For info on the aquarium and Shinsekai, see day 104 below.

Travel Log: Day 103 (10/8), Osaka Japan

JC and I were pretty hung over today after our fun night last night. I was trying to think of all the drinks I had last night and it had to be something like 7 or 8 units of alcohol. Because of that we didn’t do a lot other than school and some walks. We started school late and finished it in the afternoon.

The big adventure of the day was going to 7-Eleven to hit the ATM. I found the options on the ATM interesting and wished I had noted the exact amounts. I was getting 10K yen, and had the option of charging that as 10K yen, or 70-some US dollars. The exchange rate on that USD conversion was around 143 yen. That’s noticeably below the current rate of 152 yen I had just looked up earlier in the day. Because of that I chose the yen option and sure enough, it charged less to my debit card ($67.31) for the same 10K yen I received.

I guess what I suspected and confirmed is that you should always check the exchange rate at the time you are withdrawing money to see which option is favorable. This surprises me because I figured the 7-Eleven ATMs stayed more current on the exchange rate than that.

Travel Log: Day 104 (10/9), Osaka Japan

Today was another action-packed day as we try to squeeze everything out of Osaka before we leave next week. We only did the first two subjects of school, during which time I was able to book aquarium tickets where I couldn’t previously. With those booked we made our way out of the house to check another box on our list on the way to the aquarium, the Shinsekai area.

Shinsekai

The Shinsekai area has many restaurants and bars, but is particularly heavy on games. The games are carnival-like, offering crappy prizes that are hard to win. AC and BC played a ring toss game and a cork shooting game. The only prizes won were 100 yen off coupons for ice cream from the shooting game. It’s a pretty standard ripoff that we limited to about $12.

We ate sushi at a restaurant in the area that was both a carousel and a delivery belt. That was a really great combo because I pulled a couple things off the carousel that I would probably not have ordered. The belt portion worked just like other belts. You just order and it shows up on the belt right beside you. The price was unbelievably low at $17.34. We held nothing back while ordering either, with 19 items total.

JC and I will probably be going back here for a date night. The place is totally different at night I’m sure.

Aquarium

I file our initial inability to book the aquarium tickets (multiple failed attempts) under the growing category of “Japan is not as futuristic and high tech as you think”. Websites here are not as good as the US and you have to baby them at times. The winning series of steps for this site was to add our tickets to the cart, go register with the site as a separate step, log out and log back into the site, and then buy the stuff from the cart.

At the aquarium you start off going through a water arch-way that has many fishing swimming all around you. Then you head to an open air area that has otters and some regular fish like salmon. After that you make your way inside to some increasingly cool displays until you get to the main attraction which is the big central tank. You then spiral your way around and down the main tank.

I was going to give the aquarium two thumbs down at first because it was SO crowded when you first get to the main tank. It really thins out though after you do a downward revolution or two. My guess is that all the dum-dums who brought their babies and toddlers rush out after they hit their 20 minute limit on stamina. For the rest of us, those two thumbs down turn way up at that point. We were able to easily get to the glass and see all the oversized creatures, including the whale sharks and giant manta rays. I did have a bit of the same feeling I have when I go to a zoo though. That tank as giant as it was, was still not big enough for those animals. Setting the ethical dilemma aside, it was very cool and well worth the $54.28 total for the four of us.