Where we went - Nagoya Aquarium

We usually go down to Wakayama, to the in-laws for Obon, which is the big summer holiday in Japan. Obon is actually a time to go back to the family grave as the ancestors come back to visit. We actually just go and see the living ones.

Last year we did the in-laws visit and then stopped off in Chiba on the way back. This time we decided to stop off at Nagoya on the way, a city I have never visited before. We didn't see much of the city, it was way too hot to be wandering around but the little bit we did see looked pleasant enough, nice wide street lined with trees.

We arrived just before lunch time so we headed to the hotel and dropped the bags off, grabbed a quick lunch then headed to the port to the aquarium. Now, I have very mixed feelings about aquariums especially when it comes to dolphins and whales. From reading their website, it does appear that this aquarium does a lot regarding research and breeding, although info about the whales and dolphins is lacking somewhat.

We started off by watching the dolphin show but from underneath the water, which was pretty cool.

Then we wandered around the rest of the aquarium, we have lots of blurry fish shots, I'm sure I should know better by now not to bother! Surprisingly there was only one section which was really busy and that was near the sardine tank, I thought that was quite ironic!

Later in the afternoon we went to watch the dolphins but from the stands. We did sit right at the front at first but then decided we would get too wet and moved back a bit, turned out to be a good choice, we would have been soaked in the front seat.

The show was about 30 minutes and fun, they also have a big screen so you can watch the replays on the various jumps etc. 

They don't have the killer whales in a show but they do allow you to watch the training sessions, there is only a small spot to actually watch from, so Ebi-kun used his crafty kiddie skills and wriggled his way to the front. He said he was really close to the whales, about 1m away!

They do have a great sea turtle area, the turtles have a nice big tank and a beech where they go the lay their eggs. The eggs are then incubated and hatched and then the aquarium organizes release days that the public can join. It would have been fun to be able to do that and educational too.

We left about 6pm and had dinner at a restaurant overlooking the port. I had the hottest chicken wings ever and was forced to drink lots of beer! Good job we were on holiday!