Geez Louize, two posts, one day?

But with good reason!

I went out into Osaka earlier and had a great day...marked several things off my list of must see things while in Japan.

Ok so first I headed to Kaiyuken, Osaka's aquarium and the biggest in Japan. Ok, so yeah, I know everyone has been to aquariums in the States and all, but this one was different! All kind sof creatures that I've never seen before and flawlessly laid out (at the end I wanted more instead of wanting to collapse like one usually does at the end of trekking through a long ass zoo/aquarium). The facilities housing the creatures were masssssssive. No teeny tiny cages, but huge and massive tanks so the fishies can swim happier. Although I guess the more eco-friendly thing to do would be to leave them in the water...but then I couldn't have spent 2000 yen and have pictures to show, right? Anyway, enough of that. On to pictures!
The exterior...and it's only half of it! The rest is to the right.

This is a fucking whale shark...it was huuuuuge. like 20 feet long. I've never seen a shark this big up close. And it bumped the glass RIGHT at me. It wanted to eat me. Maybe it thought I looked tastier than the Asians around me...I'm definitely meatier, so I can't say I blame him.

The biggest type of crab in the world, the Spider Crab. Ewwww. This thing grossed me out.
Sloth!

These made me tear up a bit (anyone who knows Blake knows how much he loves Sea Otters). They were on their back and cleaning themselves the whole time! And they were huge! They reminded me of Myoshi. I couldn't really get a good picture because the damn things moved around so fast.
Thousands upon thousands of sardines.

Octopus! Gross looking, but tasty.

This lizard/gator thing freaked me out. It was so still, just floating at the surface. I half suspected a Gremlins moment to happen and it to jump out at me.

This dolphin was doing flips and shit. Show-off.

And that's all I'll subject you to. But it was awesome. Anyone who comes anywhere near Osaka has to see this aquarium. At times it felt like I was underwater with all these things...which really weirded me out.

So today I also got to eat three things that were on my list. The traditional Japanese breakfast of cold fish, miso soup, and rice that I mentioned earlier, takoyaki (little pieces of octopus fried up into balls), and okinomiyaki. The takoyaki was good, although a little too dough-y and soft for my taste. The okinomiyaki was phenomonal. I went to a restaurant in the bay area after seeing the aquarium and lo and behold, the dreaded table-top griddles. I began to get worried because I had no fucking idea how to cook okinomiyaki by myself, so after I ordered, I asked the waitress to show me how to do it. Apparently, in this restaurant they do it for you right at your table. After she told me that, I felt a bit sheepish for asking, but oh well. Anyway, pictures!

First of all, I always had the impression that okinomiyaki was pancake-y...you know, with flour. Maybe in some places they are, but here they're just made with a boat load of cabbage and an egg to hold it all together. And a meat of your choice. My choice was squid. So here it is fresh on the griddle.

Flipped over...

And voila! Soup's on! The stuff on top is Japanese mayo and a barbeque type sauce. I know, it sounds like a gross combo to me too, but I dunno, somehow it worked. It tasted excellent.

I've come to notice just how much Japanese people eat. Especially young people, like around my age. Most of the time I look around and one person is eating atleast twice as much as me. They can put it down, but I have no idea where it goes. I guess the abundance of walking/exercise and genetics doesn't hurt in their case.

Boss: Osaka. And I just checked my pedometer, and I've walked 14,396 steps today (that's like, 7.5 miles I think)! I'm getting used to it and feeling better too. I've gone over my 10,000 steps a day goal since I started wearing the pedometer. Thank god for my tennis shoes.

Un-boss: First real pangs of homesick-ness today. I guess I've never gone on vacation by myself. I'm so used to my siblings and my mom and usually Blake or a friend coming along. It was really weird. I miss everyone so much. :(