Giant Crabs, Cults and an Archery Master

On my penultimate day in Japan, Jas and me went to the Osaka aquarium, ostensibly for me to gawk at the whale shark that they have in a tank. A whale shark... in a tank. (Some time later in her travels Jas went to the Okinawa aquarium where they have seven whale sharks in a tank!!) The aquarium is really well designed, as soon as you enter you head up an escalator to the top level of the building. The whale shark tank is in the centre of the building and takes up the entire height of the building (nine floors I think). The rest of the enclosures are around the outside and the walking path spirals down between the two, so you end up being able to see the whale shark from all different aspects. Since the whale shark just swam around and around in endless laps of his tank, I ended up spending more time watching the sea otters picking the paint from the bottom of their enclosure.

After walking past enclosures holding animals that seemed out of place in an aquarium (squirrel monkeys, a sloth) we went past a tank with the most hideous and miserable looking fish I have ever seen. It had a cylindrical netting tube inside its tank and it swam around and around in circles inside the tube with its mouth open and an expression that looked like "Kill me, kill me now." From sad tank we went to creepy tank on the bottom level where the Japan Deeps live - giant crabs who move very slowly. Some of these crabs would have had a leg span of 3 metres, they remined me of the aliens from War of the Worlds. Unable to put the sun fish out of its misery, and creeped out by the crabs, we carried on and cheered ourselves up in the souvineer shop. Is there any animal the Japanese can't turn into a life-like stuffed toy? After a few purchases - squeaky otter puppet and otter bottle opener - we wandered back to Shinsaibashi for more shopping then trained back to Jasmine's apartment to dump all our crap, ran back to the train station and headed for Tenri, where  Yuki, another of Jasmine's Japanese friends lived.

We were met at the train station by Yuki's brother Daishi who took us to Tenri University where he was going to let us watch his Kendyo club practise (traditional Japanese archery). We watched the club go through their paces for a while then the grand master archer invited us to join in for a quick lesson. Much like the Maiko session we were put into intricate stances and given detailed instructions with barely a common word between us, but we both managed to hit the target which all of the club were very impressed by - apparently first timers never hit the target.

After the archery lesson we walked to Yuki's home and had a BBQ dinner with her family, then sat around the dining room table and played an assortment of camp style games with Daishi's friends. The rules were explained by Yuki, the only bi-lingual person in the house, but once we knew what we were doing no common language was needed.

On my last day in Japan Jas and I went for another short trip to Tenri - where I hoped to pick up all the last minute pressies for people that I kept meaning to buy.

From just near the Tenri Station there is a covered mall that leads up to the Tenri-Kyo cult head quarters. Every second store in the mall sells the Tenri-Kyo uniform (is that the correct term for cult apparel?). When we got to the front of the impressive building I tried to get a photo of it and found my camera lacking film. As I fumbled about for a replacement, a bell started to chime and everyone in the street stopped, turned toward the building and stood perfectly still until the bells stopped. In my panic, I only just managed to get my camera working as the bells stopped and people were starting to move away.

Gifts and last tacky souvineers bought, we went for a wander along Yamanobe Road - the oldest road in Japan which leads from Sakurai to Tenri (just a dirt track really) - we stopped by an orange grove and pilfered a few for the return trip. After walking for about an hour, we realised we didn't really know where we were going or how long this path was going to take, so we turned around and walked back the way we came. We meandered back to Jasmine's apartment and got ready for dinner at an Okonomoyaki restaurant just around the corner. Okonomoyaki is like a Japanese style pizza, a base of noodles held together with flour and an assortment of toppings to choose from, we had potato, corn and chicken.

The next morning after a quick wibble in the airport as we said goodbye, I boarded the plane back to Adelaide.