Hazards Of Marrying A Scientist

Brace yourselves. I’m opening this blog post with a shocking revelation – a bit of self-discovery I’ve found during this trip.  Ready?  I am a sucker for activities related to science.  If there’s an informative sign about that rock formation, I want to read it.  If there’s a guide to the flowers or wildlife, I want to see it.  If I hike with you, I’ll be a steady stream of questions: “Why do you think/Why does (insert living thing) (insert unusual behavior/characteristic)?”  And, of course, if there’s an aquarium, I want to visit it.   If it’s purported by Lonely Planet to be “one of the best in the world”, then I may even want to walk through the entire thing twice.

Kee-Min, the good sport that he is, willingly indulges my love for science-y tourist attractions.  And that is how we came to visit the Osaka Aquarium upon our arrival in Japan last week, not even 3 weeks after visiting the Napier Aquarium.  We landed in Japan on Thursday morning, dropped our bags at our hotel in Kyoto, and made our way to Osaka by train.  If you missed it, read about it HERE.

We bought our tickets from a machine – We’ve come to learn that Japan loves ticket-dispensing machines, not just for subway tickets, but also for museum entrances and bowls of Ramen.  See?

Add your money, choose your ramen, get a ticket, bring it to the counter.

Conveniently for us, there is usually (note: usually) a few words of English or a picture to help us figure out which buttons to push.   To date, we have not (yet) accidentally purchased something we’d not intended to.  

Then, we took the longest escalator ever – at least, that I can ever remember taking – up to the 8^th floor.  I don’t like heights, and images of my toppling over backwards all the way to the bottom were causing some serious palm-sweat.  So, we distracted me with a quick photo shoot.

In the name of marriage, I gave the Asian-photo-peace-sign a chance.
KMN: Uhh, honey?  You're doing it backwards...

We then took a downhill, spiraling course through the exhibits, all the way back down (or, at least to the 3rd floor).  A runner's dream: A nice, gradual net downhill! I couldn't help but think of the first 8 miles of the Steamtown Marathon.

We started with the Asian Smallclawed Sea Otters.  KAWAI!  (which means 'cute' in Japanese.  Pronounce it coo-eye.)  But just like their larger cousins that we spied in NZ, these critters stink.  Still, they mugged for some photos, and chewed on their claws.  I speculate that this is a grooming behavior, but I can't find independent verification on that.  Anyone?

Paws!  Nom - nom - nom...

We snapped a pile of photos.  I know that there isn't much difference between these guys and what you might see at another aquarium (although the place was maintained spotlessly, and most of the animals had quite a bit of room).  But I'm a biologist.  So check out some sea life with me! 

These seals made me think of the docks in the harbour in San Francisco!
But seeing the seals up close made us appreciate the size and phenotype changes
that occur as they age. The old ones were considerably larger, grayer, and slower!
[But wiser, I am certain.]

There were not, in fact, too many fish in this sea.
I could sit and watch these guys for hours.

Ditto with him (her?).  Those tentacles are amazing, and I could watch him/er move
those suction cups for a good long time.
And check out the earthenware jar on the lower right.
There's a baby in there!!

Many of the tanks were multi-level: We saw the seals at the top, then circled down to see dolphins, further down to see fish, further down to see bottom-dwelling creatures.  And these were MONSTROUS tanks.  I wouldn't want to be the one in charge if any of them ever sprung a leak.  Anticipating my thinking, there was a display at the end indicating that the tank walls were 30 cm thick.  That is a LOT of plexiglass!


Further, I have come to the conclusion that all aquariums should have music piped in.   The Osaka Aquarium was quiet enough so that I could appreciate the music, which varied on each level, depending (in my estimation) on how active the creatures there were expected to be.  I might be romanticizing the overall effect, but I quite enjoyed sitting, watching the tanks, and listening to the music.  I'm not a behavioral biologist, but watching the sea life can be mesmerizing!


And the best part was yet to come: on the lowest level, we walked through about 10 individual tanks of jelly fish.  Many varieties were represented, with varying levels of toxicity.  It was very dark, with some low lighting in the tanks.  Capturing a good photo was tricky, but we got a few that weren't too bad:

If you don't mind the screens that you can see through the tank!

You can't quite tell from the photo, but these guys were TINY.

And that, sadly, brought our aquarium experience to an end.  We headed outside and snapped a few sunset-esque photos of Osaka Port, which honestly wasn't terribly picturesque:

 Then, we headed out to Dotonburi for dinner.  Dotonburi is a touristy, neon-sign laden street with tons of food shops.  It looks something like this:

We were freezing cold, hungry, and getting tired.  We wanted ramen, and after being unable to find an indoor shop that we liked the looks of (or that wasn't mobbed by a bus group of tourists), we settled on an outdoor one.  We figured that, if people were still eating there when it was 32 F outside, the food must be good.

"I can't believe I'm doing this."

Well, the ramen was mediocre.  But overall, we had an awesome day.  And if you come back tomorrow, you can read about some really AWESOME ramen we had the following day!! 

And no, I am *not* below bribing you with food posts!!

Now, off to the fish market!!