Continued from Osaka Day 2.

It’s Father’s Day today!! I get to do whatever I want today….well…just a little.

Japanese breakfast. Convenience store coffee with egg sandwich. Yum. Wish they had more canned cold brew here though.

Another slow start to the day. We are starting to get worn down by traveling. RL has also started to feel some sinus infection issues come on. Good thing I’ve got all those antibiotics that I didn’t take in case she ends up needing them.

Laundry day, this is the single unit washer/dryer combo.

Great idea, except for the long cycles. We had so much laundry we also used the stand alone washer and dryer next to it as well. The hotel provides this free of charge for us so that’s nice.

CL thought that it would be fun for me to sit here and take a photo.

Perhaps no rain today?

Got a long subway ride ahead of us.

Here we are! By port of Osaka to go to the aquarium.

But first, lunch.

It’s time for okonomiyaki! Yum.

Yummmmmm. The kids fought us about eating it, even though I made it for them in Austin. Then they started eating it and thought that it was good. Duh.

We’ve been getting daily photo updates of Momo back at home in Austin from our neighbor AP watching her. Stupid ass dog, but so cute. Terrible thing.

Look at that tiny tiny keg.

There’s a giant cruise ship docked at port.

Aquarium!! Last time we were here, we saw mola mola, wonder if they still have them. I’m excited.

And that immediately turned into disappointment. I didn’t think to purchase tickets beforehand because last time I came, there wasn’t many people and we just walked right in. Well, there’s a 2.5 hour wait for the next timed entry into the aquarium. I should have known the moment we got closer and saw the HORDES of people here. 11 years ago, I remember it being really empty. Japan has changed…there’s are TONS of tourists now.

Fuck, I’m disappointed. I’m disappointed for my kids that they don’t get to see this aquarium. I feel like I failed them. 🙁 Sigh.

While I was trying to figure out what to do and whether I could buy online tickets for a faster entry, RL took the kids inside the mall next to aquarium and they found this fake food shop. The kids were very impressed.

It’s hot, it’s disappointing, green tea ice cream at 7 Eleven as consolation prize. It is just getting harder and harder to do spur of the moment traveling now. It only means you can’t see or do the stuff that you want to do. Being spontaneous during travel is dead.

Ice makes the disappointments in life easier to deal with.

It also shows how the kids are super messy eaters.

Alright, switching gears. Going back to the the subway and going to Osaka Castle instead. We weren’t originally going to Osaka castle due to time constraints, but I guess we’ve got the rest of the afternoon open now.

There’s so few trashcans in Japan, and yet it’s super clean. I’ve been holding this piece of trash for quite a while trying to find a trash can to throw away.

Close to Osaka Castle, now we walk. It’s hot, and the kids are complaining how it’s hot and how we are walking so much. I know kids, I too wish I was inside a cool aquarium.

I hope we are at the correct entrance. Would suck if we had to walk all the way around the grounds just to get in.

Success. There’s a lot of people here as well, but at least for our purpose, we are only going to walk semi close to the castle to snap a photo.

The giant boulders in the walls.

More giant boulders.

There she is. At least the afternoon didn’t go to waste after the aquarium bust. We did have to walk a lot to get here though.

Focus Little KL.

Found someone to take a photo of us and this one turned out well, nice.

We went into the castle 11 years ago, and it was disappointing so we know better now than to go in. So, let’s walk around the grounds here and head back to our hotel to get out of this heat. I don’t know how people are walking around with long sleeves and light jackets. We are just sweating buckets here.

Baba, come up here and look at the view. No, I don’t want to.

Argh, fine, I will.

The view.

Even RL got suckered into climbing up here.

Taking a different subway back, so heading to a different part of the castle grounds.

What! A lady walking her meerkats?

Found a playground. The kids were complaining about how tired and hot they were, but when they saw the playground, they immediately wanted to play on it. Alright then. Little KL immediately ran off into the playground tower.

Look at these two little hamsters.

Hahahaa…

That’s a lot of trust in not falling over on the bike.

Alright kids, let’s head back to our hotel and get out of this heat, then head to dinner before it gets too crowded. Down the subway we go.

I like those light fixtures.

That’s a giant Prada and LV store.

Yup, I drank the Zima.

And some cheap Japanese Whiskey.

Now, it’s time for dinner. It’s early, but after our experience during missing out on aquarium, I don’t want to risk it anymore.

Dinner spot. I eat here every time I come to Osaka. Probably cheesy, probably a lot of better/cooler spots, but this is my spot.

Hey kids, look, it’s the aquarium that I promised.

Just as I had remembered it.

Except, now that we’ve got a bigger party, we had to seat at an inner table not facing the window. Awww, I wanted to people watch damnit.

Also changed, you order from a damn tablet now. Blah. I did end up ordering with our waitress though so she could help me. Speaking of other parts of Japan not being the same, the waitstaff are not as attentive as they used to be in general. I remember Japan being where EVERYWHERE the service was topnotch, but no longer the case. With that said, Kani Doraku, at least our wait staff were still old school awesome Japanese service.

I wanted to eat here for Father’s Day. The kids will complain, and we’ll down alcohol to deal with it.

Crab sashimi, still not a fan. Ended up saving it and cooking in the hotpot.

They made the hotpot with some sort of plastic/paper as the bowl. Will it burn if I scooped out all of the soup?

Little KL fascinated by the fire.

Grilled crab. I remember they used to grill these on the table, but no more. They now serve them pregrilled. Lame.

I think this was crab mac/cheese?

Cooking the sashimi in the hotpot too.

He thought the little crab shaped carrot was so cute. Cute, even though he’s giant punk almost all the time.

Say crab!!!!

5 people party issues, can’t sit by the window. The restaurant never got too crowded. I have also noticed that we’ve never really had much of an issue getting into restaurants in Japan. There are A LOT of people and a lot more Westerner tourists, but the restaurants seem less crowded than before. Do they eat somewhere else that I don’t eat at?

Ice cream, the green tea flavor was made by literally making green tea from powder and pouring it into milk flavored ice cream.

Yup, til next time I come to Osaka.

Consolation aquarium.

After dinner, took a stroll around Dotonbori to show the kids. They still think Tokyo is more crowded and this is nothing….I mean…maybe so, but this isn’t “not” crowded and bustling.

We’ve had very little luck at claw machines this trip.

Look, a Kura sushi.

The symbol of Osaka.

The World Expo is happening in Osaka right now.

Lots of people. I may crop this photo and make it one of the banner photos.

Little KL surprised by the size of tuna fish.

Fine, let’s play the shooting game.

Kani Doraku even has a second restaurant just on the other side of Dotonburi.

We shoot cork out of airguns.

We ended up winning some snacks with the help of the attendant lady. She saw that I had one dark color painted thumbnail, and showed me her painted nails. I’d like to think that she helped us win just due to the kinship.

Takoyaki! Too full to get any.

Yeah…we didn’t win anything.

CL saw the banner with Photo Spot, so she wanted to take a photo.

Still one of the more cool non circular ferris wheels.

PL asked if those were men and why they were so girly. It just is girl…I don’t understand it either.

Someone bought a stroller full of piglets.

Kids have been asking to go shopping at Don Quijote, but we told them maybe when we get to Tokyo later. Whatever we buy now, we’ll need to carry with us for the rest of the trip. So, let’s save some of the purchases for the last stop.

Some of our winnings at the air gun booth. I threw these away because I figured I’d scare myself with them accidentally.

Put the kids to bed, We went out at 9pm to check one last time if Pink Elephant is open tonight. They were good last night with checking the ipads when we messaged them so there’s more trust tonight on leaving them for a bit.

Another disappointment, closed tonight as well. Japan, you hurt me today.

Well, we are leaving Osaka tomorrow and I don’t know when I’ll come back to Japan or Osaka next. I’m not sure if this bar will still be here then. Sigh. In 11 years,  I’ve changed, and Japan, you’ve changed too.

And to add insult to injury, something I ate did not agree with my GI today. I had the runs tonight and it was not fun. My IBS has been holding up pretty well so far until tonight. At least the good news is that I’m the country with good clean bidet public toilets.

To be continued at Kyoto Day 1.