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Second day here in Osaka, and we're all tired as usual after a long day's trip. We woke up early today, as we already planned our itinerary for today around Osaka. Our itinerary consists of visiting Osaka Castle, Tempozan, and Shinsekai District, and yes, the subway will play a big role on our trip; good thing we already mastered it with dumb luck, eh?
Osaka Castle was the first place in our itinerary, and so we followed the subway pattern, in which we had to travel by Midosuji Line to Hommachi station, and change to Chuo Line to Borinomiya station. Getting out of the station, we saw alot of flower shops and some very unusual trees, with the Osaka Castle at the distance. Before we went onwards, my brother Adi played at the nearby playground for a bit, as I looked around the different flower shops around the park. When we reached the gate to the castle, I knew there was going to be a fee to access the garden, but turns out, there's no need for a ticket to access the grounds; only inside the castle. The Osaka Castle, along with the moat, was really huge and massive. It
was literally breathtaking, and a perfect example of Japan's historical architecture. The grounds were filled with food kiosks and tourists, and we had a struggle finding a bench to rest on. Taking a break from walking, we ate one of Japan's most popular foods, "takoyaki", or octopus balls. I love eating that stuff, but unlike this one, it's made of 100% octopus. We didn't decide to enter the castle anymore since the line was freakishly long, plus I heard that the inside of the castle isn't really that interesting, so we moved on to Tempozan, our next destination.
Tempozan is a promenade with alot of attractions, in which we visited the Osaka Aquarium, said to be the 2nd largest aquarium in the world. We soon found out though that we had to get a waiver for a meeting time, since there were too many visitors, and we're aware of that since it's Golden Week in Japan. We got a waiver that tells us to go back at 3 PM, and at that time, it's only a few minutes to 2 PM. To not waste our time, we watched a 3D movie at the IMAX theatre first entitled "Sea Monsters",
and we found that out when a lady handed us a poster of the movie itself on the way to Tempozan. The movie lasted 40 minutes, and the movie was pretty cool. The only bad thing is since I need to wear glasses to see correctly, I had to put 2 glasses on me, and even before the movie begun, my eyes & brain were already in pain. After the movie was over, I got a headache, but not really that severe.
Only a few minutes to 3 PM, we already queued for the line to Osaka Aquarium. Again, the attraction was jampacked with tourists again, and it was really hard getting close to the glass to see the animals. My bro managed to get closer to the glass, thanks to his rampant attitude. The real main attraction in the aquarium was the whale shark in the Pacific Ocean aquarium. Still, the whole attraction was really nice, compared to the aquarium I visited in Auckland, which was really a let-down. Before we left the aquarium, we visited one more area, which was the touching pool, where we can touch different sharks and rays. The rays were really slimy to
touch at, but the sharks have a rough skin. It was alot of fun, since I've never touched those fish before. After the aquarium, we looked at the nearby mall first to do a little window shopping. We decided if we should ride the Tempozan Feriswheel or not, but we decided not to since it's only a few minutes before it closes. We then realized that we haven't had lunch yet (only snacks), and eventually, we found a small restaurant called Kadoya beside McDonalds, where my mom bought Adi's food. There were no customers at the resto probably since it's like 4 PM already, but their katsudon was pretty good! Hidden gem, I thought.
Last on our itinerary was Shinsekai District and Tsutenkaku Tower. Unfortunately, on our way there, my bro was already complaining that he wants to go to the hotel already. While walking, we already saw the top of the tower near a Familymart. We didn't go to the tower anymore though, since yeah, my brother. My mom then told me that when I was little, when we went to different places in different countries, I didn't complain at all, so she knew I had the travel
bug in me, which I have to agree! Ha! So, instead of going to the tower, we did a little shopping in the district, and I really love the clothes that I saw! Japanese shopping = one of my shopping dreams. LOL!
Right now, I still carry the headache I got from the IMAX theatre. I'm really excited for tomorrow, since we're going to visit one of Japan's exciting cities! I can't wait for tomorrow... and I can't wait to snooze too! :D
- Joko
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