I think I may have said this before, if I haven't I'm sure I will again, Japan is a land of contrast. From historic Nara to modern Osaka in about an hour, its like being transported through time. I don't think that we saw a single temple or shrine today but I'm sure they were around. Instead we visited the Osaka aquarium, I had to see for myself that they had a Whale Shark, the largest living fish, here.
There are some great displays here including the Sea Otters above but the Whale Shark and Manta Ray tank (for want of a better expression) is astonishing. In the top photo below you can see the Whale Shark and below tow divers cleaning the tank. Amazed that they have something this size in captivity I was surprised to find out that they have a two Whale Sharks at the Okinawa aquarium. The tank used to house the shark contains 5,400 cubic meter of water. In all the aquarium tanks are built from 314 tonnes of Acrylic, that's 1.5 times the annual world production of this material.
I'm never 100% sure about these places, on one hand it gives people a great educational opportunity which should hopefully lead to the conservation of such creatures. On the other hand it just doesn't seem right to have a creature that would roam the seas in an aquarium.
Above Shelley on the other side of the giant grabs aquarium, this isn't a trick of the camera that crab really covers the side of the tank. Below Samurai Shelley.
After taking a ride on the Worlds biggest or one of the biggest ferris wheels in the World, depending on which leaflet you read, we set of for the Dotonbori area of town.
Following a recommendation (hhhmmmmmm set up) we triedTakoyaki, which are balls of fried Octopus, I actually quite liked them but Shelley wasn't so sure. Amongst the Neon lights of Dotonbori there are plenty of karaoke bars, after a few beers to wash down the octopus we found ourselves in one, yes I did take a video and no I wont be letting anyone see it.
Highlights: Night out in Dotonbori
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