An Amazing Date

[May 26th 2011]

It was a Sunday the day after karaoke and Wes and I had decided on going on a date to the aquarium in Osaka because neither of us had been but everyone else had been ranting and raving about it! It’s the famous one with the large tank in the middle that spans 3 floors (although I still think the Aquarium in Beppu was more impressive).

Anyway, the weather was shite but that didn’t stop us going ^^ We got there and the aquarium was full of school kids. I’m guessing every school across Japan was sending their kids their for educating. We mostly ignored them apart from the kindergarteners who were SO CUTE! They were all so short holding each others hands and all had matching mats and macs! Speaking of cute things the aquarium was FULL of these signs with the adorable…blobs…I don’t actually know what they were, but they were cute ^-^

The first thing we came to were the otters, which were SHO CUTE! I really wish I had had my other lens because all my 50mm photos kept coming out blurry >< Thinking about it the aquarium was full of cute things. I’d warned Wes before that Japanese people in aquariums say “oishi sou!” which means “looks good/tasty!” What? Their diat is mostly fish, of course most of the things in here are gonna make you hungry. But what was really cute was when we came across a small child who said it! One little girl with her mum was SHO CUTE! I just couldn’t not take a pic of them. She was so fascinated with the BIG fish in the tank XD

As we worked our way through we found another adorable family with the dolphins. Dolphins are cute anyway, and are amazing fun to watch. Spend aaaages staring through the glass trying to get a good picture.

As we got to the main tank, the famous one in the middle, which wasn’t as impressive as people made out because it had no plant life at all indie, looked really bare. Anyway, I found one tank opposite the main one and I DID NOT believe my eyes. It was CRAB FISH! Allan from AnimeSoc in Kent had, the previous year, found a fish that had crab legs and no one believed him, so he brought in a video he took of the bugger walking. Not only that but the Japanese crab fish FLEW through the water with BLUE WINGS! Most awesome-est fish ever.

We carried on through the aquarium and got a drink at the café and saw more cute kids and lobsters. I think the best part was the last bit with the JELLYFISH! So cute! It may have also been because I’d recently seen Kuragehime, an anime about a girl obsessed with jellyfish.

As we were leaving the aquarium I got a text from the Japanese girls I’d recently made friends with asking if I were free for lunch. Had to explain I was at the aquarium…they guessed it was on a date with Wes >< FFS HOW DO THEY KNOW THESE THINGS!? Anyway, we stopped off at the gift shop and I had to decide whether to buy an octopus toy or a seal…I went for the tako, the octopus ^^ It wasn’t as cute as the seal but I could get a seal anywhere. And it was a super cute Japanese tako tako octopus~ (Octopus is tako in Japanese)

After the aquarium Wes and I went to the centre of Osaka and to Shinsaibashi to the cinema and watched the latest Pirates of the Caribbean in 3D. It was all in English with Japanese subtitles, and was quite good apart from the fact that the ending was a tad random :/ After that Wes took me to Cold Stones, an American icecream company that sold AMAZING icecream!!! It was soo good, and the shop assistant was super friendly. She was asking us about America and was talking to me about the recent Royal wedding ^-^

After our icecream we headed over to Umeda to meet Gabe because we had planned to go to the Pokemon Centre because NONE of us had ever been before. So we met up with Gabe and wandered through Umeda (saw the apparently famous homeless guy) and headed up to the Pokemon centre which was on something like the 7^th floor of this department building. On the way though we saw an awesome clock water fountain that told the time through well timed water. It was pretty impressive.

The Pokemon centre was not as impressive as I’d imagined it to be. It was quite small and REALLY expensive. And there just seems to be nothing that really interested me. Wes got a Lapras toy and bought me a pokemon phone charm ^^ I got some pokemon shaped pasta for Leo and Fred back home because I knew there were going to be giving me a lift when I got home. Nothing says thanks like Pokemon Pasta.

Gabe left us after the Pokemon Centre but not without showing us Osaka tower and suggested we go up. So we eventually found the place and got the lift aaaaaall the way to the top. It was something like one of the tallest buildings in Osaka and people could go up there. So many couples O_O It wasn’t that busy but still quite a few people. I was a bit apprehensive about how tall the observation point was. There were 3 levels, one with restaurants and shops and then an escalator (which was terrifying as it went across the gap between the building) onto the observation point which was inside, then the top floor which was outside. Weather was still miserable but it was awesome being able to see the whole of Osaka at night. And we had each other to keep warm ^^

After getting absolutely soaked in the rain we back inside and hung around a bit wondering what to do about food. Going down to the floor bellow we found a Chinese restaurant. It felt way too posh for our attire. I felt really embarrassed partially because I couldn’t understand some of the menu, and my Japanese had gone completely out of the window. I felt like a stupid gaijin -_- But it was a nice meal and a really nice way to end the day. Least to say we were knackered on the train back home. But it had been a really, really good day ^__^