Day 41 - Aquarium, Castle, Apples

Henry got up early and went and sorted out his Visa, and I met him later to go to the Aquarium. It had been touted by various people as the unmissable thing to do in Osaka - They have the only Whale Shark in captivity, I think. Anyway, it was absolutely amazing, enormous too - some of the tanks were spread over three storeys, they had otters, sea otters, seals, dolphins, monkeys, loads of types of sharks & rays, jellyfish, an 8 ft wide Manta Ray, and various other amazing things. The whale shark was about 4 m long, which is small (they grow up to 12 m) but impressive nonetheless. I shall attempt to upload some of the hundreds of pictures later, the internet in Les's flat (probably because it's stolen from next door) is a little unreliable.

In the afternoon we went to Osaka Castle, a replica of the original castle which was destroyed in the 19th century. The stoneworks surrounding it are all original though, it stands in an enormous park, surrounded by trees (which are just turning red and brown, looked awesome) on top of a hill, commanding awesome views of the city. The castle is 9 storeys high, edged with gold, and fairly spectacular too - although budget considerations prevented us from going up to the 8th floor observation deck. As before, pictures to follow - see the list of albums on the left of the page.

We met Les for a drink and a wander, including a visit to a 280 bar, where all food and drink is only 280 yen, or about £1.50. These places are a blessing in a city as pricey as this, and they look pretty cool inside as well. The reason we met Les & Laura was to attend a lecture at the Apple store, as they figured they might as well learn stuff as they're not up to much else. This turned out to be from a chap called Garry Mouat, on his life in design. While interesting in places, he stumbled over his words loads, and Henry and I struggled to stay awake on our few hours of sleep. We left pretty much the second he finished, we weren't too keen on the Q&A and mingling parts of the evening... Henry and I went for a wander through Shinsaibashi, the Neon centre of Osaka, for a bit of a gawp, which concluded our day of Osakadventure.