On our third morning in Osaka, we got up quite early and caught a train to Nara. Once we arrived, we headed east from the station to the park where we spent the first part of the morning feeding the deer that freely roam the city. Bundles of deer friendly crackers are purchased from local vendors, and the deer have learned that an exchange of bows usually results in a snack being given to them!
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The deer don't hang about when they know you have crackers. Here, mine are about to be quickly depleted after a round of respectful bowing!
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Out of crackers in no time at all, and having to show open, empty hands to the deer that were following and harassing us, we headed off out of the park where there were fewer deer. Next, we visited the beautiful Yoshikien Garden on our way to the impressively enormous Tōdai-ji Temple.
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Japanese gardens are things of incredible beauty.
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Tōdai-ji Temple was absolutely massive!
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Inside, the statue of Buddha was pretty big too!
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Before heading back to Osaka, we enjoyed some lunch in the shape of some tasty savoury pastries in a Japanese bakery shop, followed by some very yummy mochi on our way back to the train station from the aptly named Very yummy mochi shop.
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The pastries in this bakery were so cheap and they tasted amazing!
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The most common filling in mochi is probably red bean paste, but these large mochi had large chunks of fresh fruit inside instead. Lillian and I shared one pineapple, one mandarin and one persimmon between the two of us, and they were so good with some green tea!
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Arriving back in Osaka early in the afternoon, we took the subway to Cosmosquare and from there headed along the seaside promenade. A strong wind was blowing directly onto the promenade, so we continued walking until we reached the western end of the Sakishima Canal. This man-made water feature is connected to the sea and offered us a sheltered fishing opportunity for an hour or so before we headed to ride the Tempozan Ferris Wheel and visit Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan. The fishing wasn't great, with finepatterned puffer being the predominant species present. I managed to catch two other species before we left, and one was an addition to our trip's tally, edging us closer to our target of one hundred species, so it was worth the brief visit.
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As well as lots of these little pests,..
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...I caught a nice multicolorfin rainbowfish,..
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...and a solitary Japanese Whiting.
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The Tempozan Ferris Wheel stands at 112m tall and lights up after dark.
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Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan, the world's largest aquarium, from the top of the Tempozan Ferris Wheel.
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The aquarium was amazing, but the only photo I took that was any good was this one of a massive ocean sunfish.
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Leaving the aquarium, Ryan and I got permission to have a quick fishing session in the dark nearby, to see if we could catch some Japanese horse mackerel. Fishing small straight soft plastics on ultralight jigheads, I caught one pretty quickly and then we both struggled to catch any more after that. It was pretty cold, so we didn't stay that long. Both of us caught a juvenile Japanese seabass before we packed up, and the four of us headed off to visit an oden restaurant for yet another delicious traditional Japanese meal.
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Target species acquired!
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Bonus species most welcome too!
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Another three species added to our tally, we were slowly creeping towards our target of one hundred. With a trip to Hiroshima and Miyajima the following day, I was confident that with a bit of luck, we could reach our goal. Ryan was really looking forward to travelling on a bullet rain for the first time, and I was looking forward to eating some more okonomiyaki. Sorry Osaka, but I prefer the savoury pancake Hiroshima style!
Tight lines, Scott.
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