Welcome to Nippon!

My Dad and his fiancée, Julie finally arrived in Japan late Wednesday night after their flight was delayed 4 hours in Detroit. They got in so late that the airport buses were no longer running, but thankfully the airline set them up in a hotel room free of charge. So, I ended up having to pick them up Thursday morning rather than Wednesday night, which means we were all a little tired, from getting up at various ungodly hours, but it was great to see them again!

So, I took them back to Sanda and got them settled into their hotel (Hotel Melxe, which is apparently supposed to be a blend of 'melody' and 'relax' but ends up sounding like some kind of STD). After that we headed out for a day of fish,fish and more fish! We went to the Osaka aquarium, Kaiyuukan, which in my opinion is the one of the coolest places in Osaka. My favorite part is the jellyfish hall, but there are so many awesome things there it's hard to pick. My dad seemed to be particularly enamored of the giant spider crabs and he also got rather 'up close and personal' with a sunfish. (see above)

After the aquarium we all went on a big ferris wheel, which anyone who knows my dad can imagine was NOT his idea of a good time. He managed to stick it out quite bravely though while Julie and I enjoyed the view. We also went into this 'Ninja House' and had fun wandering around in the dark and getting jumped out at by ninjas.

Finally we had dinner with my friend Ayu at this really great Indian restaurant in Umeda, but unfortunately the crazy waiter that usually works there had the night off. Oh well! My dad had us all in stitches with various bad jokes though, so a good time was had by all. Plus the food there is amazing!

Today we're off to Nara!