A Large New Friend Appears!

We catballs like to think of ourselves as ambassadors, of sorts.  We like to promote happiness, we like to advocate adventure, and we like to dispense friendship.  We were super-excited to be told that today, we were going to take a special trip to the Fish Museum to meet a good buddy that the big guy and his cute wife met the last time they were in Osaka who they said is also a very strong ambassador of good feelings.  We got a good early start to the day and headed down into the subway.  As we awaited the train, we wondered what kind of guy we were going to meet.

We promise we were the only ones here to use these chairs--we are not selfish nuisancey catballs!

Kaiyukan Aquarium--otters and octopi and such!

After a busy jostley train ride, we finally got to the place that the good guy lived in.  It was a huge place with many many people teeming about getting in line and waiting to meet the happy fellow inside.  Judging by the size of the crowd, we guessed that his good vibe-giving abilities must be exceedingly powerful and we could not wait to see him for oursel-WHAAAAAAT?!

HO-LEE SMOKES!  Look at the side of this guy!  This large blue fellow is a whale shark.  He is giant-sized and rolls with a big entourage of little buddies who like to hang out in his wake as he swims in long circles.  He has a big white belly and a bunch of adorable dots on his top half.  He moves slowly but gracefully, strongly but peacefully, and while people look at him and take pictures and shout "Sugoi!" he just rolls along, smiling all the time, with his buddies in tow.  There are many places to sit to watch the whale shark while he spreads his message of peace, and there is very calming, soothing music playing.  It is very easy to get lost in your thoughts while watching this lovely happy giant do his lovely happy giant thing, and at the same time it is just as easy to tune out the unisphere and get mesmerized by his spectacle.  The humans snuggled together and were very quiet for a long time while they got reacquainted with their friend, and we joined them and basked in the blue-tinted peace of the place.

Not pictured:  peace

After a while, we said our goodbyes and expressed our thanks for the good feelings that the whale shark shared with us, and we met other strange and slippery and generally moist creatures, such as this leopardy-looking guy lurking at the bottom of this one tank.

At another tank, the big guy told me to keep my eyes closed while he popped me up on this ledge, and then told me to look behind me...

 OH GOD HORRIBLE CREATURE!  WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME?

Anyway, it was finally time to leave the Fish Museum.  We were all full of good feelings and at the same time were a little sad to leave the big friendly fellow behind.  The big guy and his cute wife had a little chat, then asked us if we wouldn't mind maybe being a little cramped in our satchel for a little while...

Nope, don't mind one bit!