Springtime changes in Toyama

The cherry blossoms have come and gone, and the prefecture is now in a temporary sweet spot of crisp air and warm sunlight. Like most Japanese buildings my apartment is highly influenced by the weather, and whether it’s the spring changes or my own changes in mood – my apartment feels so much brighter and alive. It’s been nice to do a bit of rearranging and pretty highlights around the space, almost exclusively courtesy to the magical 100 Yen store.

Some handmade flags with Oragami paper

Some makeshift decoration – a Japanese Syllabary poster and some items borrowed from the closet

My Daiso map of the world

One of my teacher’s gave this little trinket to me as a present. It’s a little functional zipper from the YKK factory in Kurobe city. This company is responsible for producing the majority of the zipper’s in the world. Check your zipper pulls, many of them are probably labelled with YKK!

A little key trinket from the YKK factory

This weekend we went down to Uozu city’s “Mirage Land” a little amusement park on the edge of the water. We were disappointed to learn we had arrived just as the rides were closing down, but the ride operators of the Ferris Wheel were kind to us and let us take a ride.

Uozu’s surprise amusement park

A bird’s eye view from the top of the Ferris Wheel

It won’t be long before this nice spring weather changes to the sweltering heat of summer- I’ll enjoy it while it’s here!

The Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan

A great part about traveling in Japan is the high proximity of traveling opportunities, especially in the Kansai area where Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, and Kobe are all within an hour train ride of each other. Taking full advantage of this happy grouping, we headed over to Osaka to explore the informally considered “best aquarium in Japan”.

The unique aspect of Osaka’s Aquarium is it’s design concept. The building is centred around an emormous tank, reaching about 5 stories high. Starting at the top, the floor slopes and spirals around around the tank until it reaches the bottom. This gives visitors a chance to see some sea creatures multiple times and at multiple angles as well as meeting some new ones at different depths.

Aside from the central tank, different species are housed on the surrounding walls as well as in specialized rooms.

The most exciting (or terrifying) room features a large shallow tank that allows visitors to reach in and touch a variety of rays and fish. It looked like the sight of a situational experiment, because all the adults stayed on the outside of the room, shooting each other awkward grins and chuckling nervously as their children stuck their hands without fear into the water.

Next to the aquarium is an enormous Ferris wheel that provides a pretty great view of Osaka and it’s port.