Attack of the Deer

After dealing with crowds at Expo and Universal Studios, i don’t know why I thought a visit to the lively hotspot of Dotonbori was a good idea but here I was with more crowds. Turns out though the side streets and lanes are devoid of crowds, the hoards of people want Takoyaki (octopus balls) by the river, and I didn’t want that! I found a lot of very small and very expensive wagyu restaurants, but eventually i popped out onto a larger street andf there by the side of the street was a small bar with a few individual cookers setup. I say down ordered the mixed special and a beer and had a delicious meal of wagyu beef that I cooked to perfection. I will never forget that first piece of wagyu melting in my mouth, something I never thought steak could ever do!

Sick of the crowds in Osaka I jumped on the train to Nara to try out the crowds in Nara. They have two types of crowds in Nara, people and deer. When I grabbed a map from the information centre and asked the lady where I’d find the deer, she said they are everywhere, you can’t miss them. They are indeed everywhere and if you don’t see them, you might get a nip or a lick on your rear end to let you know they are there. Then they’ll proceed to bow, because they are Japanese deer and expect food in return. Nara is very much a case study into the effects of feeding wild animals. I didn’t go into any of the temples here, they are either very busy or very spread out, but the deer are mostly friendly if you don’t have food. I was greatly amused when you’d see someone fleeing for their life with half a dozen deer in hot pursuit for some tasty deer crackers.

On my final day in Osaka I was planning to go see the castle, but having been told its fairly new and not as authentic as Himeji castle (i’ll visiot there in a few days), I decided to instead go see the aquarium because they had jellyfish. Turns out that had pretty much everything, including King penguins, a variety of seals and whale sharks. Its hard to describe the aquarium, but there is a multistory central tank which has manta rays, sharks, fish and two whale sharks (that I counted). Then lots of smaller tanks that represent areas around the pacific. Normally I worry about these kinds of places, but there was a lot of good messaging about plastic in the sea and conservation, so I give them a pass as its not just about tourism. I could however sit and watch jellyfish pulsate around their tanks for hours, they are very mesmerising.