Living and Swimming

What a difference a good night of sleep makes! With great rest comes a bigger appetite. There’s no better way to cure morning hunger than with a visit to a bakery! Unfortunately, we were so quick to eat that no pictures of said baked goods were taken. There will be more baked goodies, so expect pictures of that later in the trip.

Our first destination of the day was the Osaka Museum of Housing and Living. Here they’ve recreated the streets of Osaka from the Edo period. The even better part of this is being able to dress the part as you walk the streets. As you walk around, you can experience a whole day within a matter of minutes, as the lighting around the city goes from dawn to dusk and sunny to thunderstorming.

As awesome as walking the old streets of Osaka was, there was no food to be had, so we hit the real streets to our lunch destination, Gunjo Ramen. This place proved to be a bit tricky to find, as the store had no obvious sign (that we could read, at least). As with any good ramen place in San Francisco, we found this by the line that had formed outside.

The wait was well worth it! Of course, that has to be washed down with dessert, as so my friends had melon pan stuffed with soft serve.

After we were done stuffing ourselves, we jumped onto the Metro to travel over to the Osaka Aquarium. Definitely one of the best looking aquariums I’ve seen so far!

The aquarium covered many different regions around the world, but their biggest attraction is their whale shark exhibit. We spent much of our time sitting and watching the two whale sharks and rays gracefully swimming by.

Of course not all the things here are as straightforward, large, or cuddly…

Jellyfish are always fun to see, especially with the way they designed the room.

Of course, the best way to end a day of sightseeing is with a good dinner. For tonight, we opted for an izakaya dinner at Mamesuke, near Shinsaibashi station.

‘Til tomorrow, take care!