The past two + weeks (Sarah)

So, not all that much other than work has happened in the past two weeks. But I will recount the more interesting things that did happen:

A couple of weeks ago we were woken up very early (around 6 or 6:30) by ambulances roaring along the overpass near us. Thankfully we are both champions sleepers and although we didn't get great sleep, we rolled over and were able to sleep until we had to get up for work. I got up for work earlier (I had a morning shift, Daniel had an afternoon one) and I realized I could hear helicopters over head. So I opened the curtains and was greeted with this:

Awww...shit.

Not too far away, in what appeared to be the direction of our local train station, was a fire. I got ready for work and headed out. And yes, the fire was at the train station. There were dozens of fire trucks lining the streets, water everywhere, and too many police officers to count. Thankfully the fire was concentrated on the western end of the train station, so it was still accessible from the eastern gate and I could go to work. As I got to my platform I could see smoke and fire not 100 feet away. It was pretty crazy. To this day the western part of Juso (our train station) is closed and despite the fact that I've asked over a dozen or so Japanese people, I still have no idea what started the fire. It looks like it concentrated in the restaurants next to the station, so I imagine the fire started there, but I can't be sure.

A couple of days later we went to a restaurant where you catch your own fish and then they prepare it for you however you would like. It was all a expensive, so Daniel caught their cheapest fish (a horse mackerel) and I didn't fish at all. Hopefully we can go back again when we've got a little more money.

Last week we went to the Osaka Aquarium. The top floor has a bunch of different exhibits that span the world...You start in Japan then you head to the Aleutian Islands, then MONTEREY BAY and so on. When you get to the lower levels of the aquarium you are viewing the same exhibits--but from below. So on the top floor you view the animals that live at the surface, and at the bottom you see the animals that are bottom feeders. It's a pretty cool design. The aquarium is known for it's massive pacific ocean tanks that holds 5,400 tons of water. And in this tank? There are rays, sharks, and a massive whale shark. Whale sharks can grow up to 50 feet long!! This one wasn't nearly that big, but I believe they said it was 40 feet long, which is still really massive. We had a blast at the aquarium: lots of cool animals and things to see. Daniel even made a friend with a harbor seal--it kept on following him around.

Daniel and his new best friend.

For our break this week we decided to go to the sumo tournament held in Osaka every year. It was pretty interesting, though of course we understood only a little. Daniel had a lot of fun--he was cheering like crazy. I uploaded a bunch of pictures from sumo (and from all our adventures) on Facebook, so check them out here:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10101182525316648.1073741831.6710589&type=1&l=d94b7f62c0

We've set ourselves a goal to do one new thing during each of our "weekends." It could be as simple as trying a new food, or it could get a bit crazier/more expensive, like traveling somewhere. So, I imagine we will have a lot more adventures to write about in the future. Until next time I write, I'll continue to upload photos on facebook and I'll try to add descriptions to most of them.