Western Osaka
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June 19, 2017 - Western Osaka
For my second day in Japan, I decided to visit some of the western attractions found around Osaka City. These locations included:
(1) Maishima Lillies
(2) Tempozan Park
(3) Osaka Aquarium
The Maishima Lillies Park costs 1200 yen to enter and is open from late May to early July. It's actual location looks over the Osaka Docks and is a little tricky to visit. To get here, catch a train to Nishi-Kujo station, and then catch a bus to the Lillies Park. The bus costs 210 yen one way and takes around 20-30 minutes depending on traffic.
Do note that a discount ticket can be downloaded from the following website in 2017: http://www.osaka-info.jp/en/events/assets_c/2017/02/�p��-26926.html
It will take most people around 1-2 hours to walk around and take photos in this park. Do note that I did not visit at the best season as many of the lilies were starting to wilt due to the heat.
My next stop for the day was the general area around Osaka Aquarium. Apart from the aquarium, there are plenty of restaurants, a large ferris wheel and a Lego Experience Centre.
My second stop was the small Tempozan Park, which has slightly impressive views an is known as having the smallest mountain (man made at that!) in Japan.
My last stop for this post was the highly impressive Osaka Aquarium, which is easily the best aquarium I have seen (apart from the Jellyfish section at Kamo Aquarium). It costs 2,300 yen to enter but there are plenty of discount and combo tickets available for purchase. Do note that you can catch a boat to Universal Park from this location.
The Aquarium includes many tanks along with covering many different ecosystems than are found in the Pacific Ocean. As can be seen, the first main attraction after the obligatory walk through tank.
One of the positive aspects of this aquarium is there are a large number of possible great photo opportunities which are not always easily taken at other aquariums. Do note that you will need to dodge the large crowds though...
The largest tank is 9 meters deep and can be viewed over multiple floors. It's star attraction is two large whale sharks which glide around the tank allowing for many photo opportunities. Do note that this tank is especially busy near the starting point, but gets much quieter as you go down.
Probably my favourite exhibit was the large Hairy Crabs found in cold waters. These crabs are absolutely huge and surprised many people.
As you can probably tell, I really enjoyed the aquarium, specifically much more than I was expecting. I would actually say it's one of the best attractions in Osaka City. Later in the day, I'll be visiting the general Namba Area.
Further Information
Maishima Lillies: http://yurien.com (Japanese / English Translation)
Osaka Aquarium: http://www.kaiyukan.com/language/eng/index.html (English)
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