Okinawa Trip without Car: Part 8: Sightseeing Bus Tour (2) Churaumi Aquarium and Ocean Expo Park

[Introduction]

I traveled to Okinawa for four days and three nights. This time, I visited Okinawa Main Island, mainly Naha area. My concern was that I don’t drive, which might make my trip difficult, but I enjoyed the trip very much by using monorail and taking bus tours. In this article, I will write about Churaumi Aquarium and Ocean Expo Park as part of Day 3.

[Visit Places (series of articles)]
* Day 1: Fly to Okinawa
* Day 1: Surijo Castle Park
* Day 1: Surijo Castle Park (Light-up)
* Day 2: Naminoue Beach & Fukushuen Garden & Shikinaen Garden
* Day 2: Kokusai Street
* Day 2: Kokusai Street (Night Walk)
* Day 3: Kouri Island
* Day 3: Churaumi Aquarium [This article]
* Day 3: Busena Marine Park
* Day 3: Mihama American Village
* Day 4: Sefa-utaki & Mibaru Beach & Himeyuri Peace Museum
* Day 4: Ashibinaa & Chura Sun Beach
* Day 4: Senagajima Umikaji Terrace & Return Home

[Travel Date]
2017.07.01-04

[Main Part]

Following the previous post, this article is about “B-1 course Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium, Busena Underwater Observatory, Kouri Island and Mihama American Village Tour” in the Okinawa HIP HOP BUS operated by Jumbo Tours.

Arrived at Ocean Expo Park

I retunred to Okinawa main island from Kouri island and moved to the next destination, Ocean Expo Park.

Ocean Expo Park is a national park in commemoration of Okinawa International Ocean Expo held in 1975. Ocean Expo Park has several facilities including Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium, Okichan Theater and Oceanic Culture Museum.

In this tour, I only had three hours for free time in Ocean Expo Park, so I will go around Ocean Expo Park focusing on a few spots. To begin with, I will visit Churaumi Aquarium, as this is the biggest reason why I participated in the tour.

Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium

Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium is one of the largest aquariums in the world. It was opened in 2002 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Okinawa’s reversion to Japanese administration.

Let’s go into the aquarium.

I slightly expected that there were less visitors as I visited it on weekday, but found a lot of visitors there.

She was so lucky, wasn’t she?

Various colorful fish swam.

Jellyfish.

The Kuroshio Sea

I entered into the Kuroshio Sea area, which was the main exhibit in Churaumi Aquarium.

The Kuroshio Sea has a gigantic, 7,500m3 tank that can be viewed through a large acrylic panel and Rhincodon swam in it.

To begin with, wide angle.

When I visited the aquarium, there were two sharks.

This is the scene I would like to watch.

From up close.

There was also manta.

Other snaps.

Okichan Theater

After I left Churaumi Aquarium, I visited Okichan Theater.

Okichan Theater hold dolphin shows five times a day.

They introduced themselves.

Jump!

To my surprise, it suddenly rained.

In spite of the bad weather, the show was fantastic.

The dolphin show was over.

Emerald Beach and Other Snaps

After I watched the dolphin show at Okichan Theater, it stopped raining. I will go around Ocean Expo Park.

First, around Churaumi Aquarium.

Turtle.

There was a beach (Emerald Beach) in the Ocean Expo Park, so I decided to visit it.

I arrived at the beach.

There was a stall of “Blue Seal” (a famous ice cream shop in Okinawa), so I stopped by it.

I ate ice zenzai.

Here are some photos of the beach.

I also found “Oppa Ice Gelato” shop near the entrance gate.

Since I was fascinated with the Oppa ice on the first day (see the related article), I dropped by the stall.

Then, I left Ocean Expo Park and moved to the next destination.

[Closing]

That’s it for the article about Churaumi Aquarium and Ocean Expo Park as part of Day 3 of my Okinawa trip.

Regarding Churaumi Aquarium, which was the main purpose to participate in the bus tour, I was totally satisfied with it. In particular, the Kuroshio Sea was very impressive and it was worth of visit 🙂

Talking of aquariums, here are other articles in my blog. If you are interested in it, please check it as well.

Aquaria KLCC, a world-class aquarium in Kuala Lumpur
Miyajima: Five-story pagoda, aquarium, deer, Anago-meshi and oyster etc.
Sentosa Island part 1: S.E.A. Aquarium, one of the largest aquariums in the world

In the next article, I will write about Busena Marine Park as part of Day 3.

(FYI)
If you would like to gather information on bus tours, I would recommend “Tabiplusone” since users are able to search for tour information across tour companies. For example, here is the link of the one-day bus tour I participated in.

[Map]

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