Osaka: The Return

So I know the title of this post is Osaka, but before I talk about that, I need to mention that our friend Miho-san moved really close to the Center recently, and on Saturday, May 28th, she had a housewarming party at her house!  It was really fun!

She decorated Tim Tams (Australian sandwich cookies) for each of us!  Mine has the kanji for Arashi on it eheheh.  Everyone in this country knows how much I love them~  

Sukiyaki!  That's Matsusaka beef, which is pretty famous.  It was AMAZING.

Look how cute the carrots are~

We had a few dessert options...

Fun times! We played some pretty intense Uno after this haha.

And now...

OSAKA: SUNDAY 5/29 - MONDAY 5/30

During Golden Week, Becky, Carol and I made plans with our fellow missionaries who live in Osaka to come visit, and so we did!  We went to church in Tsu, as usual, and then took the train to Osaka to go to the Komyo church (which starts at 4pm).  It was POURING rain, so we were really grateful when Shan picked us up from the train station!  Church was great (Yuri, who only recently joined the team in Osaka after moving from Kyoto, preached for the first time!), and then we all went out to dinner at Baby Face Planet's (lol, I know).  It's a restaurant that has a variety of food that you can order in sizes varying from normal to RIDICULOUSLY HUGE.  We decided to get a few different things and share, and it was all delicious!

Scrambled egg pizza.  Don't knock it till you've tried it.  

Dessert at Saizeriya.  It's a frozen chocolate ice cream-y thing.  <3  With an Osaka guide magazine in the background because we were deciding what to do the next day haha.

Becky and I stayed at Shan's that night, and Carol stayed at Yuri's.  The next day, Melissa joined us, and we all headed to the Osaka Bay area.  I think the original plan was to check out Osaka Castle, but since all the cool stuff to see is outside, and since it'd been raining so much on Sunday, we scrapped that plan.  But our new plan turned out to be pretty awesome!  First item on the agenda was the Osaka Aquarium, which I think I liked even better than the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Walking to the aquarium from the station.  I love Japan's love of giant ferris wheels~

The aquarium!

lol not a bad picture, considering the less-than-ideal conditions...

The aquarium was pretty cool.  It was organized by specific areas...but of course I didn't keep my brochure, so you'll just have to guess where the different animals are from haha.  I was surprised at how many non-water-dwelling animals this aquarium had too.  I took about a billion pictures, so I'll try to narrow it down a bit.

Otters!  <3

CAPYBARA.  <3  AKA the world's largest rodent.  They're HUGE.  I had no idea they were rodents!

<3 <3 <3

So many fish!

I liked that this ray had a friend~

So weird and cute!

Turtle~  :D

Creepy...

Dun dun...dun dun...  (I actually think these sharks are cute haha)

So weird and ugly!

Not a job I think I'd want...  I have to admire their hard work though!

So cool!  Its color is so bright~

:D

We spent hours in the aquarium- it's huge!  Afterwards, we went to this mall/shopping area that's like right next to the aquarium, and the first thing we did was find a place to eat!  So we had okonomiyaki, one of Osaka's specialties.

I think this was called modan-yaki or something.  It's okonomiyaki with yakisoba noodles.  It was amazing!

After lunch, we did a little shopping and got some ice cream, and then, on a whim, decided to ride the ferris wheel, since the weather had improved considerably.  It was pretty windy though, as we definitely noticed when we reached the top- by the time we got off, they closed the ferris wheel down because of it!

Becky, Amber, Carol

Melissa, Yuri, Shan

See the aquarium way down there?

After the ferris wheel, we decided to head back to Namba to shop and hang out for a while before Carol, Becky and I had to head back to Mie.  

A pachinko place on the way to the station.  "It is strong in time, and it is gently to time tough at time."  I see a lot of bad English, but I can't even start to guess what they were trying to say with this one.

This is where we had dinner!  Kua'aina a Hawaiian burger place, and Shan had meant to take me here when I was in Osaka last time, but it was closed!  It's in the Namba Parks shopping area, near Namba Station.  

Easily the best burger I've had in Japan.

And then we took the train home.  It was a great couple of days!  I love Osaka more every time I go.  <3