We packed up and bid farewell to Kyoto today. The city treated us very well so we were a little sad to go, but we were also excited for today. We bought another convenience-store breakfast and then went to Kyoto station, and boarded the next Shinkansen to Osaka. It was not a long trip - Kyoto and Osaka are neighboring towns.
The Shinkansen
Our first order of business upon arriving was to drop off our bags in our hotel. That accomplished, we next decided to go to the Osaka aquarium, purportedly one of the world's finest. It was very impressive. It had some animals I'd never before seen, such as a giant salamander, and lots of furry animals that made Liz say "aww!" like river otters, penguins and seals (including a baby seal).
Outside the aquarium
Sardines, outside of their natural environment of a small tin
Baby seal, nursing
Pardon me sir, could I trouble you for a herring burger?
The centerpiece was a tank containign a whale shark, lots of smaller sharks, and a huge manta ray. One funny thing I noticed was a fish piggy-backing the manta ray. I couldn't tell if the ray was trying to get rid of it - if it was, it wasn't working.
Manta Ray
Whale Shark
And I was like, whoah!
Bueller?
After that, we dropped by an antique book store near our hotel to look for some artwork. We found two things that we liked and bought them. Our hotel is near lots of shopping, including an underground mall. The Japanese apparently love underground malls, the two we've seen so far have both been at subway stations. Not a bad idea for location.
Fancy manhole cover
After taking a break in our room, we traveled to Koshien Stadium to watch a baseball game. Koshien is one of Japan's most historic stadiums, and is the site of the national high school baseball championships, one of Japan's biggest sporting events. This game was between the Hanshin Tigers and the visiting Tokyo Yakult Swallows.
Some of my observations:
The Tigers have a supporters culture that more resembles soccer than baseball. We were sitting in the outfield, and nearly everyone around us joined in on the singing and cheering. There were several men who would lead the cheers, occasionally bringing out mops - yes, mops - to aid in their directing. Each hitter had his own song, which everybody knew the words for.
Most concessions were sold by young girls wearing pink Asahi or red Kirin outfits, which are two brands of beer in Japan. Those actually selling beer would wear pony kegs on their backs, which had taps to dispense the beer. They all had high-pitched voices and would say "biiru doku desu-ka!" or something along those lines. Liz found their squeaky voices annoying.
Other concessions were sold in the concourses. No garlic fries, but they did sell chicken yakitori skewers, which were tasty. I was also proud of myself for figuring out which line I needed to be in to order, when some actual Japanese people couldn't.
The 7th inning stretch is something else. Everyone blows up balloons and sings a song which is not "Take me out to the ballgame." At the end of the song, the balloons are released, and fly all around the stadium. It's a sight to behold.
Some kids were carrying bowls of soup that had pieces of seaweed with players names a numbers stamped into them.
The entrance
Meow!
Ganbatte!
*dramatic music*
The Japanese have it right. The Wave has no place in baseball.
Mmm...yakitori
Pony keg girl
It was a fun game, but alas, the Tigers lost 2-3. We rode the Hanshin line back to Osaka and then took the subway back to our hotel. I think this was the first night we were up past 10:00, a new record for us.
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