Churaumi aquarium

The typhoon did not actually hit Okinawa, but we certainly got bucket-loads of rain! Luckily, the wind had died down on Sunday, and so we did not have to drive though both rain and wind.

The road was mostly empty, so driving went smoothly.

The aquarium is about an hour and a half North of the university going on the free-way. We ate lunch at a small family pizza restaurant, which, in fact, only has one kind of pizza. The pizza was delicious, and we could look down onto the beautiful coast-line while sipping our freshly-squeezed juice.

The aquarium is located on the (or a) Emerald Coast, as that is, in fact, the colour of the water, even on a somewhat cloudy and rainy day.

The aquarium is not in fact that big, but it has 2 enormous tanks which take up most of the interior.

The first of these tanks houses coral reef inhabitants (and their reef), and they've decided to put them all in the same tank, which has nooks and crannies and little dark caves where the sharks hang out.

And many of these fish were not small at all!

The first tank is, of course, just a starter, before you get to the show of this aquarium, ...

... which is the enormous tank, with its family of manta rays, and its 3 whale sharks, as well as dozens of smaller rays and several schools of fish. And it is, well, enormous. You are just awed by how big all these animals are, and how huge the tank must be. And totally boggled by the 60cm-wide silicon pane they have on display, which is the same as what the big tank is made of.

After we finished the main aquarium, we went to see the sea-turtle and dolphin tanks. The sea-turtles were nice, but the dolphins clearly stole the show, especially as they have trained not only dolphins, but also 2 false-killer whales. Although they are not, of course real killer whales, they do share the characteristics of having many big pointy teeth, and globally have a not-very-nice air about them.

This one's keeper didn't mind it licking him in the face though, so I guess appearances can be deceiving.

Then we rounded off the day by eating a hamburger at an american diner-style restaurant. The hamburgers were delicious, they had root beer (!!!), and we got to see lots of foreigners, which is good for both of us.

yo-ee-hee datta; it was a great day.