REVIEW OF OKINAWA CHURAUMI AQUARIUM To visit the big, modern Super-Aquariums in Japan is a great experience you never forget, its not comparable with aquariums in europe or in the USA. During my Japan-Trip, I had the pleasure to visit 13 aquariums, so "The Big Ten"of japanese aquariums. The Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium, "Churaumi" is a japanese word and means" beautyful ocean", is one of the newest aquariums in japan. Its also the largest aquarium in japan and, of course, its he largest aquarium in the world. Georgia Aquarium has the largest tank ( Ocean Voyager), but the building of Churaumi Aquarium is bigger, the visitor area is bigger, it has more exhibits, and of course, more species, around 800 in total. GA has only around 500 species. But nevertheless, Churaumi Aquarium is one of the best aquariums I've ever visitied, so I hope, this little review will give you an impression of this big aquarium. It's located in Motobu-Cho far in the north of the main island of Okinawa. Its the only place in japan with a subtropical climate, its very warm here year round and there are many beautyful beaches around the islands. Okinawa is a paradise for divers, with luck, you can meet manta rays ( with less luck, you can meet stone fish, box jelly, blue spotted octopus....) Who likes it more dry, but want also to see Manta rays, can visit them at the Churaumi Aquarium. Its one of just a few aquariums in the world with manta rays. Churaumi Aquarium isn't only keeping them, since 2007, four Manta rays has been born here, two could be raised and are now on display together with their parents in the big Kuroshio Sea Tank. The first Aquarium on Okinawa was opened as part of the World Exhibition in 1975. At this small aquarium, the first whale sharks were kept here in the mid 8oties. The Aquarium became very quick to a big success, to many people have visted it, so the old house became to small for all the people. A new, bigger aquarium was needed, so in 1998, the construction of the Churaumi Aquarium has started. It was opened November 1, 2002. The old aquarium was closed now to the public, but it was still used for animals, for qurantine and offspring. In 2010, it was crushed down to make space for the expansion of the Churaumi Aquarium. The dimensions of this new aquarium are very impressive, the total area is 10 000 sm , 19 000 sm floor space, 10 Millionen Liters water quantity, 77 tanks with around 800 species. The water is taken directly from the ocean, 300 m off shore from a depth of 20 m. Two million people are visting the Aquarium each year, mostly tourists from the mainland japan or other parts of the world, so many Us-People are visting it, because there is a big Us Millitary basis on the main island Okinawa, not far away from the aquarium. Its located at the northern end of the Ocean Expo Park, to find it, you have only to follow the crowds. The Aquarium is every day crowed, from the opening at 8:30, til the closing time, which is at 8 pm in summer, 6:30 pm in winter times. Along the way to the Aquarium, some marine animals, crabs, octopus, fishes, turtles and, of course, a whale shark are cut off from bushes, in the typical japanse style. A perfect photopoint is the lifesized whaleshark statue at the entrance to the Uminchu gate, through which have people to go on their way to the aquariums door. The end of the Uminchu gate, which is a nice start of the aquariums visit for architecture lovers, offers a great Overview of the east chinese ocean and the neighbour island. At the this point, people have to use the escelator down to the aquariums entree doors. The aquarium has four floors, the tour starts at the 3rd. floor in a spacy ,bright, and beautyful main lobby with two ticket counters and some ticket machines. Also restrooms and two information desk are located in the lobby. Many awards of the aquarium for some special breeding succeses are exhibted on of the lobbies walls. Its a good idea, and its amazing, how many very special animals, mainly sharks, rays and corals, are bred here for the first time in the world, so bull shark, black tip reef shark or manta ray, to name just a few. This prize is named after a former director of Ueno-Zoo, Dr.Tadamachi Koga, the aquarium got it 17 times ! Visitors got a free map, its full of details and contains informations about allt he exhibits, the show times and the times of all the presentations at some of the exhibits. The entree fee is 1,800 yen for adults, 1,200 yen for Highschool kids, 600 yen for elementary school. The Journey through the ocean starts at the top, with a big touchpool with mollusks, sea cucumbers and starfish. A staff member is there to give explanations, not to guard the people, this isn't neceassry in japanse aquariums. This would not work in europe or in the USA....Of course,the touchpool is surrounded by hords of kids all the time, but also many adults want to touch one of the animals. The following exhibt is one of the main attractions of the Churaumi Aquarium, one of the largest exhibits of living corals in the world, it was the first of its kind in an aquarium. Probably 70 diffrent coral species are exhibited in this big tank, which is open at the Top to let in natural sunlight for the corals. Visitors can look in it from the top on their way to the aquariums door as a little free Preview. Its a fascinating, wonderful coral tank, but it houses only a few fishes, which are not eat or destroy corals, so a few butterfly, surgeon or small angel fishes. The Aquarium is famous for its corals and the succes in breeding so many coral species. Three times a day, there is a presentation here, but unfortunately, only in japanse. The Journey continious, the visitor is going now down under the oceans surface and reaches the big Tropcial Fish Sea Tank. Its phantastic tank with ca. 200 diffrent species of coral fishes, so 7 species of trigger fishes with a huge blackedged triggerfish, some groupers as like as potatoe,-,giant,-honeycomb,-highfin and humpback grouper, diffrent angel,-soldier,-butterfly and surgeon fishes, nurse,-and blacktip reefsharks, which have bred in this exhibit. Several windows allow views into diffrent areas in this tank, there is a big grotto in the tank, in which visitors can put on light by press a button. The next section is called " Coral reef world". Its starts with an exhibtion of a variation of small tanks and shows a few of the most poisinus animals native around the Okinawa Islands, this animals, so stonefish, lionfish, box jellies and geography cone, are the reason why some beaches are closed for bathing. I've never seen box jellies in an aquarium before. A model of a cone and a stonefish demonstrate what happens, if they are being touched....Ooouch..... The next section is "Coral Sealife" with a row of equal sized tanks for some invertebrates, corals and fishes. Vistors can see here diffrent species of seacucumbers, cuttlefish, crabs, lobsters, morays and the in japanese very popular Splendid,-and Spotetd Garden eels. They can be found in every aquarium in japan, so they are the same for aquariums as like as merkats for zoos...A rararity is the Iron Butterflyfish, they can not be seen outside of japan. Two rows of very small aquariums with very special animals are closing this section. A beautyful map-Puffer, Banded mantis, razor fish and short dragonfish are some of the inhabitants. A few freshwater tanks are located on the opposite, coconut crabs are the most rare species in here. At the end of this section, Visitors can watch a twenty minutes movie in the Churaumi Theather, of course all of the diffrent movies in HD-Quality do have an ocean theme. After the movie is finsihed, the screen is disappearing and gives the view free into the big Kurishio seatank. With a little luck, a whale shark is swimming along the window in this moment, so the surprising effect is phantastic. Fortunately, all movies can be heared in english language also. The largest attraktion of Churaumi is the 7,5 Million liters water tank "Kuroshio Sea", with several thousands of fishes, so three whale sharks, the largest of them is now 8 meters, six manta rays, egale rays, cownose rays, baracuda, bonito, blufin and yellowfin tuna, dolphinfish, and some more species. Vistors enter this section after the Churaumi Theather and can look into the big tank through several windows, a few meters after the entree, the people standing in front of the giant front window, which is now, after opening of the Dubai Mall Aquarium, the second biggest acryl front window in the world, it is 22,5 wide, 8,2 meters high and 60 cm thick. Unfortuantely, the front window is visable after entering the section, so there is no surprising "Wow" effect like in the Georgia Aquarium, where visitors come out of the dark and stand then unexpeted directly in front of the giant window. Several rows of seats allow to stay a while and watching the animals. There are four lectures with video clips on a screen,during the day at Kuroshio Sea Tank, and two show feedings of the whale sharks. Don't miss it, it is spectacular to see the whale sharks eating. Of course it is possioble to see this giant tank from behind the scenes. Visitors can book this tour, which is running eleven times a day, at the reception desk at the entrance. This tour is very popular, so it should be booked together with the admisison. It is strange, but there is no tunnel through the Kuroshio Sea Tank. I don't know why, but underwater tunnels are not that popular in japan as it is in europe or USA. There is only a half tunnel, the Aqua-Room, at the left side of the tank. People can sit here and watch the whale sharks or mantas rays swimming above their heads. This room can be seen through the big front window, this is normal in japan aquariums, in some other aquariums, people can be seen through the tank at the other side of the tank...This destroys the imagination of an open ocean, but in japan, the aquariums want to show the connection between humans and the ocean. The Cafe ocean Blue is located directly at teh side of the Kuroshio Seatank, so the people can watch the whalte sharks while haveing their lunch, but of course, the seats at the windows are very, very popular and its not easy to get one.The cafe is crowded during lunch time and the pleasure is not cheap. Unfortunately, they are serving no (Whale Shark ) Sushi... If you like sharks, the following "Shark research lab" with a big shark tank is your paradise. Sharks are one of the specialities of the Churaumi Aquarium, they are doing a lot of research on sharks in the wild and in aquariums, so thats why they do have a big succes in keeping and breeding diffrent species of sharks. In the tank, a bull shark is living here since 30 years ! he has fathered some offspring, so one of his daughters is living with him, but he isn't doing well with other sharks. A few weeks before my visit, he has killed all sandbar sharks, and then he was atttacked and hurt by the tiger shark...Churaumi is one of two aquariums in japan with a tiger shark. Other species in this tank are lemon and nurse sharks, and bowmouth guitarfish. People get a lot of information about sharks, everything they want to know about them. There are many shark embryos on exhibt, so two whale shark embryos for example, oand a lots of sharks jaws...A Model of a sharks shows the bodys structure, a giant model of a Megalodon Shark Jaw is a very popluar photopoint for the photograhpy crazy japanese...The shark Lab is a great place at the Churaumi Aquarium, and its no problom, to spend a lot of time in here. Fortunately, the exhibit signs at the Churaumi Aquarium are also in english. Its very importantt to tell the people the truth about sharks, because many species are endangerd in the wild. Unfortunately, there are still aquariums in the world, which are playing scary music in their sharks tunnels... After the open ocean, the visitors reach now the Deep Sea. Most japanese aquariums have a Deep Sea Section, so the Churaumi Aquarium, its called " Deepsea world." The Churaumi Aquariums does have one of the best collections of Deepsea Animals in the world, many of them can be seen only here or in just a few other japanese aquariums. Some little sharks, so the japanese sawshark, japanese bullheadshark, japanese spurdog, some snapper species, threetooth puffers, black snoek, lobstres,crabs, two octopus species, deepsea corals, mollusks and , of course, japanese spider crabs are kept in this amazing Deepsea section. Vsitors going through a part of an artifical grotto and can see here videoclips about the Deep Sea. The Visitor information is really good at Churaumi Aquarium. Its no problem to spend a whole day at this place, I recommend it to all people interested in aquariums. After going through the "Blue Manta Giftshop", which offers an excellent 200 pages guidebook and many other cool stuff, the vistiors exit the aquarium, but that's not all to see, because the Churaumi Aquariums has also a few outdoor exhibits ! Manatee House, Seaturtle Pool, Dolphin Lagoon and the Dolphinarium are Part of the Ocean expopark, so there is no admission and they are for free to all people. Manatee House has two pool, small and empty and not a manatee exhibit, how they are woud build it today in europe or USA. They keeping two pairs and have bred them several times. Seaturtle Pool is a large open Exhibit with a big beach, where the turtles can lay their eggs. And they do it, since 1994, the aquarium is breeding every year Hawksbill turtles and release the hatchlings back to the ocean, if they are big enough to survive. The Aquarium is also keeping Green turtle, Olive Ridley Turtle, Loggerhead Turtle and , the only one in japan, a Black Sea Turtle. People can watch them also underwater, and there is a lot of information about seaturtles and the breeding prorgamme at the Churaumi Aquarium. Dolphin Lagoon give children the opportunity to get contact to bottlenose dolphins, which are born at the Aquarium. In the Dolphinarium, the Aquarium is keeping Bottlenose dolphin, Indo-pacific bottlenose dolphin ( the only ones in japan ), Spinner dolphin, Pacific white sided dolphin and four False Killerwhales, which have bred here succesfully. There are four shows a day. The pool isn't that big, but it dosn't matter, the pool size isn't the most important thing in dolphin care. More important is the Behaviour enichment, and this is perfect in japanese aquariums, they are working with all Cetaceens all the day ! I've never seen this before in any other dolphinarium, and all the dolphins look phantastic, theyare in best condtion, healthy,they are showing normal behaviour and breeding very well. Some japaese aquariums have stopped breeding bottlenose dolphins, because its to hard to find new homes for them....Unfortunately, the shows are only in japanese, so I couldn't understand, what the trainers told to the visitors, but I'm sure, they told them some biological details about the animals. The Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium is not only the largest aquarium in the world, its defenitely one of the best aquariums, I've ever visited. I've spend one and a half days at the aquarium, and I enjoyed every minute of these days... So I highly recommend a visit to this magnificant aquarium. Okinawa is far away from the japanese Mainland, but a visit to Okinawa is perfect for a small beach vacation and visit to the aquarium after a tour through the mainland, and, not to forget, Okinawa is very close to Taiwan, its an only 90 minutes flight to Taipei, and the Taipei Zoo is more worth to visit than all of the awul japanese zoos, its the best zoo in asia. I hope, I can visit the Churaumi Aquarium someday again. They started with the construction of a new building, but its only an eduacation exhibit, not for new exhibits.
Great review, thanks for sharing Tarsius! Did you take some pictures? I'm trying to see the photos of the gallery but none of them is working.
yeah what's with having the six pages of photos from the Okinawa Aquarium deleted (and the two pages from Tama Zoo) Tarsius?
Sorry, but I won't upload anymore selfmade pictures here at Zoochat, because I loose the rights on my own pictures.
Thanks for the review Tarsius, sounds like a great place! I'd love to visit Japan again someday and will be putting this aquarium on my wish list! Any chance of uploading photos onto another site and linking? I'd love to see pictures, as I'm sure others would too.
Hi Tarsius Also thanks for the great review. Wish I could go to Japan next... Is the 200 pages Aquarium Guide in English or only the map? And if it is in English: Have you bought and taken home some more of those Guides and is one available?
@Secret Squirrel. Sorry, no chance for pictures...I have published some churaumi pictures for a short while on another zoo page, the good thing there is, I can control my pictures, which means, I can delete them by myself at any time I want to. So I have deleted them after two weeks. At Zoochat, the pictures are here forever, and I don't know, what some people will do with them....Thats why I've stopped uploading pictures. @Zoomaniac. The Aquariumguide is in japanese, the map is in english.
@Secret Squirrel. You can see tons of excellent churaumi aquarium pictures in the internet, use google, and you will find them...
@Zoomaniac Pictures saying more than thousands words...The Churaumi Aquarium Guidebook is one the best guidebooks I've ever seen, full of great pictures in high quality, a big number of species, sorted by the exhibits, and with english and scientific name, a great map..Of course it would be great to have it in english,I wonder about they don't have an english summary at the end as they do it in some zoos and other aquariums....
Dolphin with prosthetic tail died : Dolphin with prosthetic tail dies at 45 at Okinawa aquarium - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun
