Pam:  Yes, believe it or not, that’s what the weather report said today for Osaka.  Emily is currently out with cousin Lisa.  Emily went to the (I think) Kanjani 8 concert in Osaka at the Kyocera Dome – it started at 6 p.m.  Don’t know if they went out to eat afterwards or not, so I’m just staying up and updating the blog until Emily gets back.

This morning we left on the “rapid train” bound for Osaka Station.  Once there, we transferred to a train on the JR Osaka Loop line and rode it to Bentencho.  From Bentencho we took the subway to the Osakako stop, then walked about a block to Tempozan Park (on the edge of the Aji River) which contains “Kaiyukan”, or the Osaka Aquarium.  The area looked very nice – clean and well-kept with a mall area adjacent to the aquarium that had shops and restaurants.  Anyway, overall it took about 2 hours’ worth of travel time to get there.

Once inside, we paid our 2000 yen per adult entrance fee and – to our dismay – there were throngs of people entering the aquarium display area.  Again it was wall-to-wall bodies.  Don’t any of these people WORK????  Debbie said that it wasn’t even that crowded on opening day at the Long Beach Aquarium!

Okay so – it was pretty much a run-of-the-mill aquarium.  If you’ve been to Monterey Bay or Long Beach aquariums (or even Sea World, for that matter) – you’ve seen the creatures that were in there.   The crowd did thin out a bit as we walked around the sloping walkways – basically you circle the same large tanks of fish and see them at different levels as you go down.  There was a HUGE sunfish cruising around – he came right up to the side of the tank where we were standing.

When we (Emily & I) came out of the aquarium, we saw one of those “Let us know your opinion” questionnaire stations so we both filled out one.  Yes, I gave them a “BAD” rating – my suggestion is that they need to monitor and control the number of people who enter at one time so we do not have to be in a solid mass of humanity as soon as we walk in.

Yeah – like they care – like I’ll ever go back again (not).

Anyway, afterwards we went to the mall area and had a nice lunch at a restaurant there.  We sat at a table that was in a tatami room, so we left our shoes in little lockers before we sat down.  Our feet were in a recessed area under the table so – no – we did not have to sit on our heels throughout the meal.  Candace had tempura & udon, Debbie had udon, I had soba (cold buckwheat noodles) and Emily ate kushi katsu – a specialty of Osaka – basically a variety of foods on sticks and deep fried – fish, shrimp, plus a couple of asparagus.

After lunch we wandered through the mall area and Candace bought a pair of cute shoes.  Luckily she did because her flip-flops broke later on at the train station.  We ended up in a SEGA game center where Emily & I played three songs on the taiko (drum) game.  It was SO FUN and a great stress-reliever!  Candace did the UFO catcher game and won a stuffed Snoopy dog – so cute!  Then we walked back to the subway, paid our 230 yen to get back to Bentencho, then get on the JR Osaka Loop to Osaka Station, then went to the Osaka Granvia Hotel to meet Lisa.  Emily & Lisa left right away for the concert venue and the rest of us got back on the train to get back to Kyoto (since it was nearly 4 p.m. by then).

Debbie, Candace & I went around a bit of Kyoto station and looked in some of the shops, then bought some food at Isetan department store for dinner.  Debbie & Candace got meatballs and plain onigiris (rice balls) and I found a little shop that sold the yummiest “roast katsu don” (pork katsu on rice with shredded cabbage).  (Okay, I know it doesn’t sound appetizing, but trust me, it was DELICIOUS.)  The shop has their own sauce that was quite tasty.

Anyway, I think Emily will add her comments about the concert experience since she is now back in our hotel room. . .

Emily: So after I left with Lisa we took the Midosuji Subway Line from the station (Umeda) three stops to Shinsaibashi. At Shinsaibashi we transferred to another subway, the Nagahori Tsurumi-ryokuchi Line, and took it to Dome Mae Chiyozaki. “Mae” means “in front of,” so the station basically left us off in front of Kyocera Dome (formally Osaka Dome). We met Lisa’s friends who were waiting on the steps. They were waiting for another person (Russian girl?) so we waited a bit (I wasn’t paying attention to how long) until she showed up. Once she did we went up the stairs (to catch her because she went up the escalator) to the street level. We met up and then decided to go check out the goods line. The goods line went up stairs and was jam packed with people so we decided not to get anything. Lisa said that if I wanted something she could get it for me (not at the Dome because there’s so many people). I decided I’d (eventually) get a clear file of the whole group, a Nishikido Ryo uchiwa, and a bag. We wandered into the dome and they checked our bags for cameras (once again, I hid mine). Our seats were at entrance 4, gate 18, row 6, and I was at seat 203. I think the seats were pretty nice. They were near third base (or like right at third base) and the main front stage was basically the far end of the field. Lisa was really hungry so we went to get something to eat. I ended up with McDonalds french fries. Unfortunately, I ate all that salty food and then realized that I finished all my water. Darn. The concert was really fun. It was funny because a little before 6 they played the “Wahaha” sound/noise/thing which is one of their songs, so everyone started screaming and some people stood up because they thought the concert was starting. And then right after the “wahaha” noise they continued with announcements (“no picture taking, videotaping, etc.”). I asked Lisa if they do that at every concert and she said yes. So the concert started at 6. Lisa gave me her pen light (basically a plastic star with a handle that you hold and it changes colors) to wave around. I’ve never seen an entire baseball stadium full of people (plus people sitting on the field) wave little lights at the exact same time. It’s crazy! It was like the whole stadium was glittering with everyone’s lights and they were all waving it up and down in sync. Same thing with when they did songs with dances. I’ve never seen a whole stadium of people do the exact same dance (me included, though). Pretty cool! The concert was nice – I enjoyed it even though I don’t know some of the songs. I think I knew about half the songs or so. The Kansai Jrs. were in it but all they did was kind of run around the perimeter of the stage and do the dances. There were little fireworks (or sparks or whatever) on some of the songs and that was pretty cool. They had a talk portion that I understood bits and pieces of but for the most part it was pretty funny. Haha, sorry, it’s hard to update because I’m trying to mentally go in order but it’s hard. I liked doing the dances for the songs – good thing they’re easy to learn. The show had two encores. The people all chant “enko” I think. I thought they would use “a” instead of “e” but oh well. The first one they came out and sang Zukkoke Otokomichi and threw out their signboards. One person (was it Shota?) gave his autographed signboard to a guy in the arena area who was all dressed up in a long sleeve button down shirt and black slacks. It’s kind of interesting because he’s surrounded by a stadium full of 99% girls. The second encore I think they sang Wahaha. Or I got those mixed up. Or my memory totally sucks and I got it completely wrong. Boo. Anyway, something interesting is that after the concert ended (about 8:45) they dismissed people by sections. So like, they’d say “Gate number 18 can leave now” so they regulated the number of people who left. It didn’t matter much though because once we got out of the stadium it was like a mass of people anyway. We squeezed our way back into the subway and I got a subway ticket for Shin-Osaka. Lisa and her friend got off at Umeda and I rode it three more stops. At Shin-Osaka I transferred to the Shinkansen and took the Kodama shinkansen back to Kyoto. It took about 15 minutes. I wandered back into the hotel room at 10:26. I’m a big girl now because I can find my way back from Osaka to Kyoto. Haha. I was thirsty so I walked out of the train station and bought water for Mom and I. And now, I shall check to see if there’s any pictures worth uploading and I may upload them.

Uploaded for the heck of it. This is a sunfish (I think. It's an opa for sure)

Kushi Katsu

Candace won this

Kyocera Dome. We can't take pictures inside