8th July – Osaka by Maya

We did so much today. It started off with walking 5 minutes from the place where we’re staying (called hotel quartz) in Osaka to the nearest train station. We caught a train to a station near the Osaka castle. From there we walked through a very pretty park and up to the castle. The castle was amazing. It was white with turquoise roofs and gold fish on the edges of each roof. Inside the castle there was old samurai armour, tiny models of wars that had happened there, and lots of information about things that had happened there.

After we visited the castle we caught a train to Osaka bay. There we had a delicious lunch at a small okonomiaki restaurant. I had yakisoba (noodles), Zoe and Dad had okonomiyaki (Japanese pizza/pancake), and Mum had takoyaki (octopus balls).

When we had all finished eating our yummy food we headed towards the aquarium. When we got inside the aquarium it was packed. There were amazing fish and people everywhere. In some enclosures there were seals and in others there were even whale sharks and hammer head sharks. We saw dolphins, penguins, turtles, and even strange fish that didn’t seem to have tails. But the thing that there seemed to be most of was stingrays. There was also a black room with lots of white-jellyfish that glowed. At the end there was a pool where we got to touch stingrays. They felt slimy against my fingers. I got a fright the first time I touched one.

 

Later today we went to Dotonbori it was awesome. There were huge pop out signs everywhere. There was a crab at least 100 times the size of a normal crab. As well as that there were giant geoza, takoyaki, cows, people eating, and even a dragon that looked like it went through a building. We also had very yummy dinner at a very traditional pub restaurant.

Tonight we stayed at hotel quartz again.