Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan

Alright, time for a pre-blog flashback. These images were taken when I visited the Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan ((海遊館)  in 2010. This was the day after Halloween, and I had just spent the following night parading through downtown Osaka in a Unicorn suit. This day was a bit more low-key. It rained like hell in Osaka all afternoon and night. I walked into the aquarium wetter than the damn fish in the tanks. I had initially wanted to see the beautiful light displays outside the building, but by the time we arrived it was so dark and cold I snapped only a couple photographs before rushing inside.

This aquarium was probably a big hit in the 90s, but twenty years later it looks a little dated. It also looks enormous from the outside, but inside your greeted with a monstrously long line, and crowds 5 feet deep in front of every tank. It is almost impossible to move or see anything inside the aquarium. This part is really annoying. Fortunately I'm still a foot taller than the entire population of Japan, so I managed to take some pictures over everyone's heads from the back of the crowd.

When I visted, the star of the show was this white porpoise, who was very cute, but I didn't get to photograph him because he was moving way too fast. Fortunately, there's plenty else to look at.

feeding the seals

Sea otters on a staged "prehistoric" set

The seal looks like a perfect little poop <3

Sea lions doing what sea lions do

This sting ray was the size of a small studio apartment. You can't tell from the photograph, but this tank was massive, three stories tall and probably the size of the Hilton lobby.

Japanese spider crab!

My beautiful pictures of jelly fish 

Jellyfish from all over the world...(cough cough, that's a Murakami reference)

Tiny baby jelly fish

Ah the petting zoo. This was the first aquarium I had visited with a petting zoo (I would later find another one in Denmark). Here I got to pet a sting ray. He was cold and slimy, but I liked him.