Today we headed into Osaka to go to the aquarium. We decided to try out another train today - The Super Hakuto - a rather fetching express train with a big blue nose and the biggest driver cab you have ever seen. The good thing about the express train is that most of the route is over land (ie not in tunnels) so there is loads to see AND you can see directly into the driver's cab and so see them at work.
Now the thing I love most about Japanese railways is the way the drivers work. First of all they are very smart in their uniform - including a peaked cap and most importantly pristine white gloves. They have a system where they check paperwork clipped to the dashboard which they do with a pointy finger and a flourish of the arm, but best of all is when they acknowledge signals. They do this by pointing at them: thumb pointing directly upwards and index finger pointing at the signal - they don't just point though, they make a choreographed movement with their arm - they raise their arm to their head, and then depending on the individual they can make a beautifully smooth arc with their arm whilst pointing or as in today a quick jerky movement shooting their arm outwards but lingering with the point (and anything in between). I personally love watching this and give marks out of 10 to each driver -awarding more for smoothness. Unfortunately we weren't allocated seats in the front coach today, but we both took turns to take Tom there to watch, he was transfixed as was I - I even took some video to illustrate the point. By the end of the journey Tom was doing the point too.
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| Twilight Express |
This all meant that the journey to Osaka passed by quite quickly. When we got to Osaka station Matt noticed that the Twilight Express was in (Japan's answer to the Orient Express) which goes from Osaka to Sapporo (capital of the Northern island of Hokkido) in 24 hours. We went to the platform to look. It certainly is a very lovely train and the first class coaches looked very luxurious. The end coach has a private apartment in it with 2 single beds - wow that must be great - although I think if it was me I would be too excited to sleep!
We then headed to Osaka-Ko for the aquarium. First stop though was lunch, we were in Osaka so it could only be one thing: Takoyaki - we were starving so we stopped at the first place serving it and dug in - a cheap lunch too - only 300 Yen for a serving (£2.50) the beer we had with it cost more! Tom dug in too - demolishing 3 of them. Guess what - I forgot to photograph them too!
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| Tom and his special ticket |
When we were finished we finally got to the aquarium. Once we had paid our entrance fee we found out that their star attraction - the Whale Shark wasn't on show as they were putting in a new shoal of 30,000 sardines and wanted them settled before releasing the whale shark on them. We were very disappointed as the whale shark was half the reason for going there. However, we all had a good time. We had job slowing Tom down - as soon as he saw one tank he would shout "next tank - come on Mummy". Anyway it was better than I remembered - plenty to see: otters, sea otters, dolphins, seals, sea lions, penguins, turtles as well as lots and lots of fish. The big tank was still very impressive even though the whale shark was missing and our second favourite fish - the sunfish (Mambo in Japanese) was there looking splendid. Tom decided it was his favourite too. We spent a good 1.5 hours there and it went very quickly.
The area outside of the aquarium has been developed considerably since our last visit over 5 years ago - a huge shopping centre has appeared so we went inside searching for tea and a bun. Unfortunately although there was a big food court we couldn't find anything like that so we had an ice cream instead. Then a quick visit to a 100 Yen shop and back to the train station for our trip home. This time we got the Shinkansen back to Himeji and popped into the shopping mall to get dinner (chicken cutlet, an omurice (rice wrapped up in an omelette) a croquette and a number of salads - we've been lacking vegetables recently) on the way out of the station a ticket inspector stopped us to admire Tom's shirt - he was wearing his Ajax top and gave Tom a special children's ticket - Tom was very proud.
Then it was back on the Shinkansen - this time the Rail Star and a posh compartment within it for the long 8 minute journey back to Aioi.
Oh and today's purchases: a Shinkansen picnic blanket, a Shinkansen sticker book (we can't help ourselves!) and a mini sun fish.
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Location:Osaka
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