it’s almost 5pm, and we’re in need of a bit of a break, and a snack. Luckily, there’s a café in a corner of our route! The girls hurried to the photo op:
This café just happened to have windows to the west, and we caught a couple of pictures of the setting sun while we waited for our snack.
Oh, my favourite tank again!
Just one more, and I promise I’ll be done…
After we finished with the Pacific Ocean tank (as you can see, that last photo is ground level!), the path took us even further down, into a darker and cooler area called the Arctic.
There were also exhibits on the types of plastic they have found inside rescued ocean animals, even one example of the tiny plastic pieces that killed a whaleshark. It is devastating that we humans can’t keep our trash away from the ocean! The signage in this area went hand in hand with what the girls have both been looking at for Science and Technology in the last couple of weeks:
We were sad to leave the aquarium, after 3 packed and never boring hours! Outside, the buildings and creatures were now all lit up, and the girls took some time out to hang out with their new friends:
The main focal point of the aquarium plaza is this beautiful whale shark, and all lit up she was even more beautiful. I got a quick picture of my three favourite people, and we had to say goodbye for now.
We headed back over to the market next door, it was just before 7pm by now, and we hadn’t even had dinner yet! The girls and I picked one little hole-in-the-wall vendor, and Joe picked another.
The market closed at 8pm, and so we browsed a couple of stores before heading for the subway. It was an hour from the aquarium to get home, believe it or not, so we got home right around 9pm. We all fell asleep happy and tired after a very, very good day.