Days since my last post: 12
Oh my God I'm so sorry for the long hiatus but after the New Year's I quickly got into gear for work before I flew off to Bali! Yes, here I am still throwing back on my travels in Japan and there I went travelling again. But more on Bali next time (I'm definitely blogging about it, something MAJOR happened during the trip!) as we come back to the 8th day of me being in Japan!
TSUTENKAKU
From the streets of Shinsekai.
Located in Osaka's Shinsekai, the Tsutenkaku Tower is pretty well known as a sight most tourists would visit. It stands at 103 meters currently, about 39 meters higher than the original that was destroyed in a fire. There is an observation deck you can visit in order to see Osaka from high up above and also the Billiken; a deity that's been said to give you good luck if you rub the soles of his feet.
Unfortunately for us we did not go up the observation deck because wait time was an hour, and we just didn't want to waste all that time queuing in order to look at Osaka from high up above. I mean, we've already done that from the HEP 5 ferris wheel and the Umeda Sky Building anyway. But it was still nice to have seen it from afar perhaps.
Tsutenkaku Tower
Open daily from 9 AM to 9 PM
Entrance fee at ¥600 per adult, free with the Osaka Amazing Pass
TENNOJI ZOO
Because we gave Tsutenkaku a pass, we decided to visit the Tennoji Zoo or also known as Osaka Zoo which happened to be at Shinsekai as well...and this also marked my first ever visit to a zoo in my life. This is a city girl problem if you ask me, but I've never been in a space where there were just so many animals!
Zoo entrance.
My family was in quite a lot of disbelief that we would travel miles and miles away just to visit a zoo, but hey if you're going to try and be a local then why not visit their zoo right? There were tons of families with young kids there and most of them locals! We scored in some ways, no? The Tennoji Zoo has been opened since year 1915, making it their 101th year when we visited! The good thing is that it doesn't smell of animals in the zoo, so that's a plus that I'd like to point out.
Sun bear!
Giraffes oh my God they're really tall!
It was after this visit however that I realized I don't actually like zoos after all because of how sad it seemed for the animals as they were simply caged up and seemed like they were really unhappy there. Some even looked stressed and were walking backwards, with their poo just left out in the open by their sides. We actually thought what we read online was real, and that the Tennoji Zoo was a little unkempt despite it being an attraction to the state.
A real life tiger!
And my fake tiger wannabe.
Some animals also seemed a little unsound of mind in the zoo, like the polar bears that we saw and several other animals like the seal that looked really uncomfortable in the humid change of weather from the summer to autumn seasons when we were there. I've concluded since that zoos are really not my thing, and I'd rethink our decisions if we were to visit one when we travel in the future.
Tennoji Zoo
Open from 9.30 AM to 5 PM
Closed on Mondays
Entrance fee at ¥500 per adult, free with the Osaka Amazing Pass
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