My visit to Osaka aquarium

[2iar]

Top stuff Mooks, looks like you had a ball.

I wonder if you could train the crab to guard your pots - that'd stop the thieves in a hurry!

Good luck,
Mike

[-Henno-]

The crabs weren't that scary really, just big! That one didn't move the whole time I was watching him. They are pretty docile and it takes them 30 seconds to get their claw from the ground to their mouths when they do move.

[AutoPilot]

Wow ....that was a great thread...puts Mooloolaba to sham....

Cheers
Scott

[theVan]

Mate .... that is an awesome read.
Thank you for sharing!
I wish I had read this earlier as I just booked a round the world egtting home through Hong Kong.... Oh well , Japan can be the next trip!

So were you able to get coffee and toast? I think I would be the same as you at breakfast

[-Henno-]

Yeah coffee and toast was easy to get. In fact even their bloody toast was better than ours. You can buy bread in any thickness you want so I opted for what my parents you to call 'Doorstop' size. Their peanut butter was unreal as well. There's a tub of it in my fridge right now.

I think having a Japanese wife was a big reason why I had such a great time. All the family wanted to meet me and the fact that I could eat with chopsticks and ate everything put in front of me put me in the good books big time.

You'd still have a great time as an on your own tourist but I'd hate to navigate the subways by myself. I saw western couples that obviously didn't speak any English in the subways that looked lost and panic stricken. Even my wife got confused in Osaka. Here's why. As well as there being bugger all English on all their maps of where you want to go and the ticketing machines they also have more than one train company and one company doesn't mention anything on their stuff about destinations of another company if you get my drift. If you don't know that platform 34 and 35 are the ones belonging to the company that goes where you want you are stuffed.

I'd lose sight of my wife in the crowd for more than 3 seconds and start crying like a 2 year old!

[trueblue]

That is an awsome aquarium. What amazed me when I saw it in '98 was that as you walk down the spiral walkway, you notice how territorial the fish are for their 'level' in the water depth. Certain fish only swim in a very defined level, with others species above and below, and then some speedsters like the tuna were just going ballistic through all levels.

it was a top thing to see.

cheers

[juju]

I envy you, would be a great place to see

[finga]

So Mark...what tackle shops did you visit or is that an entirely new big thread??

[-Henno-]

That was one of the few failures of my trip I suppose. I get a bit funny about going to places that I would want to spend a lot of money at when I don't have it to spend but we tried giving it a go one morning in Osaka.

The big Shimano one in Osaka turned out to be on the same side of town as the aquarium. We had left there the day before to go in search of craft beer. It also turned out to be a hassle doing something impromptu in a big Japanese city. I had a squiz in a few small ones and they were all geared at the locals with the biggest reels in the 3000 range.

It will be researched properly and tracked down on the next trip for sure.

I spent an hour or so hanging with some guys fishing for little bait like things on a wharf in Otaru. They had this cool system with a tripod for your rods and another one with a plastic bucket filled with a mince looking bait that you passed your multy hook rig backwards and forwards through to bait up. Some guys had made their own rod rack clamps that fitted onto a railing on the wharf.