Under the sea.

Yesterday was spent wandering through Osaka's busy streets and poking my nose into things that looked interesting. Osaka's version of Akihabara, Den-Den Town, is a bit run down and dirty, but still kept me entertained.

On the subway this morning was a mentally disabled person whose way of keeping busy involved staring intently at his little palm-sized figurine of a whale, then licking its face every 60 seconds. Made a refreshing change from most mentally disabled people, Lord have mercy on them, who are usually trying to chew their own face off, or screaming at the wall or something.

In stark contrast to Universal Studios Japan, I paid $23 to enter the Osaka Aquarium, and enjoyed myself thoroughly. I can only imagine the nightmare this place must be when visited on the weekend, or during school holidays, but it was fairly sedate whilst I strolled through.

The sea otters did delightful sea ottery things, including the large one below who was enjoying himself by munching on an ice cube.

I can't pretend that I know the names of all the seafood I saw, but the biggest was a... type of whale/shark thing. My wife would know what it's called.

Above: A fucking metroid.

All in all, most tanks were enormous, and all aquatic life seemed reasonably happy. Nearing the exit, they had shallow tank populated with small stingray and basking sharks, and provided you were adult and gentle, you could pat them. I did so with gusto.

Stingray feel like a cross between a sponge and KY Jelly, and basking sharks feel like a crusty leather handbag, but wet. Leaving the aquarium, I entered the entertainment plaza next door, and happily paid for another type of 'animal cafe', or more precisely, 'petting zoo'. Instead of just cats, the main room had dogs and cats, and pigs! I tried to give some love to all, but I was spread pretty thin. It was then I saw some people come out of a door to my left, so I wandered through to see if there some more dogs, but this room contained kangaroos, capybaras (!) turtles, a fucking llama, an iguana and two owls.

Oh Japan, you so wacky!

I've always wanted to pat a capybara, and now I have.

Above: A capybara.

Catching the subway back to near my hotel, I walked in the opposite direction and entered Osaka Castle. A wonderful history tour, I happily read about the lords Ieyasu Tokogawa (who I've played as in video game form) and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and their battles for the castle, the daily lives of people living in this era, and more that I've already forgotten.

For dinner, in Japan mind you, I sat in an Indian restaurant and ate curry, while watching scenes from a Bollywood film that were filmed in Federation Square.