April 6th - Osaka in a nutshell, Pt. 2 - Aquarium Kaiyukan

Early afternoon. Off to the aquarium Kaiyukan!

Just interesting architecture

In Tokyo, Osaka and also in Kagoshima they have giant Ferris wheels in prominent locations with a good overview. I really wanted to do a ride, but the queues....

First glimpse of Kaiyukan

If you acept the waiting time you can do a ride with this Santa Maria through Osaka harbour.

The little mermaid.
Tokyo had only the puny Statue of Liberty.
Osaka wins hands on.
Because boobs and a fantasy trope!

Inside the Kaiyukan you first have to go to the top (thankfully by escalators, 7th floor..) and then you more or less go down all the time.

In the middle is a 5 story aquarium featuring among others whale sharks and mantas. Apart from that you have a lot of focused and mostly really well done exhibitions on various parts of marine life and geography.

I took a shitload of pics, but it wouldn't do them justice to throw them all in here, so I will only post an exemplary few.

The first impression is the obligatory glass tunnel with some baby sharks.

Followed by a n exhibition about japanese woods

Penguins. The snow is real btw. They have a snowmachine raining down ice all the time.

Manta. Looks better than the car (who is old enough to know them from personal experience?)

A whale shark

The most beatiful shark in the aquarium. Was a bit far away and pretty fast and erratic. So hard to get on a photo.

This seal was eating ice. The snow and ice here are real.
It lazed around there, occasionally scratching some of the ice and then eating it.