When we first arrived, we were disappointed to see that the -awesome- playground they have of tons of nets attached to poles of different heights has an age limit. Regardless, they have a wonderful little park outside the aquarium for children to goof around on. In fact, it's actually called the Kids Adventure Land.
Our first stop was the awesome dolphin and porpoise show. We saw backflips, coordinated jumps with 6 dolphins, comedy acts, heard a 'song', and much more. It was really a fantastic show. It was SO fantastic, in fact, that it didn't matter even a little bit that it was entirely in Japanese :) I managed to get one spectacular shot, which was a complete fluke (or should I say... providential). Anyhow, here it is:
After the dolphin show, we went and looked at the sea turtles and sea cows (aka, manatees). As we were looking at the many sea turtles, we decided that the bigger ones must be the males, and the more dainty-looking ones must be the females. See the difference?
Wrong.
Completely wrong.
Hilariously wrong.
Try different species.
Seriously. An engineer and a doctor were both totally agreeing upon the fact that these MUST just be the differences between GENDER. Don't let education fool you - you can still make silly assumptions.
So, here's what's really cool: the dolphin show, the kid's adventure park, the sea turtles, the manatees, and much more are all outside of the actual 'pay to enter' area. So you can go explore Okinawan traditional culture, play in the playground, take pictures in gigantic sea creatures constructed from flowers (see baby octopus below), watch a dolphin show, debate which sea turtles are male and which are female, and enjoy the manatees without having to pay a nickel. Pretty awesome!
Once we got inside, we purchased season passes (if you go twice in a year, they pay for themselves, so it's totally worth it), then stopped by the little 'see it and touch it' tide pool. They had starfish and sea cucumbers that you could pick up and play with. I still think the ones you see on the Oregon coast are cooler, but hey.
Then, we walked around the corner and the real action began.
They had tons and tons of tanks filled with every kind of coral reef and fish. Then they had smaller tanks with only two or three types of creatures in each. One of the most informative areas was where they showed the most poisonous creatures native to Okinawa, described why they are dangerous, and then told you how to minimize injury when encountering these specific creatures. Rock fish are particularly frightening to me because legit look like rocks, but you could die if you step on one of them by accident. Awesome.
The aquarium culminates in a GIGANTIC tank with enormous manta-rays and whale sharks, among other sea creatures. Seriously, the rays were probably 8' in diameter and the whale sharks were probably over 15' long. You walk around the tank, which has glass on all sides, slowly going down a ramp, ending at the cafeteria (conveniently). On one side of the tank, you can walk under the tank so you can look up at the beautiful manta-rays and whale sharks, and fish from below.
We ate a 'snack' at the aquarium (I got taco rice, which proved to be a legitimate meal, unlike the hotdog that Mr. A ordered), then headed out to see what else Ocean Expo Park had to offer.
We headed to the opposite side of the park to visit the botanical gardens. These gardens were absolutely beautiful. For anyone who loves orchids, they had an entire greenhouse (or two) filled with all different types of orchids that were gorgeous. They were also setting up for a hibiscus flower show while we were there.
They also had a really cool greenhouse that had all sorts of different plants that are used for various things. They had a coffee tree, a vanilla plant, a mango tree, a rubber tree, and so on.
At the center of the garden they have this beautiful tower which you can climb (or take the elevator) up to the top to get a beautiful view of the whole garden and out to the ocean. Here's the tower itself and the view from it:
After touring around the botanical gardens for a while, we took another path back to the car, passing by a cultural section of the park. In this section, they have models of Okinawan homes to show you how Okinawans have traditionally lived over the years. We got to climb up into one 'home' that was up on 10' stilts! Most of them were completely made of thatching, with very little hard wood. Apparently, they were so good at thatching that rain wouldn't come through at all, despite the Okinawan typhoons that are so common here. Pretty amazing!
We hope to visit again soon!
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