Headed down into Kobe this weekend to get a haircut, hoping for one like the barman in Fukuyama last weekend... instead it just looks like a number 3 all over. Oh well, it's okay. My friend Yuki recently started working at the Osaka Aquarium and so we decided to go this weekend as she can get us cheap tickets. Me, her and Alex met up in Kobe then headed over to the Tempozan area of Osaka Port where the Aquarium is. We ate some gyoza and bibinpa (if there's a greater meal out there I have yet to find it) in a cool downstairs area set out to be like Japan in the mid 60s with little backstreets and restaurants. Headed over to the aquarium. I've never been to an aquarium before (and apparently this is a really good one) and I was seriously blown away.
After Yuki pretended she was going to work so she could sneak in another entrance, we met up and went through an awesome corridor which was a tunnel under a tank, absolutely beautiful to see the creatures swimming all around you.
The aquarium is based around real areas in the world, Ring of Life and Ring of Fire or something, so each tank represents a place and has a mix of the creatures you'd really find there. I don't know much about that kind of thing, but this place was fascinating. My favourites were the Sea Otters, like a mix between bears and dogs who can swim really well. Very cute but didn't come out well in the pictures so none here.
Massive new whale shark (they're the largest living fish speccies), unfortunately the old one died recently. There were divers at the bottom of the tank seemingly cleaning, and as their air bubbles rose up to the top breaking up into fine bubbles, the massive manta ray was doing endless backflips in it, presumably it tickled or something.
Cute puffer fish. WEIRD ALIEN CRABS FROM SPACE.
Really interesting jellyfish type things.
These things were about the size of a table tennis ball.
After, Alex had to get back to Shinsaibashi sharpish, but me and Yuki checked the Dream of the 20th Century Modern Design Revisited on at the Tadao Ando designed Suntory Museum:
The exhibition was very cool, I was surprised by how much furniture and typography from the early to mid 20th century would still be contemporary today, but it was very small and we were kind of in a rush to get back to Shinsaibashi to meet up for dinner. Before we did, popped in to the Apple Store in Shinsai so Yuki could pick up a new MacBook, and I finally got to have a go on this:
It's ridiculously poor. Can't cue: after you get to the menu for the song, leave the pod for more than a few seconds and it goes back to the main menu, obviously can't beatmatch or anything like that, pod often takes a random length of time up to half a second or so to start once you do actually select the song, horrible.
Headed off to a mexican restaurant, El Pancho, for dinner with some friends. I've never really eaten much Mexican food and it was fun.Headed out for Laurence's birthday (another Laurence, obviously) and we went to a couple of bars in Shinsaibashi. I think they ended up in the end in Club Pure, but for some reason few of us weren't in the mood and retired.
Next morning was all about leisurely exploring Osaka. I love wandering as the city wakes up, you see the dressed to impress kids from last night and girls from the seedy snack bars and foppy haired skinny suit guys stumbling back to the station, a few suits going to work, shopkeepers starting to open up, the city start to get bustling, nice feeling, like the city is yawning and stretching. Everybody else went off to play Ultimate Frisbee somewhere (they're quite into it) and the record shop I wanted to check, King Kong, was still closed, so I thought I'd engage my inner geek and wandered down to Den Den Town in Nipponbashi, which is the electronics/nerdy video game area of Osaka, similar to Akihabara in
Tokyo (but less dissapointing, that was mainly tourists and shops with the vibe of Tottenham Court Road). From Shinsai you wander south through Namba til you get there. Was kinda fun going into shops which were playing 16 bit game soundtracks over the stereos, retro video games controllers hanging from the ceiling, pictures of scenes from old games up all over the shop. I've come to the conclusion I don't really like video games anymore (it's been years since I seriously got into one, just the odd one here and there these days) but I still like the ones I did when I was a kid, so places like this are fun. Checked Super Potato, Big Tiger and some others I forget. Picked up a kids DS game with furigana so I can understand it, though realistically I doubt I'll play it much. Played a Nintendo Virtual Boy for the first time ever and just ogled the nerdiness of it all. Fun. Also in DenDen Town, theres a large two storey shop dedicated JUST to gundam, a particular type of giant robot anime. I couldn't not have a wonder, and though I know nothing about it, the level of detail and obsession that exists for the fans is kinda fun: figures detailing the exact parts used to make the robot, flags for imaginary robot factions, stuff like that. Surprisingly, there were actually quite a few cute young couples in there seemingly sharing in their nerdy passion. Surprising is the wrong word, I thought it was sweet.
Had no rush to get back, so decided to walk all the way from Nipponbashi back to JR Osaka in Umeda, took about an hour and a bit in total. Through Namba back to Shinsaibashi, then just straight down the road for about 45 mins. We always take the tube from Shinsai (takes about 10 mins) but it was cool to see bits of the city I never had before, office areas, a shrine area, little shopping area, and some cool little sculptures ever block or so.
Dunno what the first one is about but love the robot Star Wars vibe of the second.
I love you Osaka. Come and live with me. (oh yeah and summer is definately on it's way - Yoshinoya has changed from serving hot tea to cold.)
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This week has been busy. It's exam week, but this time round I actually have lots to do. I've been helping make exams with the teachers for English I and II and by myself for Sogo Eigo. I'm really enjoying Sogo this term, I have complete free reign to make the lessons and it's been great. The teacher who officially I am assisting is retiring next year, and whilst he's a mild guy who wouldn't hurt a fly (nicknamed Hage-chan by the kids which means bald as it's similar to his name) he's sort of checked out in his mind already. He hangs around at the back of class and occasionally I ask him for a translation (his English is great, although he'll never use it - at the enkai before the student teacher left, she said she was surprised to hear him talking to me as she'd never heard him use English and wondered if he really could) but that's meant Sogo has been my baby this term.
Also starting this week I'm doing 4 elementary school visits. I can't speak for the whole of Japan, but at least round here, elementary schools are complete madhouses! But in a fun way. Today was the first visit. As soon as I went in to the school, some kids ran up and started shouting in Japanese. "SPEAK ENGLISH!" commanded one. "No, teach ME english!" said one who'd sat down and started dragging himself backwards across the floor as another kid threw his slipper down the corridor and chased after it. As I bent down to take off my shoes a small boy started patting my head while asking "are you an adult?" "Hello!" chimed in a girl in English. Everywhere you look, kids seem to be climbing on things, crawling across the floor, runnning like mad things around and about. The lesson about food went well, but if I was an elementary school JET I'd be KNACKERED. Returning to school, the baseball team who normally seem pretty lively seemed the most serious grown up gentlemen in comparison.
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