Mia-tachi no tabi - Day 11 - Fish and songs

First I must declare my hatred of the Blogger app. I've had various problems with it, but just now I discovered it lost my mostly written post for today. Stupid app.

Now I've gotten that out of my system, on to the actual post.

Today we decided to take it easy and remain in Osaka. Our first stop was the Kaiyukan, the Osaka aquarium. We bought a pass that got us into the aquarium and included all day subway transportation. The Kaiyukan is easily the best aquarium I've been too, though I haven't been to too many, so I am not sure if it matters.

The aquarium is designed so you take an escalator to the top floor and then walk down in a spiraling pattern. In the center of the spiral is the Big Tank, which houses two whale sharks and tons of rays and sharks as well as some other types of large fish. 

I spent about 45 minutes sitting and just watching the occupants of this tank. Of course, my facination is somewhat in part due to the fact that this is the only tank with seating near it. Otherwise I might have spent similar amounts of time at some of the other tanks.

After the aquarium (where we spent 2.5 hours), we got food. My mom tried takoyaki (fried octopus balls), which she didn't care for due to the goopy nature of the batter. 

Then I bought a whole bunch of little toys from one of those vending machine like toy dispensers. My mom called me a gambler since I kept going back for another to see what I'd get. But I was planning to use most of them for gifts, so it wasn't really gambling. Of course, I ended up spending all of my 100 yen coins...

Afterwards we rode the giant Farris wheel, which provided a good view, but was otherwise boring.

After that we went to Namba and found karaoke after asking for directions from a lady who didn't speak a word of English. 

Karaoke offers two pricing models: by the hour or pay on fee and spend however much time you want. We opted to the first choice, which proved to be a mistake, since we extended it by an hour, twice. Turns out Rich and my mom actually enjoy karaoke when they are singing songs they like.

After karaoke we went looking for dinner, which was another mistake. At first we were wandering around and we passed by a yakiniku place that I wanted to eat at. But when we tried to find it again, we couldn't. So we ended up going for okinomiyaki. 

Okinomiyaki is known as both "Japanese pizza" for its commoness and "Japanese pancake" which is more acurate, if you think savory pancake. It is made with batter and chopped cabbage then various fillings are mixed in. Common fillings are pork, green onions, shrimp, and mochi. The batter is supposed to be mixed by the waiter and then cooked on the griddle in your table. 

That is my favorite part of okonomiyaki and tonight I was hoping to cook it myself instead of leaving it to the waiter. So when I saw the waitress bringing out the fully cooked okinomiyaki I suffered crushing disappointment. To add insult to injury, it was the worst okinomiyaki I had ever tasted. I have now sworn off the stuff together. I am now depressed just writing this.

To try and end the night on a happier note, I got a chocolate covered Belgian waffle. It helped ease the pain.