JAPAN 7: Of Clubbing and Baby Seals
So Deborah and I got up early in preparation for leaving Shikoku. We decided it would be too difficult to see the Naruto Whirlpools (would take another day off our trip) and it would cost a fair bit too. SO instead, we went straight to Osaka. We got in around 3 or so, and went strait for the Osaka aquarium! It was really impressive. A huge tank with a giant whale-shark (Jinbei-san) and lots of cool little enclosures. They had penguins and seals, but I think my favorite was the GIANT SPIDER CRABS. SO big. We took a bunch of pictures, so as soon as we get back I will post them.
From there, we went to our newest hostel, which was inside of a stadium.
Allow me to clarify.
There is a huge park in Osaka, which includes lots of nature, a pool, fountains, and 3 stadiums. On the side of one of them, there is a very well organized hostel. It was by far the most official-looking hostel we've seen... although in order to do ANYTHING you had to pay. 100 yen/15 mins to cook, 100 yen per hour to charge your phone, 200 yen/night for a towel, etc. We got kind of pissed off by that, but whatever. The next morning we got up and went out to see America Town! America Town is actually just a big shopping area with vaugely American merchandise. There was one cool thing though; a rock and roll museum! Although actually it was also a store, but it was sorted by band/era/type of music and had lots of cool stuff.
So From there we went to this place we had read about called Spa World!
Spa World is located in the middle of an amusement park called "Festival Gate". Normally it's 3000 yen to stay all day, but in this case it was their anniversary special, so it was only 1000! So Spa World is an 8 story complex... 1st floor is a dark room for sleeping, 2nd is lobby/game center/restaurants, 3rd is purely restaurants, 4th is massages/aerobics/European baths, 6th is more massages/a gym/Asian baths, 8th is a water park! (5th and 7th do not exist)
So In the water park they had a big river going around the entire place, with some little pools and such coming off of it. There is also an outdoor area with hottubs and bars, and a giant hottub in a sheltered area. Inside, around the river/pools. There are 3 water slides and a children's play area. There was one regular slide, and 2 that you needed inner-tubes for. One of the inner-tube ones basically threw you into a giant bowl where you swirled around the edge for a while before falling through a hole in the center. The other one built up speed and sent you up a 70 degree slope... and then you fell back down again. Super scary. There was also a big bucket that would slowly fill up with water, and every 15 minutes or so it would dump on whomever was beneath it at the time(with about 1 minute warning beforehand). We spent all day there, and ended up eating shabu-shabu tabe-houdai (all you can eat shabu-shabu, which is basically where you have a pot of boiling water and you drop raw meat/veggies in it to cook them and then eat them. Yum.) So after all that we went home super relaxed and went to sleep.
So the next day we spent all day on the trains heading back to Tokyo... arrived around 7. David asked if we wanted to go out drinking for a couple hours, and we said sure. So once we were there, our group grew as more of David's friends met us, and eventually, we got pushed into going to a club. I was really irritated, because we were sleeping at Mari's and so we were kind of trapped until she went home... but it turned out to be a really fun experience. The club we went to is apprently one of the biggest in all of Asia. I can't remember what it was called, but I'll look it up and post it later. In any case, it had a bar/relaxation area (and at several points during the night, they had pole-dancers). The main dancefloor had speakers and colored lights everywhere, and they put on a really impressive light show. We got exhausted dancing there. Out back was another small stage in a tent, another relaxation area, and another stage with a pool. The music was best out by the pool, so that is where we ended up. So the thing is, the pool is off limits. If you fall in the pool once, they give you a warning, and twice, they threw you out. David was asking for it, dancing right on the edge, and got pushed in. Then, after he got back out, he fell in again, about a half-hour later. He got kicked out, so we rounded everybody else, and left. Got home around 6 AM. It was am exhausting, smoke filled, ear splitting night, but it was still fun. Though I will probably not do it again anytime soon.
Well, now we are planning the last 8 days of our trip. I'll post more later!
From there, we went to our newest hostel, which was inside of a stadium.
Allow me to clarify.
There is a huge park in Osaka, which includes lots of nature, a pool, fountains, and 3 stadiums. On the side of one of them, there is a very well organized hostel. It was by far the most official-looking hostel we've seen... although in order to do ANYTHING you had to pay. 100 yen/15 mins to cook, 100 yen per hour to charge your phone, 200 yen/night for a towel, etc. We got kind of pissed off by that, but whatever. The next morning we got up and went out to see America Town! America Town is actually just a big shopping area with vaugely American merchandise. There was one cool thing though; a rock and roll museum! Although actually it was also a store, but it was sorted by band/era/type of music and had lots of cool stuff.
So From there we went to this place we had read about called Spa World!
Spa World is located in the middle of an amusement park called "Festival Gate". Normally it's 3000 yen to stay all day, but in this case it was their anniversary special, so it was only 1000! So Spa World is an 8 story complex... 1st floor is a dark room for sleeping, 2nd is lobby/game center/restaurants, 3rd is purely restaurants, 4th is massages/aerobics/European baths, 6th is more massages/a gym/Asian baths, 8th is a water park! (5th and 7th do not exist)
So In the water park they had a big river going around the entire place, with some little pools and such coming off of it. There is also an outdoor area with hottubs and bars, and a giant hottub in a sheltered area. Inside, around the river/pools. There are 3 water slides and a children's play area. There was one regular slide, and 2 that you needed inner-tubes for. One of the inner-tube ones basically threw you into a giant bowl where you swirled around the edge for a while before falling through a hole in the center. The other one built up speed and sent you up a 70 degree slope... and then you fell back down again. Super scary. There was also a big bucket that would slowly fill up with water, and every 15 minutes or so it would dump on whomever was beneath it at the time(with about 1 minute warning beforehand). We spent all day there, and ended up eating shabu-shabu tabe-houdai (all you can eat shabu-shabu, which is basically where you have a pot of boiling water and you drop raw meat/veggies in it to cook them and then eat them. Yum.) So after all that we went home super relaxed and went to sleep.
So the next day we spent all day on the trains heading back to Tokyo... arrived around 7. David asked if we wanted to go out drinking for a couple hours, and we said sure. So once we were there, our group grew as more of David's friends met us, and eventually, we got pushed into going to a club. I was really irritated, because we were sleeping at Mari's and so we were kind of trapped until she went home... but it turned out to be a really fun experience. The club we went to is apprently one of the biggest in all of Asia. I can't remember what it was called, but I'll look it up and post it later. In any case, it had a bar/relaxation area (and at several points during the night, they had pole-dancers). The main dancefloor had speakers and colored lights everywhere, and they put on a really impressive light show. We got exhausted dancing there. Out back was another small stage in a tent, another relaxation area, and another stage with a pool. The music was best out by the pool, so that is where we ended up. So the thing is, the pool is off limits. If you fall in the pool once, they give you a warning, and twice, they threw you out. David was asking for it, dancing right on the edge, and got pushed in. Then, after he got back out, he fell in again, about a half-hour later. He got kicked out, so we rounded everybody else, and left. Got home around 6 AM. It was am exhausting, smoke filled, ear splitting night, but it was still fun. Though I will probably not do it again anytime soon.
Well, now we are planning the last 8 days of our trip. I'll post more later!