The Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukon, is one of the largest public aquariums in the world. It’s truly breathtaking at times and somewhere you could easily spend a full day (like I did!) – with or without children!
LOCATION
The Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan is located right next to Osaka Bay and the Tempozan Ferris Wheel. It’s super easy to access from the heart of Osaka – you take the Midosuki line from Osaka to Hommachi, then transfer to the Chuo line to Osakako and it’s then a short 5 min walk to the aquarium.
One of the true beauties of the Osaka Aquarium is how it’s designed and the exhibits inside. It has one large tank in the middle with a path snaking around it over multiple levels, where other exhibits line the opposite wall to the main tank.
You first go through a typical aquarium under water tunnel, but this one has one feature that most don’t – all types of aquatic animals. Most have only fish, but Osaka’s had stingrays and sharks as well!
With that, we go to the next exhibition – Japan Forest. This was at the top in a glasshouse-like setup and housed the gorgeous otters!
Next we’re at water level with the Monterey Bay and it’s key features – the seals! What makes them even cuter is that you can view them from both under and over the water line.
Next up was one of my favourites – Antartica. I’ve always loved Penguins, so I enjoyed watching them here so much. Plus being able to see them above and below the water level made it so much more fun.
Then we arrive at the areas that are close to home for me – Tasman Sea & Great Barrier Reef. The Tasman Sea is filled with playful and fun dolphins and is the last of the exhibits that are both over and under the water line.
Then it’s the area for my country – The Great Barrier Reef. Here we see all types of tropical fish and coloured coral.
We then go to the biggest and most impressive area – The Pacific Ocean. This is the tank that is in the middle and all of the levels rotate around it, so you can see it from many different view points. It spands 4-5 floors and is just breath-taking. I spent SO long staring at all of it’s inhabitants because they were so incredible. The star attraction (whilst I hate that phrase) was the Whale Shark residing there. She was majestic and truly spectacular and I could’ve spent days watching her. As it was, I think I spent at least an hour watching her and taking SO many pictures!!
As well as the Whale Shark, there are so many graceful Stingrays, Hammer Head Sharks, Turtles and a bucket of Fish.
After spending so much time there, I moved onto the Coast of Chile. This exhibit was filled with schools of Tropical Fish and was a delight to watch.
The last full exhibit was Japan Deep. This was all manner of crabs and creepy crawlies – not my favourite one!
Then there was the last partial exhibit – the Jellyfish. I’ll be honest – I didn’t realise there was SO many different types of Jellyfish! The whole room is just so pretty in the way it’s set up.
At the end, there is an interactive area which changes animals – when I was there, it was Manta Rays, but could be anything by the time you get there!
There’s also a fun area before the cafe and you leave where you can pose for some cute pictures and the animal statues are dressing according to the season – mine were Halloween themed!
Located in the Aquarium Building is a small cafe themed to its surrounds. We got the two Whale Shark themed items – the Hot Dog and the Ice Cream Swirl. The flavour of the Ice Cream was so interesting – it was Ramune (Japanese Soda) and Vanilla swirled.
All in all, this was such a spectacular experience, especially since it was a last minute addition to my trip at the time and will be somewhere that I will visit again!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Have you been to the Osaka Aquarium? What were your thoughts and which exhibition did you enjoy the most?
Leave a Reply