Fun in Osaka

I made it to Osaka!! Luckily for me, the train from Tokyo to Osaka originates in Tokyo. So it was empty when my line of people started boarding, and I got a seat.

Of course, everything is crowded because it's Golden Week. Saturday, the weather was great and we went to the Aquarium. It is a must-see!


There is a lot to see on the inside. The crab on the left reminded m of the show "Deadliest Catch", which always made me hungry for crab. Of course, after going through the aquarium, I was hungry for seafood. I haven't had any since, although I think I've been fed well enough to put on any weight I may have lost since I got here.

The aquarium is right by the harbor, and there is a reproduction of Columbus' Santa Maria. It's twice the size of the original, and they don't even hoist the sails. But we went on a nice cruise of the harbor on it. I can see how it would be very popular in the summer, as the temperature on the water was a lot cooler than on land.

Today, it's rainy, so we went to a movie. We saw Next, subtitled in Japanese. I had never heard of it before -- I think it was chosen based on language, for my benefit. I actually liked it -- the original story ("The Golden Man" by Philip K. Dick) was written by the same author who wrote the story that Bladerunner was based on. It stars Nicholas Cage. The soundtrack is by Mark Isham. There are plenty of guns, explosions and Matrix-like effects with a bit of a love story tossed in for those who need such things in movies. The only odd things I noticed is that seats are assigned when you buy a ticket; and with one or two exceptions, everyone stayed through the credits. Which were in English, so it must have been just out of politeness, not out of actually wanting the information provided. Yes, I do know that the movie was released in 2007, but I don't see a lot of movies and it's new to me.