Hello!
We are just back from our lovely day at Okinawa’s Ocean Expo
Park. To begin with, we were able to buy
discount tickets here at our hotel’s front desk, which saved a few dollars
(always nice!) as well as not having to wait in line (although there wasn’t a
line).
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| In the park, looking toward Ie Shima Island |
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| Entrance to the Aquarium! Love the fish! |
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| Now that's a nose! |
This was the largest aquarium in the world before the
Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta was built, but truly, this is the most spectacular
aquarium either of us has ever seen!
(And as we really like aquaria (pl?) we have visited many through the
years in many different countries!)
The sheer size of the place is impressive; their main tank
contains over 2 million gallons of sea water, is 27’ high and 74’ wide, and the
glass is two feet thick. To say it’s
impressive is a definite understatement.
We first went through the coral reef fish, as Okinawa is
basically just that – a coral reef with people on it! There were some truly unique fish and other
things – various types of coral, multiple sea snakes, different crabs, jelly
fish, shrimp and lobsters, many of which we’ve never even heard of!
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| I love the pink anemone and matching fish! |
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| Colorful fish -- note RED fin! |
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| Hundreds of tiny jellyfish! |
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| Biggest tank in the place with whale shark and friends! |
From the coral reef, we went into the deep ocean, and again,
saw many things that we had never known about.
There were fluorescent fish – some had eyes that literally glowed in the
dark. Others had teeth that did the same
thing! It was a wild experience! The pressure that many sea creatures live
under is tremendous, at depths greater than 200 meters. One of their finest accomplishments has been
to find these creatures and successfully bring them back to the Aquarium and
keep them alive. They literally have to
use a decompression chamber and varying temperatures of water to enable the
fish and critters to adjust to living at sea level, even though their tanks are
kept at colder temperatures and their light levels are what they were
previously. That did mean a fair amount
of walking around in the dark, but it was definitely worth it!
The Churaumi Aquarium is a world class facility, that has
been in operation for 42 years, and quite literally has a string of “firsts” to
their name. They are able to keep whale
sharks alive and hope to be breeding them soon.
And these whale sharks were the absolute highlight of our visit! We entered the main huge tank, and there they
were – two of them, and they are absolutely HUGE! I don’t think I’ve ever been this close to
such big creatures! They shared the tank
with multiple varieties of manta ray, and large schools of fish. Quite a sight to see!
At this point, we decided to get something to drink, and as
it turns out, there was a very convenient little food stop right next to the
tank!
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| This is one big guy! |
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| At our table enjoying the show! |
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| Whale shark with 3 attached friends! |
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| Closeup of attached friends! |
To say we were mesmerized is to be understating our
condition. It was truly magical! We were able to watch some schooling manta
rays feed – one of them did literal somersaults in the water! And watch the huge whale sharks swim all over
the tank. At one point, one of the whale
sharks lifted his head out of the water, and literally vacuumed the top of the
tank! They are plankton eaters, (which
is not what one suspects from critters this huge) and that one mouthful was
then filtered through a screen in his mouth, with the water being returned to
the tank, and the plankton being devoured.
I think we could have stayed there all day.
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| Stunning rays! |
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| One last look at the big aquarium! |
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| Fish with iridescent eye! |
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| At the Dolphin Show |
From the main tank, we passed through smaller and smaller
tanks, until finally we found ourselves at the end of the line, and outside in
the sunshine. As the weather was so
pleasant – first time since we’ve been here that we put on shorts and left our
sweaters back in the room and wore our light jackets only! Such a refreshing change from the blustery
and cold weather earlier this week! (Or
whenever it was…)
There were several other outdoor exhibition areas and tanks
to view as well. There were three
manatees, all of whom came from the Yucatan, which seemed very out of place to
us, and a huge tank for sea turtles – along with the challenge to tell them
apart. There were four different
varieties, and honestly? We couldn’t
identify any of them conclusively! And
finally, there was the dolphin show, which, like most dolphin shows, was great
fun for everyone! We were able to get
two seats very close to the front of the theatre, and R took lots of photos. Fun!
After this, we decided to head to the Ryukuan village, and
with not too many people around that particular attraction, it was great fun to
see how things used to be in years past.
There were lots of thatched roofs (who knew?) and bamboo was the primary
building material. The exhibit was very
quiet and very restful.
Finally, we decided it was about time to head back to the
hotel, as naps were looming large on the agenda, and we still had some errands
that needed doing. So, back up the
entrance stairway and turn left at the first parking garage, and out the
Emerald Exit and in a few minutes we were at the hotel.
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| Bottle-nose dolphin high in the air! |
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| Loved this big guy! |
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| Interior of ancient Okinawa home! |
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| Love all the wood! |
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| A very tranquil place! |
Deciding that the first thing that was needed was food, we
opted to head back to Nago and their McDonald’s. As R
says, sometimes it does make a difference if you can have something that you
recognize to eat! From there, we went to
a Family Mart, to see what the differences were between them and the ubiquitous
Lawson’s Station, both of which are everywhere on the island. (And were NOT
here 42 years ago!) Not much was different
that we could see – so much stuff that we had no idea what it was, but they did
have an ATM and we were also able to buy another big bottle of water for the
room. Back to the room about 2 pm and I
took our load of laundry downstairs to do in the spotlessly clean coin
laundry! This place a bit pricier than
the Hilton, which was ¥300 per load. Here it
was ¥400. And they dryer is 15 minutes for ¥100. Let me only say that the clothes are heading
into the hour of drying, and are still pretty damp. And unfortunately, there is no balcony we can
use to help things along! Oh well! I’ll just have to keep going down and put in ¥100
pieces with the hope that eventually, either the clothes will wear out, or they
will dry … finally …
R up from a nap
now, and he has put some of his Okinawan thoughts together, which I will append
to this entry. It’s interesting to hear
what he thinks. I’m just so happy that
he is enjoying our trip!
Lots of love, and more later,
m
xxx
Note: Laundry FINALLY
dry! Always nice to start out with clean
clothes!
m
xxx
Robert's notes on Okinawa and food!
First, let me say that I am thoroughly enjoying this visit
to Okinawa. The scenery is absolutely
lovely and the atmosphere is so relaxing.
My overall reaction to the place is really complex. The pace of life here seems to be much, much
slower than ours, a change I find to be very agreeable. Politeness and good manners are the
rule. Even the flagman on a road
construction project bowed when he told us to stop.
But never have I felt so cut off from the local culture as
here. Even in other places where I could
not read the writing or understand the language, I sensed some form of
connection, but not in Okinawa and I don’t know why that should be. Maybe because in other travels, such as our
trip to Egypt, we were still very close to the major tourist routes and people
were more accustomed to dealing with English-speaking visitors. Is Okinawa that far off the tourist path?
Television is of absolutely no help. The hotels carry only about ten or so
channels and none in English. CNN and
BBC are available but usually with Japanese audio. As for the internet, even Google comes up
with the Japanese version.
Dining is a special challenge. In general, restaurant menus (even those on
line) are in Japanese only. Sometimes, pictures
of the entrees are provided but one can’t tell a whole lot from a picture. Based on the relatively few restaurant
experiences we have had, beef, pork and (to a lesser degree) chicken are the
principal ingredients; surprisingly, fish seems to be absent. But that is difficult to say for sure. Many dishes are complex mixtures of
ingredients and one cannot recognize the main components. Another complication is that many buffets
have arrays of what appear to be sauces or garnishes to be added to a main
plate but we do not know if this is correct or, if it is, which garnish goes
with which plate. One has visions of the
culinary equivalent of putting a hot chili sauce on corn flakes. Ignorance, it is said, is bliss but surely
that cannot apply to dinner.
R
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