Sitting on the Dock of the Bay

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We have arrived in Osaka, which is a bigger, brighter city. Our 55km journey from Kyoto to Osaka was rapid. It only took 12 minutes on the bullet train. These speedy machines need to be introduced in Australia.

On our first day, we walked to the Kuromon Food Market for lunch. The market has fresh food, take away food, restaurants and selected craft stores. When I say you can buy fresh food- I mean it. There are live fish and octopus for sale in tanks. Kuromon marlet is so big it has its own information help desk. Before lunch, we had dessert- we ate some rice dumplings with strawberries in the middle. Yum. Then, for main course, I decided to get some sushi and see how it compared to Tokyo's. Menwhile, James wrapped his mouth around a crab burger (an entire crab in a burger).

Our hotel is conveniently close to Dotonbori- a famous entertainment, shopping and food street in Osaka. We spent a lot of last night wandering up and down its strip, taking in the sights and the smells. We found a cool alcove of street food for dInner. James had a giant scallop in garlic butter for dinner, I had a Mexican crepe. For dessert, James has an extravagant apple crepe and a melon bun. I had melon bun too, those melon buns are delicious. We walked into an arcade before heading back to the hotel and had a go at Mario Kart. It was close- I had the pedal experience, but James had the gaming advantage. I was leading for 5 laps, but James overtook me just before the finish line.

Today we headed towards the harbour to see the Kaiyukan aquarium. The visitors' path around the aquarium is almost 1km long. Alomg the track we saw: sharks, penguins, turtles, sea lions, otters, stingrays, jelly and GIGANTIC JAPANESE CRABS- just to name a few. We were lucky enough to catch some feeding times and some dolphin tricks. We also had the opportunity to pat stingrays and sharks. Stingrays are surpringly slimy.

After our underwater exploits, we decided to take to the air. We stepped in one of the world's biggest Ferris wheels: the Tempozan. The from 112m peak, we could see the city, the massive suspension bridge, the mountains and all across the port.

After disembarking, we sat near the wharf and enjoyed the views from ground level.

I can't wait to see what else Osaka has in store for us.

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