Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan

This surprisingly-large aquarium is busy 365 days a year with visiting groups of students and a mix of Japanese and international tourists. It's famous for being the largest aquarium in the world and it's full of sea creatures that are as interesting as they are bizarre. If you're visiting Osaka, it's worth spending one morning here checking out the enormous sharks, crabs with 6-foot long legs, hypnotic jellyfish, or the world's largest rodent (it's terrifyingly big!). It was pretty incredible! My only tip is to have patience with the crowds: it's a common occurrence throughout Japan.

This is been the best aquarium I've ever visited. There is an impressive 4-story main pool with a whale shark (the star of the aquarium), jellyfish and giant crabs from Japan. As a sort of curious note, there's a section dedicated to sharks with a life-sized artificial great white with its cage and all, just for a laugh. The store is very Japanese of course, with stuffed animals of all the animals in the aquarium! It's really worth seeing!

The aquarium online ticketing service doesn't work. You just get error messages saying access is forbidden. I tried multiple devices with the same result. You have to go in person to buy tickets but you must go before they open otherwise you will spend hours there waiting. I went at 10am and then ticket line was an hour long. Hundreds of people were trying to buy tickets online but were having various technical challenges because of the aquarium's website. You can't buy tickets in-person for other dates, just that particular day. When I reached the ticket window to buy a ticket it was 11am and the first available ticket wasn't until 1:30! You would have to wait around for 2 1/2 hours!!! I can understand the need for timed tickets but that is now a common challenge at popular attractions but no attraction I've ever visited has made the process so frustrating and impossible for foreign tourists.