Jellyfish, Whales and Rays...Oh My!

After reading through my past blogs, I have noticed quite a bit of social commentary thrown in. Not that that's a bad thing, seeing as being in a different country is socially....different? Ninjas and samurai constantly trying to kill us, and don't get me started on Godzilla. You thought cleaning up after horses was bad. This time however, I just want to write about some of the cool stuff that we have seen since my last entry. If you have read any of the past entries, you may have noticed that we have been on quite a few Ferris Wheels. Not by chance really, either. I have discovered that my wife really likes Ferris Wheels, and last week when we were at the harbor, we hit the mothership. Mothership? Motherload? Mother Hubbard? I can never remember. Anyhow. Dubbing itself as the one of the biggest Ferris Wheels in the World it looms over the entire harbor. One of? Say what you want, this thing was monstrous. Have a look here, here and here and tell me what you think. We also got some shots from the wheel, and as you can see in the next eight pics, it goes quite high.

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We also found the Harbor Mall, which claims to be Japan's first culinary mall. While it was a very cool mall, I can say with some authority that it was just a two story mall. First floor: Food Court. Second Floor: Shopping. Some great shops but the food was nothing special, and they had without a doubt, hands down, all contenders must surrender, the worst children's play area ever! We took a few pics outside the mall as well. A 1/3 replica of the Santa Maria, a cool view of the horizon and a shot of the Suntory museum. See if you can find Colleen in the pic.

The best part of the day though, was definitely the Kaiyukan Aquarium. We got some great pics while we were there, though I will admit it is way hard to take photos through 32cm thick glass. It would have been easier if I had just jumped into the water, but I suddenly started having Star Trek IV flashbacks, and I had no intention of telling them that Gracie was pregnant. (Mea culpa to the non geeks reading this) There was tons of stuff to see there, like frog enclosures (where these two wouldn't stop frolicking), jellyfish tanks (tons of pics of those) and giant spider crabs (quite easily the creepiest things I have ever seen)(besides French clown dolls), but the main attraction at the aquarium was the whale shark (many pics) and the giant ray who just couldn't stop doing loops through the bubbles ("The Bubbles!"). To see all the pics, click on the Aquarium link in the bar at the right. What the f.....sorry, just saw Bruce Willis doing a car commercial. Ahh Japan, where commercials aren't seen as a step down, but a status symbol of continuing celebrity. Back to the Aquarium. We also added a few pics from the gift shop into the food and drink folder, as they had some strange snacks amongst the overpriced souvenirs. Here, here and here. All in all, a pretty eventful day.

I hope everyone is doing well, please don't hesitate to send E-mails, as we get a little lonely from time to time. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, there was a toy shop in the mall and I found a few more Nintendo toys. (I know, I know, boys will be boys). Hope to talk to you all soon.

Love and Laugh, Carl.