Ōsaka (大阪) Aquarium

Today was time for the Osaka Aquarium. And a glorious one it was. They did put in quite some effort into a lot of aspects. The feeding times were a beautiful show of watching them hand feed almost everything. The penguins stood in a frozen exhibit, with the bigger penguins simply standing under the ice maker. And track through the aquarium is almost a kilometre long. There was also one corner where you were allowed to cuddle the sharks and sting rays. As the sign said, you were allowed to touch them in the areas marked red, with a little pictogram to the left. When I saw the cuddle tank, I half expected them to actually have red areas.

I also found the first postcard today, and decided that we don't quite have to be that cheesy in order to follow tradition. I do however have a piece of paper with a random aquarium stamp on it. Perhaps I find some way of getting that to a post office. (Where is person with obnoxiously large letter collection when you need them?)

And the night active part of town got a visit. Lots of bright billboards, screens, gaming arcades, and a music shops. Having visited Tokyo, it doesn't quite hold up to the same standards though. But they do have a river going through the middle of their brightly lit up avenue, adding to the reflections and shininess. The six lane one way road at night also still looks bizarre.

And random fact for the day: Being in a high-tech country such as, for example, the one I'm visiting, all train gates are automated. So the way they actually monitor who buys children tickets is to make the gate go tweet-tweet when you a child ticket goes through. Took me ages to even notice that sound, so it's rather subtle, but I suspect it would be pretty obvious to the station attendants.

P.S.: Remember that spaceship dock I told you about?