Nico: MJ's cousin is traveling in Japan now. He came to our apartment and we went Osaka castle and a big aquarium `Kaiyu-kan'. But first of all, we needed to eat something for filling our energy. MJ's cousin C would love to try Japanese sushi so we went to sushi restaurant in Osaka.
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| taken from http://www.yodobashi-umeda.com/dining/dining_kait.html |
This sushi restaurant is reasonable one. You can see the price from the color of plates. Besides, they have some deserts too. Actually, I had went real sushi restaurant few times. Real sushi restaurants serve unbelievably yummy sushi, but they are unbelievably expensive for me.
Because you can't see the price of some fishes if you order them one by one which is expected, it can become very pricey very quickly. If you go to real sushi restaurant, pay attention to `時価(Jika)'. Jika means current price.
After having sushi, we went to Osaka castle. In Japan, there are lots of
castles. Hyogo prefecture where me and MJ live, has Himeji castle.
Himeji castle is one of the world cultural heritages but now it is in
construction of preservation.
You can go inside this castle only 600 yen. There are some explanations about histories of this castle. C seemed to enjoy them.
You can use elevator for 5 floor. Only 2 floor up, you can see Osaka city from this castle.
MJ: After Osaka Castle we headed to the Kaiyu-kan. I've been twice before, and every time I go it is fantastic. I would describe it a bit more like a water zoo, rather than an aquarium. You start at the top, and walk past different enclosures or exhibits of different ocean/river animals separated into different areas of the Oceans. As you get further down, you see deeper and deeper into the same exhibits. For example, there are dolphins in area, and you see them on 3 levels - above water, just below water level, and quite deep in the water.
These exhibits are centred around one main huge aquarium - full of sharks, rays, large fish, AND a whale shark!!!
C, Nico and I spent just ages staring at all the fish and creatures. I could spend days watching the manta rays, seals and penguins.
One new exhibit that I loved, was the new squid aquarium! I don't think I've ever seen squid except on then end of a fishing hook, or on a plate to be honest, so it was really cool.
Nico: Oh,I almost forgot to write about today's title. It came from C. He changed his shoes to thongs when we went out. It reminded me MJ always wore them except winter. I think it is one of the ways to find Australians in the world.
