Okinawa - Day 2

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Today I went to Churaumi Aquarium. It has one of the biggest tanks in the world and is host to three whale sharks.

It's located on the Motobu peninsula, which is approximately 2.5 hours away from Naha by bus. It's quite a trek, but worth it I guess. I took a highway bus (2,040 yen, 90 minutes one-way) to Nago, then change to a local bus to the Ocean Expo Park (860 yen, 55 minutes one-way). I bought the admission ticket to the aquarium at the Nago bus terminal for a 10% off discount (from 1,800 to 1,620 yen).

Today's weather was similar to yesterday's, warm but cloudy. I went to the "Emerald Beach" next to the aquarium; the water is really clear but still, without the deep blue sky it's nothing like a postcard.

On the highway bus I spotted several US military bases. I didn't see any military facilities though. Instead they were housing for the servicemen and their families.



Even though the aquarium is so far off from anywhere, and I only saw very few other travellers on the way, the aquarium was quite packed with tourists. Many of them came as a tour, and some people drove. The whale sharks were really impressive, and the tank that houses them is huge! But the rest of the creatures in the aquarium were not as impressive as the collection at Osaka Kaiyukan, in terms of both range and quantity.

For lunch I ate a very strange onigiri that I bought from the convenience store - taco onigiri. It's basically mince meat with cheese in rice and wrapped in dried seaweed. It might sound disgusting, but it actually quite funky (in a good way). It wasn't bad at all!

After I returned to Naha, I met up with Larisa and Yining, who arrived in Naha that afternoon. We had dinner (I had another goya dish - goya salad) at an izakaya before going window shopping on Kokusai-dori. All I can say is that Larisa is a bigger fan of shopping than I am!



Oooh I found Nemo and Dory!