Osaka Aquarium KAIYUKAN

Osaka Aquarium KAIYUKAN is an aquarium which is located in Osaka city, Tenpozan, and was opened in 1990. The concepts are “the Pacific rim fire zone” and “the Pacific rim life zone”. Kaiyukan has huge water tank and it changed impression of traditional aquarium.
The characteristic of the outward appearance of the building is three kinds of color-code, and it stands for combination of the earth, the water and the fire.
I was surprised, but who decided the name of Kaiyukan is Emiko Kaminuma.

Around Kaiyukan, there are many places. There are Tenpozan market place, very big Ferris wheel, tourism ship Santa Maria, and Suntry Museum. The entrance fee is 2000 yen.
From October 24th to December 25th, Kaiyukan has X’mas decoration. I went to there and looked very beautiful spectacle last year. I recommend you that go to there with confidence.

http://odekake.jalan.net
http://www.kaiyukan.com

Halloween in USJ

The last time, I talked about USJ, and this time, I’ll talk about USJ again especially about Halloween. In USJ, there are many decorations or events of Halloween.
There are many special sweets of Halloween. For example, cream puff of pumpkin, or special desert set. It is a rather high price. I have never eaten it because of the price, but I want to eat it someday!!

cream puff of pumpkin

special desert set

There are also many kinds of souvenir of Halloween. For example, mascot, handtowel, clear file, mug, and so on. It is very cute, and I feel like buying everything!!
There is Halloween parade at night, 18:30 to 19:00. We can participate in the parade, not only as a spectator, but also as a performer. If you wear costume and enter in the parade, you can walk the parade course with USJ staff. The chance to join the parade is 9 times on October, but 7 times of that was over, so you can join it on October 25th and 26th. But there is restriction which is 1000 people can join it at one time, so you want to participate it, I recommend you that enter in it quickly. It will be your good memory and if you join it, you can get snack, Koara no March, free of charge.
Actually, I went to USJ on October 18th, and I watched many people wore costume and joined the parade. I didn’t know about this system, so I enjoyed it as one of spectators. Many girls wear mantle, or headband, and many people imitated various characters. For example, there were Dorothy, Pikacyu, Jack Sparrow, and so on. It's very fun. Let's enjoy Halloween!!

http://www.usj2.com/info/halloween/index.html

USJ

USJ was opened in Konohana area in Osaka on March 31 in 2001. The size is 14 times as large as Koushien. At first, USJ had planed to build in Sakai city in Osaka, but transportation to USJ was bad, so it was changed.
USJ is a theme park which is based on many Hollywood movies and is combined magnificent ride attraction, show, restaurant, and shopping. We can enjoy USJ all the year round. In USJ, we can enjoy fantastic experiences and meet many characters of USJ. For example, snoopy, Hello Kitty, companion of Sesame Street. Now, in USJ, there is Halloween event, and it will be changed to Christmas event in November 6th.
Business hours depends on the day or season, so I suggest you that you should go there after checking it. An entrance fee is 5800 yen a once, and an annual pass is 11500 yen.
According to survey of Internet, the most popular attraction is Universal Monster Live Rock and Roll show. Second is Water World, third is Back to The Future. And Spider-Man, Jurassic Park, Terminator, Jews, E.T., Hollywood Dream The Ride, and Back Draft in order of the rank.

All of picures are from... http://www.asahi-net.or.jp

JEWS

E.T.

Jurassic Park

Spider-Man

Tsutenkaku

Wikipedia

Tsutenkaku is one of the symbols of Osaka, and it is a tower which has 103 meter height. This tower was built in 1912, which was modeled on the Eiffel tower and the Arch of Triumph. However, it was removed during the Second World War, and rebuilt in 1956.
In this tower, there are an event hall, a tearoom, a stand, and an observation deck. At the fifth floor, the floor of an observation deck, there is Billiken. Billiken is a statue of god of good luck. Billiken has a tradition that if you stroke the sole of the foot of Billiken, you can have good luck.
The top of this tower, there is a neon light which turns on a light which depends on the weather. There are four colors. Sunny is white, cloudy is orange, rainy is blue, and snowy is pink. So, this is also a light equipment of the weather forecast which tells us the tomorrow weather.

Fireworks of PL

http://www.walkerplus.com/hanabi/kansai/detail/fw0793.html

It’s July and it’s summer!! Fireworks bring us the real feeling of summer!!
I’ll talk you about the fireworks of PL.
PL is held in Tondabayashi City in Osaka and it is held in August first every year. It was started in 1953 to pray the World Peace.
The scale and contents of the fireworks of PL is said as the biggest fireworks in Japan. This is very grand and luxurious. The number of people who went to see PL last year was 250,000.
The time of fireworks is from 19:40 to 20:50. The number of skyrocket is about 120,000 and it is 1714 shots every minute!!
The most beautiful fireworks I can recommend you with confidence is the finale. The finale is said as Niagara and a set piece of fireworks which reaches 1 kilometer and gets light all around with a rumbling of the ground. In the finale, 8000 shots of the fireworks are launched at once.
I like PL very much, but I have never seen it so close up, so I want to see it at close range this year!!

Kyocera Dome

Wikipedia

This is Kyocera Dome in Osaka. This was built in September 20, 1997, and opened March 1. At first, this dome was called “Osaka Dome” but the name was changed from it to “Kyocera Dome” in July 1, 2006 because the right of naming was sold.
The structure is a Dome with ninth stories above ground level and one beneath. The height is about 83 meter, and 55,000 people can come into it.
We can use this Dome with a lot of purposes. For example, you know, we can go to there to watch baseball game not only professional baseball but also high-school baseball. And, many musicians held live concerts. Grobe, Kanjyani∞, Arashi, B’z are the examples. Recently, Celine Dion held a live concert in there.
In addition to these events, we can use it to hold an athletic meet, a sports day, an exhibition. Moreover, we can also hold a wedding ceremony if you pay expensive charge.

Banpaku Park

This picture is the tower of the sun in Banpaku Park.

This is a park where put the vacant lot where Osaka Bankoku Hakuranakai used to be in good condition. There are an open space, cultural facilities, and so on. This park is about 65 times as wide as Koushien baseball stadium!! At the time when Osaka Banpaku was hold, there were three towers in all. Its are the tower of the sun, the tower of mother, and the tower of youthfulness.