Today was the last day of 2015, and the first proper day we spent in Osaka.
We started the day off at one of the biggest aquariums I've ever seen. They had whale sharks!! It was insane how huge they were!
After the aquarium, we headed across to the shopping centre which happened to have a huge lego store and factory in it! Sean got to have a close up encounter with a giraffe.
We also tried our hand at Pachinko, a super loud, weird Japanese gambling fad, and sucked at it, and saw a street performer who was wildly entertaining, even though we couldn't understand a word he said!
In the same complex though, is a huge 113m high Ferris wheel that overlooks the entire city. It may have been an extra 30 minute wait, but the clear carriage was totally worth the wait!
After the Ferris wheel, it was getting dark, so we headed to the bar district of town for some New Years celebrations!! To our complete confusion, even now, we found that pretty much everything was closing, or already closed at 6pm.
We wondered around for a while, to no avail, before headed to the Sky Tower (a huge building in the heart of Osaka) and had some drinks up there, with a 360degree view of the city. It was really beautiful, and they had beers from all around the world!! (Unfortunately, the Australian representative was Fosters)
The building itself is incredible, with 2 buildings connected in the middle by a circular, doughnut platform, so you can not only see out from all directions, but also down the centre of the building!
Even that closed at 10pm, so we brought in the New Year on the top floor of the train station in a beautiful artificial garden looking out over the city and bay area. All in all, a pretty good night, despite the lack of parties.
Tomorrow, a quiet day xx