Osaka Now (Part One) !!!

I just got back tonight from a three day trip to Osaka with my family and it was a blast.  If you haven't been there it's definitely worth checking out.  We spent most of the time walking around different areas of town while I would sneak off and dig for some vinyl and look for guitar shops.  We also hit the aquarium and the zoo to get our national geographic on...

We just decided to get away a few weeks ago so I couldn't wait to check out a new city and hit the ground running!

On our flight there we got to enjoy the newly designed Cathay Pacific seats.  Each person had their own little area and the seats can lie totally flat!

Scott enjoying his cocoon!

The first place we checked out was Shin Sai Bashi.  Lots of cool shops that stretched out for blocks.  Miki Gaki is a great music store to go to and a must is Tower Records, Athens Bookstore, Tokyu Hands, etc.  Also checkout the side streets for some hidden treasures!

Big city lights.....

I love it how people can just rock out in the streets in Japan...

End of day one with a great view of Osaka Castle from our hotel room!

The following day we went to one of the biggest aquariums in the world -The Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan. 

I forgot what these guys were called.  They're similar to otters but smaller and reminded me of Kingsley since they were the same color.

We were also greeted by some penguins, dolphins, super strange looking round fishes, and a manta ray!

This guy reminded me of a turtle I saw while snorkeling in Waimea Bay (Hawaii) but the one I saw was missing a leg (probably from a shark attack).  I wonder how he's doing now....

There were some weird but colorful looking jellyfish and some evil looking spider crabs....

But the coolest, biggest, and my favorite animal was the WHALE SHARK!  I always wanted to swim with one and used to dream about it when I was a kid.  This was my first time seeing them in person and it was sooo insane.  They had two in the aquarium and they were huge.  They just chilled and didn't think twice about the workers cleaning inside the tank. 

Whale sharks kick ass!!