Waking up around 7AM was becoming the normal by now, we would get a small breakfast at the
house (eggs, white toast, sausages, etc) and then get ready for the day. Terra woke up feeling a little cruddy with a runny nose and scratchy throat and so we braced ourselves to venture into a pharmacy at an attempt to get medication for her. In 2010 this ended up with me getting codeine for a cold (little to no cough), so I was really curious how it would turn out this time. Not knowing exactly how long it would take to get to and then around Osaka (I had some conflicts on timing, Shinkansen vs. normal train, Shin-Osaka station vs. Osaka station) we left a little early to get on the 8:03AM reserved train. To our surprise, it only took 11 minutes to get from Kyoto to Osaka on the Shinkansen (which was covered by our JR passes, so why not?) and we arrived before ANYTHING opened. The full agenda for the day included another (was supposed to be our first) Pokemon Center, Cotton Candy, Photoshoot, Precure Cafe and finally the Aquarium. By this point in the trip, I wasn’t sure just what we could pull off (especially with the looming cold) and was trying to prepare us for how long everything might take and just ended up jumping the gun and leaving Kyoto too early.
It was so busy inside we could barely even turn around and only found a 2 person table. Oh, and the construction, so much construction around both train stations and the city center! There were shut sidewalks, detours and even more foot traffic than usual due to the disturbances. I scarf down some sort of egg souffle things and head out to a pharmacy I was able to pull up on my phone, with fingers crossed. It was all located within the station (which was the normal giant shopping mall as well) so we didn't have much to lose to walk around out of the cold to find it. We happened upon an English speaking pharmacist to get her some meds (it was surprisingly easy and we found stuff that actually helped!) and then a toast/egg type meal set at a cafe for her to actually eat. Once that was done, it was time for the Pokemon Center to open!
Finally 10AM, it was time to go back to the other side of the mall/station to the Pokemon Center. The My151 was being pushed here, along with the Christmas specials. Once inside, we realize the difference in size compared to Kyoto was significant, with aisles and aisles of merchandise, it was overwhelming. I was surprised by (again) the lack of English signage and English speaking staff at such an internationally recognized store. It took several staff members a fair amount of time to decipher that we were looking for the rest of the starter figure set (who wants Charmander without Charizard?), but they did finally get us a complete set. We walk out with about a 20,000 yen of merchandise, this included a set of 4 figures with the original three starters, three of the "Fit" Pokemon plush (Lapras, Articuno and Dragonaire), a large Pichu plush for the little one, a wallet for me (which I'll use a lot, but was a steep 3,000 yen) and a handful of stationary/misc. items. And on to the next destination with gusto.
I will start this paragraph with my reasoning for cotton candy before noon. This was FAMOUS cotton candy, plastered on NHK shows, social media and even featured in a US news broadcast or two. They make cotton candy with deep flavors in sizes bigger than an adults head. Their main store is in Harajuku, but is known to have 3 hour long waits in line. With their newest branch opened in Osaka, I immediately penned this one into the agenda as a must-stop. Just as planned, we arrive to a fully empty store (again, we are talking about 11AM, right as they opened, on a weekday) and obtain our cotton candy from the only lady working there. It was just as advertised, giant AND delicious. In fear of my diet spiraling out of control already by this point, I concede that Terra and I needed to share one, however Matt did not have such restraint and we ended up with two of their largest size. It was by far the best cotton candy I have ever had, with each color came a deep, new flavor. I feel like the cotton candy stateside is just colored for effect and not taste, so this was a bit shocking to overcome. There was a very small park and some opportunities for selfies abound, actually making for the only other people I saw around, two 20-something girls snapping their cotton candy selfies for social media. After checking two of the five items off our list, we start the trek towards the photo studio, as it seemed a legit 15 minute walk and I wasn’t 100% sure of the exact location, so having the hour and a half buffer sounded like a good idea. By the time we confirm the place we were in front of was the correct door, we had about 45 minutes to find and eat lunch. We ended up at a random diner with great katsu, fried chicken, rice and okonomiyaki. It was satisfying, but I think there were only two gentleman working there and they were mostly occupied by the single diners at the bar in front of them. I think on several occasions they might have forgotten they had a family of three sitting at a table on the far end, this set us up to be a solid 15 minutes late for our photoshoot at 1:15PM as we attempted to pay our bill and leave several times before having any success. A quick trek back down the alleyway and we made it into the photo studio by 1:30PM.
It wasn’t anything like I imagined, maybe 300 sq ft total size in one room. Just inside the door there were two chairs, then a little vanity where the makeup artist could do her thing, further down was a very small “hallway” where the kimono and accessories were kept. To the right of this hallway was a “curtain” kind of changing room and in the back of the studio (keep in mind, this is all one big room) was where the photos were taken. They had plenty of kimono to choose from, the lady doing our hair and my makeup did a great job and everything went smoothly. It was just us, the photographer (whom spoke English fluently, very refreshing at this point in our trip) and a makeup/hair artist that spoke broken English. It was overall a very awesome experience, we came out with a great set of photos, but it did take the entire afternoon. The price was expected to be around $300USD, but totaled $260USD out the door, you can’t get half of that stateside for that price, so I was impressed! Dealing with Terra sniffling and sneezing and wearing a Kimono really was exhausting as we learned quickly. During the 3 hours it took getting ready, shooting countless photos and then picking the final products (5 came with the shoot, we settled for 11 from about 100) it was decided we would be skipping the 4PM reservation at the Precure cafe. It was nearly dark when we exited the studio! A quick discussion ensued of “do we or don’t we” (go to the aquarium). At this point, we knew Terra made it to about 8PM until shut-down started happening and now we were contending with her cold too. The night prior in Arashiyama was already a lot on the little kid, but the AQUARIUM! Rated a top in THE WORLD! How could we not? We KNEW it was a trek from where we at, but off we went.
A bunch of pictures were had, a steep admission price paid and in we went. Terra was super excited, even though it was getting late for her. You start the tour by going up several escalators to the top, which was 7 floors. At that point, you can see the entire place spiraled around one large tank. You could then observe the tanks, coves and rooms off to the side as you spiraled the long ramp back down to the bottom, some of the highlights were the aforementioned Whale Sharks (apparently hard to keep alive), Seals and Macaroni penguins. It was a pretty ingenious setup, sadly I don’t think I got any pictures to showcase how cool it was. After touring down a few floors, we end up ducking into the cafe near closing time to get whatever food they might have left.They didn't have anything too special, but their signature dish was a “famous” EEL DOG, a super long hot dog that you were then instructed to “decorate” like an eel. We also had our first encounter with shaped ice in a tasty blue soda drink of some kind. It wasn’t the best dinner we could have found, given the proper time, but on a time constraint it suited the situation just fine. There were still several exhibits to visit after having our dinner, and closing time was fast approaching. We only went through the special exhibits quickly, reserving most of the leftover time for the large “touch tank” area (it was huge), where Terra spent the time playing with stingrays and small sharks. The penguin tank was also here, which I might have been at for the entire time Terra ran around excited to touch anything she could get her hands on. Talking to this little guy too long, I figured out he preferred people to just take pictures with him instead. After reluctantly leaving, we hit up the museum shop, grabbed our stuff out of the locker and left right as the closing bells started to chime.
9PM, way past our self-imposed cut-off time by now, Terra was walking around stating "low battery" and trouble was brewing. We walk the 15 minutes or so back to the station and opt to just quickly hop on a "rapid express" train instead of having to change over to the Shinkansen at a different station, which would also allow her a catnap for 30 minutes or so back to Kyoto. Unfortunately after 8PM, 30 minutes isn't going to do the trick and we end up taking turns carrying her the 2KM or so from Kyoto Station to the apartment this time. It was a trying time back, but I quickly realized that even though my weight/shape hasn't changed as much as I like, my training with kickboxing has made a TON of difference this trip. Night and day, actually.
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