Continued from Osaka Day 3 Part 1.

After the jellyfish, it was time for the arctics.

LOL!!!! This seal was just wading here bobbling up and down taking a nap.

Touch pool.

All over Japan, they have these emergency buttons that you can push if there’s a fire. Supposedly, it’ll evacuate the smoke.

Looks like poop.

Of course, this being Japan, there are tons of sinks for you to wash your hands before and after the touch pool.

Not a touch pool.

Sloth!!!! So cute.

Little spastic monkey, so annoying. He seemed like he’d be the type to throw poop.

Errr…what’s going on here?

I think they are just playing, nonsexually…I think.

So delicious.

There’s a street entertainer outside with a fire stick.

He was actually very good. Also a contortionist.

Done with the aquarium, that was fun. Time for some lunch at the mall next to the aquarium.

Oh My God, Claire’s from the USA!!!

Love mola mola.

There’s a photo studio inside this mall by the aquarium, and they have this board filled with samples. The Japanese are all very skinny, and yet on this board, there are inordinate amount of chubbier brides.

And also this very unhappy looking couple. Whoever does the marketing needs to be fired.

Oddly enough, there’s a Turkish restaurant here with a chocolate fountain.

Whore!!!

Oh, food court, this will do.

A section of the food court was decorated like this, with a lot of individually owned small restaurants.

What we ended up with. I had the rice bowl with fried pork and egg again. Seriously delicious!!! This is definitely my favorite Japanese comfort food.

Our view during lunch.

Then time for ice cream. They had some odd flavors here. Whitebait is really small fish fry…Doesn’t seem like an appetizing ice cream flavor.

This place also has the individually packed ice cream.

Tried and true, green tea ice cream. Hits the spot, every time.

Onto the subway and back into the city for our second destination.

Mola Mola!!!

On the train, we passed by this place called Texas Pachinko. Heh.

The subway dropped off in front of this park.

This is the most unkempt park we’ve seen anywhere in Japan.

That’s where we are headed, Osaka Castle.

Outer moat.

That is one giant rock, how did they move it?

Big stones *wink wink*.

Inner moat.

Wash our hands.

This rock is the biggest one of them all, says the sign.

Not sure what this is.

I’ve been here to Osaka Castle before, but never gone inside.

Heading in.

Kind of disappointed, the interior is completely modern. The original castle burned down in the 1800s, and this current version is a concrete and steel version built in 1928.

Climbed to the top.

Well, it does give you this great view of Osaka.

Some of the levels inside have these hologram videos on the history of the castle. In one of the sieges, the conquerors actually dammed a river and flooded the entire castle grounds in order to defeat the defenses of the castle. Pretty awesome.

OK, that’s that. Tired, been a long day, time to head back to the hotel.

Restocking our food stores at the grocery next to our hotel.

RL ate all of the sushi and left none for me then tried to hide the evidence!!! PUNK!!

It’s dinner time, and there’s a whole horde of people outside of the okonomiyaki place that we wanted to eat for dinner. Ah, salarymen of Japan.

Fortunate for us, I think they had all finished eating and are just standing outside.

This restaurant is in a really shallow building, so it only seats like 10 people down here. You can also choose to go upstairs through some small stairs.

The lady sitting on the left side at one point chatting briefly with us. She was drunky pants, but still ordered more wine and tried to talk to the two young men manning the down-stars portion. She seemed like a perfect candidate for someone who would go visit a host club.

So exciting! The whole menu was in Japanese and the cook only spoke rudimentary English, I hope the mixed okonomiyaki comes out as expected.

Yup, exactly what I wanted and it was amazing!!! RL really liked this one too. She prefers the Osaka style, without noodles, over the Hiroshima style.

When we got done eating, it’s already 9pm, and there are still drunk salarymen all over the place wandering around…It’s a Monday night. What they say about the Salarymen of Japan is true I guess, they do work long hours and never seem to go home.

More salarymen in front of our hotel.

Since RL and I just shared an order or food at dinner, I got some sushi to supplement a diet…and alcohol. She’s got herself a dangerously delicious 8% alcohol pineapple drink.

In all the hotels that we’ve stayed in Japan, there is always a sign for massages through the hotel. Notice the hours that the services are available…I wonder if this is actually a nonsexual massage? Mind you, we’ve stayed at respectable business hotel chains here and they’ve all had this.

To be continued at Kyoto Day 1.