Went to the Churaumi Aquarium on Saturday. First off, the buses here are soooooo slow. Really slow. Most only come once every 30 minutes as well. I keep mentioning it because it is just so frustrating taking hours to get places! I should probably spend some time to actually look at the size of the island which would give me a better feel for how big it is and how long things should actually take. But I'm still not a fan of buses so I'll say neh to them.

Any how, Churaumi Aquarium! It's interesting how it is set up. There is the Churaumi Aquarium but it's at an expo park which is free to everyone. This would also include the dolphin, manatee, and turtle ponds. Japan seems to be good about sharing with it's people. Which is nice! Our bus driver was quite kind and helped switch buses at an earlier stop instead of the bus station so that arrival at the aquarium would be much earlier. This was also aided by an elder lady from Montana who is a native of Japan. She also had a coupon to the aquarium which when given to the ticket office cost us nothing for the tickets. I'm still not entirely sure what happened... Supposedly it was only for a discount but I won't complain.

Water feature in the expo park.

Like the Atlanta Georgia aquarium there's a spot for people to get in there and touch some sea life!

They had a different selection to that which I saw in Atlanta.

Puff fish I think? Saw one of these about twice it's size while diving. Not sure if I got it on camera though... I still want to see way bigger things in the water though.

Also saw one of these out in the water too! And probably didn't get this on camera either. Lion fish (It's real kids, not just on Old Maid). They have poisonous spines so don't get too friendly.

Asian flying fish. Didn't want to spread it's wings fully but still fun to see like this. First time I've ever seen the myth in flesh.

Octopus

Giant crab

I'll take two of these for dinner please. About the size of my leg..

They also had a tank of Tiger and Bull sharks. These are actually the ones you need to worry about running into while out in the water.

I still wanted to get in..

Kids, the other other white meat.

And then the 2nd biggest tank in the world. It definitely has really good spots for viewing the tank. And I think the whale sharks are bigger than those of the Atlanta aquarium. After learning that you can dive in the tank in Atlanta I looked to see if you could here... no go! Someday..

Hungry fish is hungry. He let go eventually but was holding onto the fin of his friend for a while.

Ohm... nom...

Ohm.. nom.. ohm nom..

Ohm nom nom nom nommmm

And the dolphin show. This little fella can get some air. Technically this first shot is from the training that you can also watch. Which is kind of fun. A mini show if you will! The trainers would just run through certain things with each animal.

Plenty of cute kids around at the park. Sat next to a couple who really wanted to roam. This one had really sad tears rolling down the cheek but I'm not sure those can be seen.