PHOTO BLOG: Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium

After recently posting my Okinawa Top 10, it's now time to take a more in-depth look at some of the highlights of my summer in Okinawa. Visiting Churaumi Aquarium in Ocean Expo Park (approx. 90km north of Naha) was undoubtedly one of my favourite experiences. It's one of the world's biggest aquariums, with a main tank so large that it can fit not just one but two huge whale sharks (plus manta rays and other fish). The aquarium is an incredible showcase for the marine life that lives in the coral reefs surrounding the islands, as well as species found in deeper waters. The waters surrounding Okinawa are said to be home to a diversity of species on par with that found in the Great Barrier Reef, and one visit to the aquarium certainly confirms this.

What really struck me when I visited the aquarium was the beauty of the variety of fish and other marine life... even the slightly more odd-looking fish are beautiful in their own way. The photos below give an insight into how diverse the marine life housed in the aquarium is. The photos are divided up by the three different themed areas found in the aquarium.

Journey to a Coral Reef
The aquarium's coral reef tank has no roof, allowing natural light to illuminate the coral and the fish inhibiting the reef. The corals inside have taken over 10 years to cultivate.

The coral reef itself is stunning, even without any fish

Fugu / Blowfish

Parrot fish

Lobster

Butterfly fish

Jellyfish

Gopher

Garden eels

Seahorse

Journey to the Kuroshio
This section of the aquarium houses the main feature: a tank with 7,500 cubic metres of water, which is home to the 8.6m long whale sharks, manta rays and other fish. There is also a shark tank, with an accompanying exhibition which aims to contradict the commonly-held notion that all sharks are blood-thirsty, dangerous animals.

The huge main tank at the aquarium

Manta ray

Whale shark

The shark tank

Journey into the Deep Sea
This area contains marine life that has been collected from more than 200m below sea level. You can observe more than 70 rare species, including unusual species that glow in the dark.

Rare deep water fish, pristigenys meyeri

Squat lobster

Corals living in the deep sea

Coral that glows with reflected infra red light

Churaumi Aquarium is one of Okinawa's top attractions and a must-visit for anyone with an interest in marine life or wildlife/nature in general. Because it is so popular, I recommend arriving as soon as it opens in the morning to stand a chance of beating the crowds. You can spend the rest of the day exploring the other sights in Ocean Expo Park. After a visit to this aquarium, you'll surely want to experience snorkelling or scuba diving in Okinawa to visit the coral reefs and get even closer to this incredible marine life!

Kyoto Daytripping: Arashiyama

Whilst staying in Osaka in April/May this year, I visited Kyoto on a number of occasions. One of the main reasons I chose Osaka as my base was its proximity to Kyoto and other locations in the Kansai region. Even though I enjoyed my trips to Kyoto, and certainly preferred it to Osaka (in terms of appearance and atmosphere), it still didn't quite live up to expectations, given its reputation as a must-visit destination in Japan (this is despite being awe-struck by two geisha I spotted one night in the historic geisha district of Gion - surely the quintessential experience for the tourist in Japan). Maybe it's because most of the times I visited Kyoto I had the misfortune of torrential rain so spent a lot of time in museums rather than wandering the streets or parks. Or perhaps it's because I'd reached temple/shrine saturation point by the time I visited those located in Kyoto. Either way, my two highlights of the Kyoto area are actually located outside the city itself: Arashiyama and Fushimi Inari (which I will write about in another post). Both of these places are in my opinion much more impressive than anything I saw in the city. If you ever spend a short stay in Kyoto, I would suggest making a day trip to one or both of these places rather than focussing solely on the attractions in the city itself.

Arashiyama is located in the western outskirts of Kyoto. If you take the Hankyu line to Arashiyama like I did, the first thing you do once exiting the train station is walk across Togetsukyu bridge which crosses the Katsura river. The river itself is covered in pleasure boats and is a good location to spot local wildlife.

Thickly forested riverside with pleasure boats

Cormorants enjoying a day of fishing on the Katsura river

The river as seen from a observation point near the bamboo grove

Once you cross the bridge, you are confronted by what looks like an extremely touristy area with masses of souvenir shops and tourists disembarking from coaches in their hundreds. Luckily, once you move away from this central area, the attractions tend to be less busy. The one exception to this is the bamboo grove, which unfortunately was horrendously busy, as I suppose is to be expected given it is the most famous attraction of the area. This was a real shame, as it seemed like a magical place, but you couldn't truly get a sense of this with the number of people walking through it. I was also slightly disappointed that there was only one designated path through the bamboo grove, and you could not simply wander through it freely.

Walking through the narrow path of the bamboo grove was one point at which I got extremely frustrated with people spending what felt like hours taking photos of themselves, with or without selfie sticks. It's quite a narrow path through the grove, so if there is a group doing this you not only can't pass but it takes up your entire view of the grove, which is somewhat distracting to say the least. I know I'm as guilty of taking photos as the next person, but sometimes I wish people would spend more time simply enjoying their surroundings rather than taking photos of themselves in said surroundings. I completely understand the need to record experiences for posterity, but not when it's at the detriment of enjoying the here and now. And that's the end of my selfie rant.

Bamboo Grove: vertical view

Bamboo Grove: horizontal view

After battling our way through the tourists at the bamboo grove, we went to a much more tranquil location: Okochi Sanso Villa. This is the former villa of samurai actor Denjiro Okochi, who carefully worked on the design of the gardens for 30 years. Since his death in 1962 the gardens have been open to the public. The entry fee is 1,000 JPY which includes green tea and a biscuit in the teahouse. Not only are the grounds themselves imprressive, but also afford stunning views of Kyoto as it sits on a hill. I also found the journey through the garden very interesting and different to any other Japanese garden I had visited (and I have visited quite a few now!). The paths between different locations within the grounds were frequently built up with foliage so that you were walking through 'tunnels', from which you could not see the overall plan of the garden, meaning that when you appeared in the next location it was all the more surprising and impressive. It also meant that the contrast between the 'closed' passages and the great open viewpoints of the city was even more breathtaking.

Restorative matcha and red bean biscuit in the teahouse

Chumon (middle gate)

Daijo Kaku (main building)

Jibutsudo (small temple)

After enjoying a quick lunch back down by the river, we visited Monkey Park Iwatayama. I was initially sceptical about this, partly because I expected it to be a quasi-zoo (and I'm not a huge fan of zoos), and partly because I'd stumbled across a 'monkey park' in a public park in Sakai the previous week which had been full of pretty mangy and unhappy looking monkeys. However, my preconceptions of Monkey Park Iwatayama turned out to be completely wrong, happily. The park is really just an area where the wild monkeys (Japanese macaques) that live in the mountains congregate because they are offered food. 

After buying your entry ticket to the park, a steep hike up the mountain for 20 minutes or so is rewarded by being able to get close to these monkeys in their (near-enough) natural environment. It happened to be the right time of year for baby monkeys to be born, which massively added to the cuteness factor.

Deep in thought

Family portrait

I'd prefer a hot bath

Peek-a-boo

Just having a snack

But mummy I want to play

The monkeys and the turtle dove

If you visit the monkey park, definitely stick around for feeding time. The park 'ranger' has a bucket full of food from which he throws handfuls out for the monkeys, and they get so overexcited that they almost forget that they're wild (I had a couple of monkeys nearly run right into me in their haste to get to the tasty snacks). The monkeys are apparently omnivorous, and in the park they are fed things such as soybeans, chestnuts, peanuts, bananas, and even Japanese persimmons. No wonder they like to gather here from all over the mountain. Oohing and aahing over the baby monkeys was a great way to end the day in Arashiyama, and the sun even decided to come out for the first time all day.

If I went back to Arashiyama, I would love to spend more time simply hiking in the mountains. I spotted a couple of temples in forested areas in the mountains and it would be great to hike around there and discover some of the less well-trodden paths. As has been the trend for me so far in Japan, I've enjoyed the beautiful parts of the countryside more than the urban centres.

Have you ever been to an animal park?

Sakai City: off the beaten track in Osaka

Having left Niseko, I'm now staying in Osaka for a month. Or rather I'm staying in Sakai, which is a suburb of Osaka. It's not somewhere that appears in any guidebooks, so you probably won't have heard of it, even though it is just a 10 minute train journey away from central Osaka. However, the lack of tourists is not a reflection of the historical importance of the area: I've been surprised to discover the heritage of the area, with cultural properties that are not just important for the Kansai region, but for the whole of Japan. On my first day, having arrived late the previous night, I decided to take it easy and explore the local area. Here's what I discovered on my first day.

Having looked at the local area I would be staying in on google maps, I was intrigued to see a series of odd key-hole shaped parks with lakes around them. I did a bit of research and discovered that these areas are actually ancient burial mounds surrounded by moats. These are known as kofun tombs, which were actively being built in Japan for around 400 years, from the 3rd century onwards. People of high rank, including emperors, were buried in these. The kofun are now overgrown with trees and grass, but originally would have been ornately decorated with terracotta figures called haniwa.

Japan's largest known kofun, Nintoku-ryo tumulus, is just a 5 minute walk away from the guest house I am staying at (Banana House). This seemed like a great place to start exploring the area. Now, you have to use your imagination a little bit when visiting the tumuli, because the best way to appreciate the size and shape is aerially, which sadly isn't possible unless you have a helicopter! From the ground you can walk around the outside of the moat, which for this largest kofun, is just under a 3km walk all the way around. Despite not being able to see much of the kofun, it was amazing to be near something so ancient, which is now surrounded by modern Japanese life (including a motorway on one side). Although you can't walk onto the kofun itself, there was plenty of wildlife to enjoy in the surrounding moat, including turtles!

View of the moat

Egret fishing in the moat

Turtles enjoying the sunshine

Heron in the reeds

Across the road from the kofun, there is a city park called Daisen Park. It's a pretty park for running in or picnicking in on a nice day, and it also has a few different attractions including Sakai City Museum. This is definitely worth visiting if you are taking a look at the kofun, as a large part of the museum is dedicated to explaining these ancient monuments. Entry to the museum costs just 200 JPY.

The museum staff were really welcoming and helpful and immediately gave us a selection of english language leaflets to look at as we waited for the short film at the beginning of the exhibition to start. The film gives you a brief history of the kofun and some imagery demonstrating what they would have looked like when they were first built.

Most of the museum is dedicated to archaeological artefacts from Sakai. This includes some of the haniwa sculptures that decorated the kofun, and other objects related to the local area.

Horse-shaped haniwa

Human figure haniwa

Sakai historically produced the best blades in Japan

A pair of masks on display

Other attractions in the park include a Peace Tower (pictured below), a Japanese Garden, and a Bicycle Museum. Elsewhere in Sakai there are other interesting destinations including the Old Lighthouse and the Plaza of Rikyu and Akiko (two important historical figures born in Sakai) as well as temples and shrines. Hopefully I'll get to visit these too at some point during my time here.

Peace Tower in Daisen Park

If you are visiting the Osaka area, I would definitely recommend a trip to Sakai if you are interested in ancient history and archaeology. Sakai lacks the throngs of tourists that surround more popular attractions in the area, making it somewhere you can really enjoy a relaxed day out. There are also some lovely green spaces to enjoy some time away from the city!

I've been in Sakai for a week now, and have taken day trips to some incredible places in the Kansai region. Keep an eye on Foods for Thought for more posts coming soon!