Let's Go to Kaiyukan!

Two weekends ago, there was a three-day weekend here, July 13th to 15th. Originally we planned to go and do some hiking at Sandankyo, but the weather forecast threatened rain and thunderstorms, and I hesitated too long to acquire lodgings. Since Rini enjoyed the Fukuyama Zoo so much, we decided instead to do only a day-trip and visit the aquarium at Osaka, called Kaiyukan.

To get to the aquarium from Fukuyama, we had to take the shinkansen for an hour to Shin-Osaka, then regular train and subway to Osakako for another half hour. Including waiting and transfer, it took two hours to get there. The aquarium was a comfortable 5 minute walk from Osakako station. If I remember correctly, it cost us roughly 7,000yen per person one way, making it a bit expensive, but that's nothing new in Japan.

Kaiyukan is open generally every day from 10 A.M to 8 P.M. We wanted to get there early, so we took the 8:30 A.M. train from our local stop, Bingo-Honjo station, which got us to Osakako by 10:30 A.M. There are earlier trains available, but Rini doesn't generally wake up until 7:30-8 o'clock, and we didn't want to wake her up earlier, in case she would be tired and cranky.

I'm a bit sad we missed out on it...

When we got to the aquarium, there was a really long line to the ticket machines. A friend of ours warned us that it would be crowded, especially because of the long weekend, but I guess I didn't expect it to be crowded quite as much this early. Luckily the line moved in a good pace, but after 10 minutes or so, Rini and I went to find some shade as the sun was really strong, and left James to get our tickets. Good thing that we did, too, because as soon as I got Rini in the shade, she passed right out for her nap. This worked out quite well, because we waited another 20 minutes for James to get our tickets, which were 2,300yen for adults, and free for children under 3. We could have bought tickets that included the huge Ferris wheel near-by for another 300-400yen per person, however we were a bit low on funds, and decided against it.

Anyways, with tickets in hand, off we went inside the cool aquarium. Rini kept sleeping for another ten minutes or so, which was just fine, as there were a lot of people and we moved slowly with our stroller. Once inside, we saw many awesome things, like:

Otters!!! I never quite realized how BIG they were.

Penguins... Rini woke up just before we reached them.

A REALLY BIG fish.

Pretty underwater life...

It's hard to see, but the tiny blue fish were beautiful.

Rini really liked these blue fish. She sat here the longest.

Looking at the pretty fish with daddy.

My favorites were the dolphins. Closest I've been to one.

Rini wasn't quite sure about the bigger animals...

As long as they were far, it was fine, but when they came close, she wanted to leave.

As we headed deeper, we saw the penguins again, this time, swimming.

I think one of James's favorites was this huge turtle.

One of Ursula's minions also made an appearance.

These king crabs were awesome, but Rini was not going to have any of it.
She wouldn't even stay for a photo.

These guys were swimming above us. Quite cute, I think.

Just to up the level of cuteness, we picked up Rini for a photo.
Of course, after us, everyone was trying to take the same picture of their child.

James's favorite was this GIGANTIC jelly fish.
It was twice as big as a human head!

More pretty jelly fish. I learned that the longer their tails are (between species),
the more likely they will hurt to touch.

We got to look at a few penguins up close at the end.

Rini pointing out the penguin we just saw.

It's a bit big... and to think we only caught half its horn on camera.

Size of humans (bottom left) versus different sharks.

After seeing this, I've decided I'd rather not be eaten by a shark.

A family photo at the end of the day.

And this is all. The whole thing took about 3 hours from start to finish, although I'm sure it would have taken longer would we have gotten one of those English digital guides. We also saw many people using their Nintendo DS at various points throughout the aquarium. It seemed like another way to get more information about the animals we saw, and to engage children more as well. Just before leaving we took a few more photos, and visited the gift shop. There were a few interesting things, but it was mainly plushies of all sizes of the various tenants of the aquarium. Once again, Rini only seemed interested in the tags of the various gifts, not really the gifts themselves, except for the penguins, so we got a tiny one that had a magnet sewn into its body. If it were up to Rini she would have taken two of the same thing, but alas she had to make do with one.
When we were done, we made our way to the food court in the plaza next door for some late lunch.
On our way home we found this pretty little manhole cover. These are all over Japan, with designs specific to its town or city. I always want to take a picture of them whenever we're at a new place, but most times forget to do so. I think it'd be a cool way to keep track of one's travels within Japan, but alas it'll have to be someone else, as I doubt we'll have a chance to return to any of the places we've seen until now.

Riding the shinkansen home, Rini sporting a crazy hairdo after her hair-ties got removed.

Overall, it was a great day and I'm glad we went. I hope we'll be able to take many more day- and weekend-trips during our last year in Japan.