Postcards from Japan

Where to start? After the long, long flight, a 1.5-hour train trip, and a 10-minute walk, we finally made it to our airbnb over a little bar in Higashiōsaka. Our host Koji welcomed us with a meal of okonomiyaki (kind of like a savory cabbage and meat pancake). We were all pretty exhausted, so after a quick trip to the nearby convenience store for some essentials, we called it a night.

Tuesday, we started early to try for same-day sumo tickets, but there are only as many available on a given day as there are cancelations. We weren’t lucky enough to snag some, so after a quick breakfast, we made our way over to the Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan. There are tons of great exhibits, but the central tank with the whale sharks steals the show.

There are plenty of places to just stop and soak in the atmosphere, and I definitely took advantage of every opportunity. And at ¥2700 (just under $18USD), I’m sorely tempted to go back if we end up with a slow day before we leave the city.

After ambling through the aquarium, we hopped on the Tempozan ferris wheel. At 112.5m, it’s one of the world’s tallest, and even with the overcast weather we were able to catch a glimpse of the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge, with the second longest central span of any suspension bridge in the world.

After that, we wandered around Tempozan until we got hungry, then dropped by a yakitori place for dinner. The exhaustion hit hard after our stomachs were full, so we were pretty much dragging ourselves back to the apartment by the time we got off the train. I was out by the time my head hit the pillow.

I’ve got all of day two still to fill you in on, but in the interest of brevity, I’ll do a dedicated post. After I get some sleep 😴.