Osaka, cont'd

Hello again all!

Okay, to continue from where we left off. The ferris wheel outside the Aquarium. Here's a pic:

And a photo of the aquarium from inside the ferris wheel.

I have to say, it was pretty spacious inside the cab of the ferris wheel. It was a big tourist attraction, and they did it up right. Admission was only 700 yen, too. That's about $6.00. One of they guys, Jason (the guy in the green shirt from the hangover photo) was a bit afraid of heights as well as being hung over. He still went up, though. I was impressed, these guys were all soldiers.

Inside the aquarium, the whale shark was definitely the most incredible thing, but a lot of the exhibits were pretty wild. I had never seen dolphins like they had there - the whitesided dolphins from the Tasman sea were really different from the bottlenose dolphins we get around Florida. They acted about the same, though. I guess when you are as aerodynamic as a lear jet and you spend all your time swimming in water that's kept at exactly the right temperature and waiting to be fed your next gourmet meal and be tended to by an army of highly-trained professionals who have all studied your habits since they were in high school, there's only so stressed you can be. The otters were also pretty cool, even if they did smell like the bottom of a gerbil cage. The giant spider crabs were definitely way up there on my all-time creepy things list. Some of them were about four feet tall when they extended their legs! The website I gave you yesterday has some good photos of the star attractions on it - it was dark inside, and again, my flash didn't work. I got some good video, but you can't post that here. You'll just have to imagine.

After the aquarium visit, we went back to the capsule hotel and crashed for about two hours before heading to the international beer festival. It's amazing how much difference an hour and a half of sleep can make when you only got three hours the night before. Having the cameras charged was also definitely a plus. After some adventures on the Osaka subway, we got to the festival about 6:30. It had been going on since noon, but we discussed it and decided that after partying the previous night, it would be dumb to start drinking at noon, peak about 2:30, and be ready for bed by 6:00. Sightseeing killed some time nicely, plus I mean hey, we got to do some sightseeing.

The international beer festival was held in the courtyard of the Umeda Sky building, one of the primary landmarks of Osaka. Here is a link to a page which shows some good photos and a bit of info.

http://www.japaneselifestyle.com.au/travel/osaka_umeda_sky_building.htm

It should say something for our states of mind at that point that we were unable to find the stinking building for a good half an hour. In our defense, the train station we came out of was pretty big and blocked about half the skyline, and the building wasn't lit up either.

The international beer festival was overall a great time. There were lots of pavilions surrounding a courtyard about the size of a football field, and they all sold international cuisine. The reason Akira had heard about the festival was because it was a JET function in a prefecture near Osaka (I forget which one) and there were several groups there that we had seen the previous night in America-mura and staying at the same capsule hotel. There was a LOT of foreigners there, a bigger concentration than I have ever seen in Japan before or since. They were from all over the world, and they all spoke English. It was great to get into the crowd and just mingle. I talked with a girl at one point who spoke fluent English and Spanish, and conversational Japanese. She was listening to Spanish rock on a computer she had set up outside the pavilion she was working at. It turned out she listened to some of the same music as my old roommate in Florida, Juan Carlos. JC, if you're reading this, a girl in Osaka knew the Hermanitos Verdes. Apparently, it's a small world. I love Osaka. The beer was also excellent - we had the option of paying 3000 Yen for some little glasses and going around sampling a little bit of various things, but all the guys I was with just said 'forget that' and bought bottles. I think that was a better approach. We tried some Japanese microbrews, which I hadn't had before, and some raspberry wheat ale from Germany, and after that, just whatever the guy recommended at the tent I was at. It was all good, but I don't remember names. There was too much going on.

The centerpoint of the festival was a stage that was set up to one side of the football field-sized courtyard. It's worth mentioning that the courtyard was between the two towers of the Umeda Sky Building, so we were kind of being straddled by one of the biggest icons in Osaka the entire time we were there. It was really cool. Anyway, the stage show started at about 7:30, and it consisted of dance from Spain, America and Thailand. Some of the costumes were incredible, and they played a good variety of music. They had elegant Jazz dancing, a couple that did a latin dance, a few ladies dancing to some American pop (Skater Boy by Avril Lavigne - pretty surreal), a few ladies dancing to a show tune (the theme from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - extremely surreal), and many examples of Thai dancing. I thought the Thai dancing was incredible, because it ranged from the energetic to the extremely elegant, with the dancers moving in perfect synch with each other. Small motions are hard to get exactly right - it takes a high degree of timing to make small motions mesh when there are several dancers on stage. These women were impressive. Here are some photos. Once again, flash broken, photos stink, be patient, may be able to get more:

Thai Dancers

Showtune Dancers

The dancers were just from local clubs, I think - they weren't professional quality, but they were having fun and they were elegant and they were entertaining, and the crowd was loving it.

After the show, we went up in the Umeda Sky building to the observation level, and checked out the nighttime skyline of Osaka. It was pretty amazing - the observation level is open to the sky, and it's a bit cold and windy, but the unspoiled view is incredible. They were playing some, like, Kenny G music up there, and there were a lot of couples. I could see it being an incredible date spot. Here's a pic:

Going back down to street level, we saw the last show of the night, a Taiko show (Japanese Drumming, with those huge drums). After the show, the group took some people from the audience up to do the taiko with them - I got to go up! It was sweet! One of the guys got a photo of that, I really hope I can get it. After that, we hung out in the Johnsonville Bratwurst tent (no kidding - it was surreal, a Wal-Mart brand being a big international attraction in Osaka) for a little while, and then went bar-hopping the rest of the evening. Awesome time.

Sorry, but it's late and I have to go. Soon, I'll post about the next day and our day trip to Kyoto, and the midnight rave on the Osaka castle grounds. No shit, for real. I love Osaka. Best weekend ever. Ja!