I went down to Cosmosquare in Osaka earlier this week to go to the Immigration Bureau. If you plan to leave the country during your stay under a student visa you have to get a re-entry permit. Getting the re-entry permit was pretty easy and didn’t take much time. Since my friend and I were already at the Cosmosquare stop we decided to go to the Osaka Maritime Museum down the street. The museum only costs 600 yen for admission. The museum building has a unique design-its a dome that is sitting in the water with windows that reflect the sunlight like the surface of the water. The entrance was really fun; you take an elevator down and walk through an underwater tunnel to the museum escalator. When you’re riding the escalator up the replica of a Japanese trading ship is right overhead.
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| the exterior of the museum |
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| in the underwater tunnel |
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| fish chilling in one of the skylights in the tunnel |
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| entering the museum and seeing the giant trading ship above us |
The trading ship is in the middle of the museum and the three floors surround it so you can see it from all different levels. There are a lot of exhibits about international seafaring and traditional Japanese ships and ports. This museum would be a lot of fun for kids since there are a lot of hands on things to do. In one room you can use sextant to find the latitude of the museum and there were photo spots where you could pretend to be steering an old Japanese boat from the Edo era. Unfortunately the yacht simulator we wanted to try was off limits for some reason. There were a lot of dioramas of what Osaka port used to look like before modernization and the museum seemed like it had a lot of information in the exhibits but it was all in Japanese.
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| looking down at the trading ship |
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| the yacht simulator we didn't get to try |
You can also go on the trading ship and walk around. You have to wear a plastic helmet with a light on it though so you can see what’s down below. My friend and I had a lot of fun at the museum but since we can’t read Japanese fluently we missed out on a lot of information-especially in the Osaka port history exhibit. It was a fun short trip to see a different part of Osaka though.
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| in our helmets after exploring down below |
The museum’s website in English:
I am glad you made the most out of getting your re-entry permit. It is a hike to get there. The museum sounds great - I hope this post encourages more people to check it out.
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