大阪海遊館 Walking in a Water Wonderland

A week ago my sister and cousin came all the way from the UK to visit me! I got to do loads of fun things with them, the first of which being a visit to Osaka Kaiyukan Aquarium 大阪海遊館. I had been meaning to go for a while as I love aquariums and Osaka aquarium has a great reputation. It’s one of the largest aquariums in the world and is famous in Japan for its huge tanks.

We visited the aquarium during Golden Week (a week of public holidays in Japan), so it was pretty busy. We had to queue around 40 minutes for tickets and there were big crowds inside but it was manageable and definitely worth it. The tickets cost 2300円 (£12.20) for adults and the aquarium is open from 10:00 – 20:00. There was also a Legoland (or workshop) nearby, which amused us as my home town is very close to Legoland Windsor – I used to go a lot when I was younger so it was strange to see one in Japan.

The aquarium exhibits are based around the Pacific Rim theme; there are 16 main exhibits each featuring a different habitat of the Pacific Rim, such as Ecuadorian Jungle, Great Barrier Reef and Pacific Ocean.

I really liked that the tanks were so large; the aquarium is structured so that you walk down a sloping spiral with the tanks on either side and a huge tank in the middle. The tanks are very deep so you see the animals on the surface and then later spiral down to see the same tank underwater. This was really cool, especially as the dolphins and the seals loved playing with the crowds, coming right up to the tank walls, racing around, and following the hands of those standing by the glass. I was lucky enough to have a seal come and play with me which was really amazing. I felt that the animals in this aquarium were genuinely happy, much more so than the ones I saw at Yokohama Hakkeijima Aquarium, which did not have very large tanks.

The largest tank is at the centre of the spiral. It is 9 metres deep and contains 5,400 cubic metres of water. The whale shark, the star of this tank, looked amazing. I’d already seen one at the other aquarium I visited in Yokohama (see here), but this time I got to see the whale shark much closer up which was incredible and breathtaking. Though keeping whale sharks in captivity seems (and probably is) cruel or unfair to the animal, it really helps to educate people about these creatures and encourages us to consider conservation – there were many signs near the whale shark tank talking about conservation and avoiding polluting the oceans.

The glass for the big tanks was very thick. There was a small exhibition showing a piece of the acrylic glass used in the aquarium. They use acrylic glass, also known as plexiglass, as it is much easier to shape and it is very tough. The aquarium uses 103 panes of this acrylic glass, weighing a total of 314 tonnes. The largest single pane weighs 10 tonnes. It was amazing to think that everything looked so clear and undistorted despite the glass being so thick.

As well as the dolphins, seals, fish and whale shark, there were also penguins, jelly fish, otters and a sloth (not sure why). The otter exhibit was really cool as they were playing in see-through tubes, allowing us to see what they were doing. They seemed to be having a great time. The penguins were also great to see, one was staring at his own reflection in the side of the exhibit, seemingly talking to himself, which was amusing.

Though we had to line up for the first few tanks, as we spiralled down it became much easier to see everything. The aquarium can deal with a huge volume of people, though I’d suggest going on a weekday to avoid the crowds. It took us around 2 hours in total to go through the whole building.

While there we also visited the Tempozan Ferris Wheel 天保山大観覧車, which is located next-door to the aquarium. It was the tallest ferris wheel in the world from 1997 – 1999, when Tokyo’s Daikanransha Ferris wheel took the title. It was a great ride that gave us a great view over all of Osaka and of the aquarium building itself. I would recommend it if you go to the aquarium. You can get an idea of how big the entrance queues for the aquarium are from the pictures I took from the wheel too (though this was later in the day when it was even more busy).

The aquarium and surrounding attractions can be accessed from Osakako station on the Chuo line. I would recommend going if you visit Osaka. It was very different to my other aquarium experience in Japan, both of which were very good, but for different reasons.

神戸 Summertime Samba

Yet again apologies for my prolonged absence, I’ve been very busy lately and needed a break from my blog due to a bit of writing fatigue. I return this week and will hopefully get through a lot of posts I’ve been meaning to write for ages. The problem with visiting lots of temples is processing which temples were where and what their history is. Soon I will have ‘broken the knot’ so to speak, and will hopefully churn out a load of temple posts!

I want to talk about where I went today on this post. Today I went to Kobe Festival 神戸まつり (Kobe Matsuri), an annual event held in Kobe (near Osaka and Kyoto) on the 17th of May. I have visited Kobe before (see here) but this time it was rather different. All the streets in the centre of town were pedestrian and there was music and food everywhere. I had a fantastic time.

Kobe festival originated in 1933 as Kobe Port festival, becoming Kobe festival in 1971. It celebrates the products of Kobe and surrounding towns, as well as welcoming other prefectures to share their produce with the people of Kobe. The Japanese, as a people, are pretty much obsessed with food, a trait I greatly admire. I got to try loads of different foods!

I started with some simple kara-age から揚げ, Japanese-style fried chicken. At 600円 (£3.20) for a bag, it was a little pricey but very tasty and warm. Could have done with a bit more spice. Family Mart chicken is cheaper and just as good if not better, but I really love Family Mart chicken. ★★★✩✩

My friend got some Paella, which was pretty good. Full of crab, but she had trouble eating it as the crab meat is hard to reach. Sadly it ended up abandoned as it was just not as tasty as everything else. ★★✩✩✩

Frozen shaved strawberries and some kind of white chocolate sweet sauce. Really tasty especially as it was a really hot day. Large portion for 600円, very much worth it. ★★★★✩

The star of the day food-wise, was definitely the Kobe beef cup I shared with my friend. I have never had beef so melt-in-your-mouth amazing. It was only 1000円 (£5.30) for a cup, which is amazing considering Kobe beef will usually set you back three times that amount at least. Kobe beef is famous throughout Japan and the world for its delicious texture and juicyness. Cattle were introduced to Japan in the 2nd century, though they were used as working animals rather than food. These Japanese working cattle were bred with European cattle in the 18th century, when beef consumption was on the rise. This gave rise to the Taijima breed of cattle, the Kobe beef cattle. Kobe beef must meet certain quality levels and fat content minimums in order to qualify as Kobe beef. It’s delicious. You may not think that fatty beef is delicious but you should seriously try it. Just wow. ★★★★★

Not pictured are a melon soda float (★★★✩✩) and a beef kebab (★★★★✩). Truly food heaven. We also got given some free plum wine and some lime flavoured liquor, which was really disgusting ★✩✩✩✩. Don’t trust free drinks.

In addition to food stalls there were several places offering leaflets on other prefectures’ attractions and strangely several shoe shops. The streets were really busy so trying on a shoe didn’t seem the best idea. There were also several great mascots that must have been so boiling hot in those suits. I fulfilled my until then unrealised life goal of getting a picture with a man dressed in a radish costume.

The festival also involved a lot of bands, baton throwers and samba dancers. I swear half the women of Kobe must be samba dancers, there were so many of them. Perhaps they are conscripted. The reason samba is so popular in Kobe is that Kobe is twinned with Rio de Janeiro. Or maybe they are twinned because samba is so popular, who knows. There were all sorts, from small children reluctant to dance around in the heat, to young women really enjoying it, to young women boiling hot and probably not enjoying it, to older ladies strutting their stuff. It was pretty spectacular.

I really enjoyed the parades though it is inching towards full-on, hot Japanese summer, so I was rather warm. Not as warm as the dancers though. There were also several smaller dance troupes and a very good jazz band. Queues for crossing the road were very long. I really enjoyed the festival despite the massive crowds and would definitely go to it, or one like it, again.