While in Osaka

We mostly spent our stay in the neighbourhood. It was nice to have Matthew with us and doing just some normal everyday things. We visited a couple of shopping malls and indoor playgrounds as the weather turned seriously winterish as soon as we arrived - it was very cold. Luckily the boys were semi aclimatised from the German trip :)

All of us (Ashley's fringe was done by me) had a haircut/treatment done:

The only big day we had was on the very last day. I made a plan to meet up with my friends from my old work in town. But we hadn't decided where and what to do. I was looking for something fun for the kids and not too cold... When I was waiting for the boys having their hair done, I saw these two articles in "KansaiWalker - what's on in Osaka this month" magazine. A visit to the aquarium and another German Christmas market - done deal that's what we ended up doing!! 

Since we wanted to see the festive lights we didn't leave our home until late afternoon. The kids were very excited to be on the train again. It took just over an hour from our place to Osaka aquarium.

The aquarium was voted the best aquarium in Asia by TripAdvisor. It has 10 different areas around the Pacific Ocean. It has a big tank in the middle and you walk around and see the creatures from the top level to the bottom. The Pacific Ocean exhibition is in the world leading volume capacity of 11,000 tons of water. 

We started at a very good timing. As we walked around the animals were being fed.  

We started off with some penguins:

Then a capibara:

Pacific white sided dolphins from the Tasmanian sea - This mummy just had a baby a few months ago.

Santa came out and fed the dolphins:

This otter was very friendly and playful with the kids. Halfway though the exhibits we met up with Chisa and Keito. The kids were very happy to be reunited.

The main exhibit in the aquarium is the whale shark. There used to be two I think but sadly one died in recent years. My photo is not too good but it was ginormous!

Giant spider crabs from the deep Japanese sea:

At the last exhibit "touch pool" the kids got to touch and feel the texture of sharks and rays. Of course Oliver was too scared to do it while Luca was attacking as many as he could.

By the time we finished our tour it was dark outside - AND COOOOOLD!! Perfect timing to see the light up sea creatures.

All the kids were still very energetic so we carried on to another Christmassy spot in Umeda to meet up with Yumiko for some more fun.