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- Nov 10, 2024, 9:00 AM
- ☀️ 57 °F
- Altitude: 59 ft
- JapanŌsakaOsaka-shiYawatayaAji Gawa34°39’16” N 135°25’44” E
Fish, Crowds, and Crab
November 10 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 57 °F
We slept in a bit this morning and decided to try the hotel buffet for breakfast. Our usual morning is just grabbing coffee on the run from a konbini (convenience store). The buffet was terrific, like most breakfast buffets in nice hotels with lots of international travelers, it has German, Chinese, American, and local options.
After breakfast, we headed out to an area called Nakazakicho. It is a quiet area, filled with charming cafes, art galleries and vintage clothing shops where you can buy hand-crafted goods. Unfortunately, we didn’t realize that only the cafes would be open and all the shops were closed until 1 pm. We strolled around the small streets anyway, enjoying the quiet and the delightful details of the area homes and shops.
Next, we headed for the Kaiyukan Aquarium, the largest in Japan. It is a bustling place, especially on a Sunday which we learned (again from Adam our food tour guide) that Sundays are family days, the only day of the week when everyone is around. You have to buy a timed ticket for entry, that way they can space it out as the path through the aquarium is one way. Since we had some time, we decided to ride the giant 370 feet high Tempozan Ferris wheel which offered amazing views in all directions.
The aquarium is an interesting design, built around seven different environments all around the Pacific. The tanks are huge and your path winds you all around them from top to bottom. That allows you to see different animals that like the different levels. The big star in the largest central tank are multiple whale sharks which can grow to 32 feet in length.
When finished with the aquarium, we headed out to a vintage poster and comics store that was right near our hotel. We shopped for some cool posters for Robby and struck gold. This place was a huge firetrap with material piled everywhere but rewarded patient sifting. Anytime someone tried to enter after us, it was a complicated dance to let them through as the aisles were so narrow. Next was back to the hotel before heading out to the Dontonburi area. Dotonbori is filled with towering neon signs, clubs, bars, and restaurants serving up local specialties. Between them the neon and the crowds, Laura called it all very “honky-tonk” and was not a big fan. We decided to eat at an iconic multi-story restaurant which specialized in a variety of crab dishes, called Kani Doraku. We walked around afterward, taking in all of the craziness (and finding yummy strawberry soft serve) before heading back to the hotel to crash.Read more