See the Fish, Eat the Fish

08112016

Slept in very late appreciating the large bed and private toilet/shower of our room. So didnt get out n about untill nearly noon. Got Ramen, I am still chasing the dragon of that one ramen back in Ueno, and I think Im gettng closer; it heavily used spicy sesame oil. This place was good, but not in our top ramen so far in this trip, it was a bit fishy for both of our tastes. But apparently this shop was the first to make "Osaka Style" Ramen.

We then headed to the Aquarium, one of the largest in the world. And it was impressive. The theme was the Ring of Fire, essentially tracing the ecosystem around the ring of fire, the whole Pacific Tectonic plate. It opened with a big water tunnel, where you walk through a big tank.

then you go up up up to the top, and see the Oriental River Otters and the Japenese Giant Salemander.

The Salemander was inded giant, they grow to be over 1m.

and then you wind your way down, with more tanks around the outside wall, dolphins, seals/sea lions, amazon rainforest, the Great Barrier Reef, The Tasman Sea, all of this surrounding the big Pacific Ocean Tank. This main tank has over 1.5 million gallons of water, 2 whale sharks, dozens of rays, 3-4 hammerheads, dozens of smaller sharks if various kinds, and hundreds of "lesser" fish.

at the bottom you got to the "bottom of the ocean" there were crustaceans and other scary arthropods. they didnt have anything that glowed, but had a bunch of jellyfishes that were neat.

The final part was the petting tank. They had a big shallow pool where one could pet stuff, there were a bunch of Nurse Sharks, Zebra Sharks and some kind Ray hangin out in this 18in deep pool, and you could reach in and pet them.

The sharks felt dry? They felt a little sand papery. The rays felt slimey, you could certainly tell they were an ocean creature...

We spent the entire afternoon at the aquarium, fortunately laura could get wifi in the waiting area of the aquarium so she identified the sushi place we should go to, cause we just spent the day watching fish swim around, figured we might as well eat them now.

We headed home, stopped at one of the unimaginably large ad diverse electronics/appliance/toy/cosmetcs/also liquor stores to buy a fold up keyboard so i can write blogs better, and a cable to connect the camera so i can post more pictures.

Then we got the Sushi, The place was very near our hotel, and one of those conveyer belt places. The chefs slice up an plate the sushi on little color coded plates, and then go on the belt. The customers pick and choose what they want, then the staff comes around counts up your total, and you go pay your bill.

We ate 10 plates of various kinds of sushi, Tuna Rolls, Fatty Tuna Rolls, Half-grilled Salmon, these were my favorites, also got shrimp tempura, fried sweet tofu, a yellowfin something or other, another one with eel, and some other i dont remember well. and it totaled to less than 34USD.

We wandered around Dotonbori looking for a sweet treat, ice cream, fried dough or somesuch, but i think the rain was driving the restaurants and patrons away.

That being said we say a number of girls standing in the intersections/at corners selling their massage parlours, and hostess bars...

We went home and went to sleep without any sweets.