Advertisement
Published: November 19th 2012
Edit Blog Post
Day 3
After a good nights sleep, we went downstairs for breakfast. We had another free day today, so took the guide book down to see what the choices were in the city, as the castle is covered by our tour in a few days. There was a reasonable choice of western food, bread, fruit and cereal, as well as asian style with lots of fish. Russ even found some yogurt with a DIY flavouring. Pity really he didn't go for the little white pot he'd also spotted, and added the blueberry sauce, as when the man next to us attacked it with his chopsticks and added soy sauce we guessed it wasn't a yoghurt pot.
After breakfast, we headed back to the train to head out to the Aquarium. We noticed that during the journey, an attendant came down the carriage, muttering in Japanese, and when they got to the end of the carriage, just before the doors, turned and bowed - very odd! The choices were this or Universal Studios, but when we looked at the website, it seemed to be more aimed at younger children as there is a Snoopy playland. Also at £50 a ticket,
it seemed a little steep. It is located to the west of the city, on a an area of reclaimed land. We faced another challenge, that of navigating the subway, the price of which was not inlcuded in our rail ticket. The machine had some English instructions, but we clearly looked bewildered and the attandant came to assist us. The aquarium building is reputedly shaped like a butterfly, but with all these things, it's personal perception. It is themed as the Pacific Ring of Fire, and holds 3million gallons of water and you decend 14 levels to see the fish and mammal habitats. There are over 35,000 creatures including, unusually for an aquarium, capybara and otters, and great spider crabs. One of the most impressive things was the middle tank holding manta rays, hammerhead sharks and a huge whale shark. There was also a really impressive collection of jellyfish of all different sizes and shapes.
After the aquarium, we went on a boat trip round the harbour in a replica of the vessel that Columbus went to America in - the Santa Maria. It has to be said, it's a working port, so the views were less than spectaular,
but we did pass Universal Studios, and saw the biggest ride, which didn't seem very big at all. We also passed the incinerator plant, which has been built like something from Willy Wonka with towers and different coloured buildings.
After the aquarium, we decided to head to one of the main shopping/eating districts. We tried our hand at the subway machine again, and thought we had cracked it. However, when we got to the exit gates, they didnt open and we had to squeeze through and escape past the attendant. At Dotonbori, we wandered down the pedestrianised area which seemed to be divided into shops on one side of the main road and places to eat on the other. You do however, need to mind out for bicycles, who mainly use the footpath rather than the road, so it can be crowded. We strarted to look for somewhere to eat, but whilst like all cities they display their menu outside, there was very little in English, and not many people seemed to speak it. At the end of one of the streets, we could smell a bakery, and to our surprise there was a queue down the street of
people waiting to buy from "Pablo". We went to have a look at what all the fuss was about, especially as the sign said "cheese". In the window, there were a couple of workers weighing out what looked like marscapone cheese, and another one was "branding" the top of what looked like pies containing a wobbly yellow filling with the company name. We joined the queue and proceeded to buy a "cheese" with a medium wobble when asked and some biscuits. The "cheese" keeps 3 days, but transporting it could be a challenge! We needed to head back to the hotel, as we were expecting a call from our tourguide, so we made our way to the train station. On our way we passed the Glico Man, a 33m sign that has been there for over 70 years, and now looks old fashioned compared to the new ones, but the locals love him.
We headed back to the hotel,breaking out one of the biscuits to try on the way. A strange combination really, sweet biscuit and savory filling. Once back at the hotel, we were a little late for our call from the rep, but upon checking with reception
we had no messages. Russ headed to to the shop for provisions, and I went upstairs. Just as i sat down, the phone rang and it was the rep, he'd arranged a 6am wake up call! Meet in reception with the luggage at 7.45 was the message - great. Whilst typing the blog, we opened the "cheese" box. It is in fact a lovely cheesecake, that is extremely light and fluffy, and what's left will be travelling with us, as it's too good to leave behind!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.05s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 11; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0296s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb