Animals!

Hey friends! It's been nearly a week since I last posted. I've been at work quite a bit this past week, as the grand opening was on what is usually one of my two days off, and attendance at the park has been steadily high ever since. Another thing that's been steadily high all week? The temperature! The shows are fun and at about thirteen minutes are rather short, but with the hot temperatures, the stage facing directly into the setting sun, and the heavy, layered costumes, sometimes by the mid-afternoon I'm feeling sorta like this. Still though, I'm having a blast sangin' for the people. It's gonna be a fun eight months.

Today was my first day off in a while, and we decided to take it easy while still trying to be adventurous. We stayed in Tempozan for the day, and the theme of the day was animals! We started off at the mall for lunch, a bit of goofing around in some stores, and a proper visit to the petting zoo I'd briefly mentioned in an earlier post, and after that we took trip through the Osaka Aquarium, conveniently located right next to the mall.

"Please have a good time in this comfortable space."

There are some interesting ice cream flavors available here in Japan

I've seen a lot of crocs for sale in Japan

Sadly we did not purchase any of these beautiful hats

Would have bought this shirt if it just had the words without the picture of a motorcycle above

The petting zoo had three different areas, the first of which contained rabbits, guinea pigs, and a parrot

The second area had pigs, dogs, and cats

Lauren, the Dog Whisperer. She never had less than two dogs in her lap, while they pretty much ignored the rest of us

This pig was potty-trained

The third area had turtles, capybaras, some animal that I didn't know what it was, and KANGAROOS AHHHHHHHHHHH MY FAVORITE

AHHHHHH I LOVE YOU

AHHHHH KANGAROO SELFIE AHHHHHHHH

HE LOVES ME (mostly because I had food but STILL)

Also, this guy

When the turtles (tortoises?) weren't eating they spent all their time as close to the heat vent as possible, which makes me think that this is not the proper climate for them or something

Yeah and there were owls flying around too. I really don't know if this was a healthy living environment for all these animals, but I HAD SO MUCH FUN

Next up, the aquarium!

Big ass salamander

Oh hey dudes, whatcha lookin' at?

This sea turtle was about my size

These huge crabs are like five-foot-wide water-spiders and I'm not okay with it

This dude was digging around while little sharks and sting rays would zoom right by ahhhhh

FEEL!

There wasn't much left of the aquarium by this point, which is when the battery of my camera ran out. There was one last part where you could touch some fish and sting rays, which I did and it was really cool but also pretty slimy. Overall, it was a very fun day of looking at, touching, and appreciating animals. I basically felt like a third-grader on the best field trip of all time.

Aaaaaand here's the sunset view from my apartment. It never gets old.