Tried to get up early, but still ended up racing to beat the 10AM checkout time. We really weren't sure what we were going to do today, but it definitely involved putting our things in lockers. We had gotten another email from Kelly saying she actually could meet us in Osaka, so I ended up writing her one letting her know if she happened to be able to meet us that evening, that would be cool. Molly convinced me to call her on her cell anyway, and I managed to reach her. I felt bad because it sounded like I woke her up, but she was terribly nice and said she could meet us around 5PM in front of the HEP 5, and that we should call her then to see where she was. Cool.
We walked back over to the station and found reasonably large coin lockers near the
big silver tree to put our things in. We thought about leaving our things with the hotel, but it didn't seem convenient enough, as we had no idea what we'd be doing today. We found a panya for breakfast, although Molly is getting sick of them, if that's possible! We bought some weird things that didn't quite turn out to be what we thought they were. For example, I got something that looked close to the cheese rolls we liked so much in Kyoto, that turned out to be potato and really salty crab brains! Wasn't terribly tasty to say the least. We also had a problem trying to buy juice from them. They said something motioning toward the coffee/sandwich shop next door, and I took this to mean that we had to buy the juice there, which we thought was weird. But we moved it aside, and a few moments later a girl behind the counter snatched it and took it away. We just gave up on the juice, maybe it was not cold or something? We weren't sure what to do with our dishes (leave or put away) but a man put his tray on a rack, so we followed suit. When in Rome...We exited out the north entrance, headed for the
Umeda Sky Tower, a really cool looking building a little bit north of the station. As you exit, it's right there, just head left until you can go towards it again and eventually you'll reach it. It's about a 15 minute walk, and all the way we were stopping at every jidoohanbaiki looking for Cafe Mocha for Molly. It was a quest. We finally found a coffee with Mocha listed on it, but it was actually just chocolate flavored coffee, rather than creamy. We passed a design college and a small shop, where I happened to catch two men who were about to have a fight inside. An older man was about to attack a younger one, and a middle aged woman was pushing them apart. I only caught a glimpse as we walked by, but it was interesting. A few blocks later we reached the tower. It's basically two buildings attached at the top by a flat panel, with several escalators really high up connecting to the top. There's a big park down in the front of it, and there was an informative sign proclaming no skateboarding and absolutely 
no DANCING. I told Molly so as to make sure she didn't suddenly start breaking out in a monkey or funky chicken and we would get kicked off the premises. (we were later told by Kelly this was because kids tended to have nowhere to practice, so they chose parks and train stations. Older people are then afraid to go through there, so it's a real problem!) The park apparently contains several species of wildlife, and is an attempt to "control nature" as the sign proclaimed. We headed in to tower 1, where we realized the interesting things seemed to be in tower two. Across the plaza we went, entering the second building. Molly went to the restroom, while I looked at the model of the building. There was a smoking area inside, which has these weird retro smoke inhalers that they also had in Sapporo Station. They obviously are there only for show. We rode the elevator up to the 39th floor, which led out only to a restaurant. As we stood for a moment and took in the view, a woman began to approach us with menus. "Are you going to eat?" she asked in Japanese. "Just looking," I replied. "Ah, the ticket office for the observatory is on the third floor, you can get there on the escalators from the first floor." We nodded and walked off. How DARE we try to get a free view? :/ Molly said, "I told you so!" as she had expressed her concern about us going on the elevator in the first place. Toochoo (the goverment high rise in Tokyo) is free, so why not this place? As it tuns out it's like 5-600 yen to ride the GLASS ELEVATOR to the top. No thanks. :)
We walked back south to the station, were we decided to go to the aquarium, as it was the only thing listed in the guide book that really sounded intesting to us today. We caught the Midosuji line south from Umeda two stops to Honmachi, then rode the Chuo line about five stops to Osakakoo, the end of the main municipal subway line. It continues on as a different line, which is a weird concept.
There are exits clearly marked in English for the Aquarium, so we took exit 1, and walked straight up the street we walked out onto. We stopped briefly into a Lawson's to get film and candy chews (guess who wanted the chews? Sweet tooth girl. :) ) then approaced the harbor area. There's a gigantic
ferris wheel that takes about 15-20 minutes to go around if I estimated right. Next to it is the Waterfront Plaza, a small shopping mall with lots of eateries. Beyond that is the aquarium, next to which is the Suntory Museum and IMAX theater. We were starving, so we went in to the
Waterfront Plaza in search of food. As we headed in, we were accosted by 
pigeons that were charging us. As usual, finding real vegetarian fare is next to impossible. We found a few things, but nothing really substantial or it had a little meat next to it. Eventually after debating about items at a Italian restaurant, we finally chose it, as they had some pasta dishes that the cashier seemed to think were without meat. Once inside, we sat in the farthest corner table, where molly ended up ordering a salad. We told the waitress she was vegetarian, and asked if the salad had any meat in it. She said it had a little ham, so we ordered it "ham-nuki". I ordered a rice omelet and pork katsu. I've been wanting to try a rice omelet since I saw one made in the movie Tampopo (which if you haven't seen it, you should, it's fantastic) so this was my chance. Our food arrived promptly, and I literally swore quietly when it did; Molly's salad had tuna on top. We think they were trying to be nice to her and replace the ham with tuna. She asked if tuna was ok, and I said it really wasn't, so she took the salad back to correct it. They took a long time, so we hoped they were making her a new one, but alas, when it arrived, there were still little bits of tuna in it Molly kept fishing out. She was able to eat the majority of it at least. I have to remember that when we ask for things we have to explain 1) that she's vegetarian 2) to ask for niku nuki and 3) that sakana (fish) is also bad. We finished up and went back to the mall as Molly had located a popcorn store that sold caramel popcorn. Must be an "American" thing, the place was literally PLASTERED with American flags. We both heard the guy say it was a certain amount, and we gave him a 500 yen coin, plus the smaller change to even it out, expecting just 200 yen in reurn. He returned a pile of coins; apparently we were 7 yen off and didn't hear it.
We walked next door to the
aquarium. When we first arrived, it was wonderful; there were no people in sight. We had mused at lunch that a weekday after New Year's Week is the best time to come to Japan since everyone was at work or school. For the most part, it is. However, we failed to take into account field trips, and there were at least 4 HUGE high school field trips lined up at the aquarium by the time we wanted to go in. :P They were all dressed in normal, often goofy, teenager clothes, and most were loud and obnoxious. We hurried ahead in between two groups and rushed into the aquarium, which had about a 1200 yen per person entrance fee. Inside we waited for one of the groups to pass near a replica of a giant turtle shell. When we thought it was safe, we rode a huge long escalator up to the top, where we entered the 
Japanese Forest, which is a small rainforest like the one in Galveston. Unfortunately, we were wrong about it being safe, and another group of teenagers had bounded its way up the escalator and were being just as loud and obnoxious as the last group. We hung out in the forest for a bit while they passed. In the forest, they had otters and fish which were viewed from the top down. The reason for this was the the entire aquarium kind of cycles down from the top, spinning around a 5 million gallon (I think, I'm not sure, it's huge) 
tank in the middle containing hundreds of different fish species, including two whale sharks. As you go around you sometimes see the same tanks viewed from a lower point. The aquarium is themed around the "Ring of Fire", the volcanic area that surrounds the Pacific Ocean. You kind of move through the Ring of Fire, from area to area, and different tanks show wildlife from that region. It's really nifty. We saw otters, Australian porpoises, sea lions and seals, penguins (with their own snow artifically created), and uncountable varieties of 
fish. The tank in the middle is their star attraction, and every different view is just as amazing. Molly also got to check out some 
turtles, which she liked a lot. Down near the bottom, the had 
giant crabs, hairy crabs, and a little further up was a 
jellyfish exhibit, which was really amazing. We exited the aquarium for the gift shop, escaping the shrieking teenage girls ("SUGOI KAWAIIIIIIII!" (very cute)) and walked back towards the Waterfront Plaza. Molly polished off her popcorn on the way, and we went to go get something to drink, as we were both thirsty. A huge set of jodoohanbaiki were directly across the street from the ferris wheel, so we went over there to avoid the high prices of the food court. As we started to walk across the street we saw it and both about slapped ourselves in the head. There was a restaurant, catty-corner from the vending machines that said in plain, big, english letters:
GREEN VEGETARIAN DISHES. ACK! There was a vegetarian restaurant in plain view, and WE MISSED IT. Dagnabbit. Molly wasn't remotely hungry, so there wasn't anything to do about it. Sigh.We got drinks, and went back to the Waterfront Plaza for a bit, browsing the Miyazaki shop, visiting the arcade (the Samba was broken a bit, but I played the Lupin game, it's fun!), and checking out the Sanrio store where we bought a can of Hello Kitty coffee. :) Time was getting short, so we caught the trains back to HEP 5. The Chuo line is confusing as it's a subway closer to the city, and an elevated train closer to the aquarium.
Back at HEP 5, we browsed around for a bit before trying to call Kelly at 5PM. No dice, got a message she was out of range ( I think ). We browsed around a bit more, then tried again. This time we got her. We told her we were on the second floor of the HEP 5, and she said she would meet us there as it's cold outside. She kept saying "we" so we surmised she had brought someone else. She was wearing a red baseball cap, she said, so we watched outside the window for her. It was a bright red cap, and we saw her from across the street. As she and her friend entered, we called out to them and they met us on the second floor. She had brought her friend Peter, another clown from her circus who has reallycool glasses. We all decided we would get food, and Kelly asked if yaki niku was ok (grilled meat place). Naturally we explained she was a vegetarian, and they were totally nice and cool with it. We went to the 9th floor and found an Italian restaurant that we sat down in.
Kelly and Peter have both been working for circuses for years, and are world travelers. She lived in Italy for a while working for a circus there, and Peter had lived in India. Kelly had spent a lot of time with Ringling Bros. circus, but had spent the last 5 years in Kyoto. She had called Peter out of "retirement" she said to come work for the circus in Kyoto. :) They both just the nicest people in the world, and we had such a good time. They told us wonderful stories about their circus, such as the "pit bull" pygmy hippo that charges people all the time and a giraffe that acts more like a dog and has a zebra as a friend. If we were in Kyoto, we could have pet the giraffe. :( We really wished we could have met them there! Ah well. Peter also has a running log of his life on his own website, and we swapped website ideas. We spent a long time at dinner laughing and talking, then finished up as it was getting late. Kelly was really sneaky and snagged the check (!) without us noticing. That was really nice! Kelly suggested getting ice cream, and we weren't going to argue. We went round the corner to a restaurant called 180 Degrees, which serves mostly fried food but also serves big parfaits. We ordered three chocolate parfaits, and I ordered a Hawaiian Blueberry parfait. :) I bought them parfaits in exchange for their gracious dinner gift.
Molly wasn't terrifically fond of hers, but mine was fantastic. :) We talked some more, and I showed them the pictures out of the digital camera. After a while, it was really getting late, and we really needed to be getting on to Nagoya. I hadn't even made hotel reservations, and it was just before 9PM. Kelly and Peter walked us to the train station, where we retrieved out luggage. Kelly suggested getting Shinkansen tickets there in Osaka station, but I usually don't like making them unless we're ready to hop right on the train. She also bought us these really yummy strawberry shortcake mochi things, which were filled with whipped cream. She said those were her favorite things in Japan and we HAD to try them. :)
We said goodbye out of the gate, waved and walked up the stairs. We caught the short one stop ride on the Kyoto line to Shin Osaka, where we got off and went to the ticket reservation counter. I had seen a 9:18 train to Nagoya, but as it turns out, it was a Nozomi (the really fast one) which a rail pass user can't ride. We ended up with tickets on a 9:33 train, that would get us there at 10:44. :P I called a hotel in the guide book, the Nagoya Flower Hotel 1, which the Lonely Planet said was right next to the station. I could NOT understand this guy for some reason, but I was able to make a reservation. It was supposed to be about 9600 yen according to the guide book. He had said some things I didn't recognize, but I just was tired and ready to get there. We caught the short train, then got off in Nagoya, ready to hit the hay.