Day 2 - Osaka Aquarium

Today was set aside as our trip to the Osaka Aquarium. The first challenge of the day was to actually get there. We had a lot of success, but it was so nice to have a gentleman approach us as we were looking for where to find our next subway line and ask if we needed help. Complete strangers helping us has made me want to be more helpful to tourists in my own home town. So, if you see someone standing around looking lost, possibly even trying to decifer a map, give them a hand - I am certainly going to do my best to!

But once we finally made it there, we were struck with the cold winds straight off the ocean. It was cold enough to even produce snow flurries later in the day. The Aquarium though, was a lovely warm haven from the wind were we got to see the beauties of the sea. In particular, it is the only Aquarium in the world to play host to whale shark (we are photographed with a model of one below). But my favourites of the day were the completely adorable otters.  Please excuse the barely passable photos - it's not easy taking a good shot through 30cm thick acrylic glass. @__@

Afterwards, we rushed into the warmth of the shopping precinct nearby where we were promptly thrust into the shopping of Hello Kitty! The centre included many lovely shops as well as a petting zoo where I got to pet an adorable white angora bunny. I am obsessed with patting them as I have never done so (they are illegal pets in Queensland). The unfortunate side of things was how depressing the petting zoo was. I came out feeling so sorry for some of the animals - especially when I know what the RSPCA in Australia has done for Animal welfare - this would just not be accepted.

We then headed over to the giant ferris wheel which I managed to get my scared-of-heights-travel buddy onto. It was very windy up there and quite cold but the view was amazing.

It wasn't long before we were ready to head home. We made it to Umeda station before things fell out from under us. We got on the wrong train. Correct line, but it was a local train that veered off. We manged to back track to a connection point where we got on another Local train. Now, the trip from Umeda back to Karasuma where our hotel is located is 41 minutes on a limited express train, so you can imagine how long a local all station train is going to take. Thankfully we managed to get on an express at one of the connection points not too far down. But once again, it took a good 2.5 hours to get home, only this time, my feet weren't put under pressure.

We finished our evening off with a decadent meal from the Family Mart next door and topped it off with a alcoholic beverage from the vending machine in the hotel foyer. It contained a whole 3% alcohol!