11/10 - Kaiyukan Aquarium

Since our ride on the Aqua Bus ride at noon, we hadn't eaten a bite.  And now it was around 2-3pm.  So after the Santa Maria, we ran into the Tempozan Marketplace for food.  N had a KFC craving while H wandered into the "Old Osaka" replica area of the food court and grabbed a egg wrap type snack.  It was a quick and somewhat smaller than desired lunch.  H wishes he had gone KFC too because the giant KFC puff pastry looked oh so good and oh so much more filling.

After a very quick lunch, we headed into the Kaiyukan Aquarium [海遊館].  This is advertised as one of the largest aquariums anywhere in the world.  The way this aquarium works is that they send you to the top of the building first and then you snake your way down through the collection of different climate displays and giant tanks.  There were tons of fish, of course.  In the Amazon display, there was a giant arapaima.  I could fit inside the belly of that fish, I think.

A little further down there were the piranhas.  I didn't realize how small these fish were, but they are really eerie to look at.  The whole school of them just float there with their noses pointing to the surface.  They lie their waiting for their next prey to fall in the water.  One can just imagine the frenzy that would ensue if some meat did fall in the tank.  Very unnerving.  Luckily we're on the other side of the glass.

In another window was the Antarctic exhibit complete with penguins.  On land, these penguins careen their pudgy bodies around the surface, but boy do they move like torpedoes once they get in the water.  Case in point below.  Penguin on land looks all sedate and wonders who this yahoo is taking a picture of him.

Then his pal a few metres over is in the water jetting around up and down and every which way possible.  H got lucky with one shot where he could actually get a clear view of the eyes of a darting underwater penguin.

As we descended, there was the one giant tank that was in the middle of our path.  It was the largest of the tanks that went up almost the entire height of the building.  Within this tank was a giant ray that hover hither and fro.  He also had quite a few fish in tow.  Cleaning fish?

There were also a couple of large whale sharks in the giant tank.  I believe the whale shark is their main attraction in this tank.  It was hard to get a good head on shot of the shark.  The best was a shot of the large fish swimming away from the glass.

As we descended beyond the giant tank, we came into a darker area.  This was the perfect set up for all the jellyfish on display in the aquarium.  I think this aquarium probably has way more jellyfish than the Vancouver Aquarium.  The jellyfish are all lit up in their bright colours.  Everyone loves to watch these bright creatures dance around in the dark waters.  It's definitely worth all the space on the memory card to get a good shot.

As we came out of the depths of the aquarium and into more light, there was a section where you could get up close and personal with a few of the aquarium residents.  There was one section with no barriers between you and the penguins.  Obviously, it is verboten to touch the penguins.  However, that was not the case with the baby rays and baby sharks in small shallow tanks near the penguins.  After washing one's hands, you could reach in a feel the bodies of the rays and sharks.  The rays were all squishy feeling like Jello; whereas, the sharks' skin was very coarse and rough to the touch. 

Then last but not least was a little critter that didn't seem to belong in an aquarium.  Actually, I shouldn't say little.  The creature I am talking about is the world's largest species of rodent.  It's known as a capybara.  When I first saw, I was thinking what the heck is that thing?  You get close it and you can tell it has the head of rodent, but it has the giant body.  Now that I think about it, it really resembles a beaver.  So we ended our trip to one of the world's largest aquariums with what looked like a land mammal, but apparently these guys are semi-aquatic.  These must be the South American cousin to our Canadian beavers.