Osaka - everything's better down where it's wetter...

The next day we headed to Osaka. We wandered around looking for what was considered to be some of the best Okonomiyaki in Osaka, that Google Maps thought had permanently closed. It turned out google was wrong because their map pin was in the wrong place, and presumably a bunch of people that couldn't find it had flagged it as closed down.

The guy who ran it was friendly, and spoke a little english. He had a lot of foreign visitors come and leave him little trinkets or some of their currency which he had displayed around the shop.

We were seated near this little guy. He's been sitting about 2 feet from
a hot plate for some time now, and his fur has developed a luxurious coat
of slightly burnt oil.

We had looked at a map and decided we would walk through a nearby park, and then visit a shrine on the other side. As we were paying we asked the Okonomiyaki guy what he thought we should see. He suggested we visit the aquarium and see the whale shark being fed. He made a wide gesture with his arms to indicate the whale shark's mouth and grinned. We thanked him for lunch and went off to see the shrine.  

The shrine

Apparently the shrine has big problems with Pokemon Go players.
This is because, as everyone knows, people who play Pokemon Go
have no soul.

It was full of shrine-y goodness

It contained a pagoda

A five level pagoda

In fact the pagoda is so impressive it has won pagoda of the year
every year since 908.

The view from the top.

 After that we decided to take pancake guy's advice and go check out the aquarium. It is after all, #2 on the list of TripAdvisor's "Things to do in Osaka"

The lego giraffe out front made Emma sad, since it reminder her of the time
she was asked to leave Legoland in Germany.
(She says it was for being too old for lego, but I suspect she was liquored up
and rude. I mean the box says ages 7 and up, not ages 7 to 32 and a half)

The tunnel o' fish that leads into the aquarium proper.

The sides of the tunnel contain a variety of fish and rays.

and some very lazy sharks sleeping on the roof.

Even the aquarium is getting in the halloween spirit.

You then need to ride the longest escalator in the world, up 7 stories.

 After that you kind of spiral down 7 floors past a variety of exhibits/tanks, and around the central tank with the whale shark, which is I guess, the main attraction.

However, before you get to the whale shark, you get to see things such as:

The wall of crabs!

A sea otter clutching a ball of ice

seals

seal vets

whatever this fish is

A piranha

The biggest fish I've ever seen

A capabara

A confused fish vet explaining what this dry hairy fish does

penguins

dolphins

many dolphins

tropical fish

and a whale shark

He's way bigger than the photo would indicate

This fish has legs, (and wings, although they're retracted here) and is a crime against god.

Half a fish. Probably a recovering whale shark victim.

There was a children's section that was legally distinct from Finding Nemo.
This is the sort of fish tank that might be found in any animated dentist's office.

Turtle

Eventually when you get to the bottom, you get to the base of the
Whale Shark tank...

This is where the lazy fish are kept.

Jelly fish.

The ceiling had a glass dome that looked into the seal tank.

This seal was a total attention whore.

This is what that enclosure looks like from above.

I can only assume that the Crocodile Hunter was never dubbed into Japanese
because they have a tank full of sharks and stingrays that are there specifically
so small children can go up and touch them.

They also have an exhibit of pre-historic fish bones.

Outside the aquarium after dark is quite pretty, the trees have
lights strung through them, and the ferris wheel is doing its thing.

Osaka after dark.

So Osaka has a few regional dishes that it is well known for, one of which is Sukiyaki.
If you punch "good sukiyaki osaka" into google, one of the places that pops up is called Kitamura.
Last time I was in Osaka I did just that, turned up and was rebuffed for not having a reservation.
It turns out you can't just rock up to a Michelin hatted restaurant (I discovered this through later research) on the night, who knew?
Anyway, this time I made a booking.

Kitamura

Our room at same.