Churaumi Aquarium

View of the Whale Shark Exhibit from the Cafe.

Churaumi Aquarium has the 3rd largest Aquarium in the world! But, you already heard that. Churaumi is probably one of the first things that was recommended to you when you arrived at Okinawa. So, I’ll just add a few recommendations. It’s an aquarium and there are lots of cool fish, but do they really matter? If you’ve got kids, or you’re planning on spending all day here, sure, look at every fish, read the sign, look at the fish again. It’ll be great. But the only exhibit you really care about is the main exhibit with the Whale Sharks. Aim to arrive at the Aquarium about 30 minutes before you want to have lunch. It’s best if you eat lunch at a slightly non-standard time. 1100? No one eats that early. It’s perfect. Walk briskly past the other exhibits. Mentally acknowledge that those fish are cool too as you walk by, but avoid eye contact with them. Arrive at the Whale Shark exhibit, proceed downstairs immediately, and head to the cafe. Get your name on the wait list to have a seat right by the window. If it’s really busy, the wait may be impractically long, but on both occasions we’ve been there, our wait was about 15 minutes. You can spend this time standing and admiring the whale sharks. When it’s time, you’ll be escorted to your table. It’s small, hopefully you didn’t bring too many kids. Then, you get it line and order your food. It’s nothing special. It’s pretty cheap, around ¥800 per plate, but don’t expect steak. Sit and admire the whales as you eat your cheap food. The real victory here is that you get to be right next to the tank without a huge crowd encroaching on you and you get to sit which is great if you don’t like standing.

While your sitting, check what time the next Dolphin show is. You can lolly-gag around the rest of the Aquarium and Expo Park while your waiting for the show to start. This is the other attraction that you must see while you’re at Churaumi Aquarium. I don’t speak much Japanese, but the dolphin show was a lot of fun and I felt like I understood what the narrator was trying to convey. The dolphins do tricks. It’s a reasonably sized tank with lots of room for dolphin tricks. There are normally three dolphins and one not dolphin. Behind the tank, you have an amazing view of the South China Sea and Ie Island.

This is not a dolphin.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *