Day 24 - Our Day Trip: A Long Drive To Churaumi Aquarium

We started our day a little late on Wednesday, as I woke up with a very sore right heel. My shoes have been on their last leg for most of this trip, and walking nearly 10km without proper padding resulted in severe soreness. Thankfully, after a hot shower and some stretching, I was mobile once again, so we headed out to the parking lot to grab our car and head north nearly two hours by car, all the way across Okinawa to the northern coast where we would go to Churaumi Aquarium.

Our drive was very scenic, and started with the Okinawa Expressway, a toll road that takes you most of the way across the island, and includes beautiful views of Okinawa's dense foliage, rolling hills and the ocean. The weather was foggy and rainy, but his actually created some beautiful views for us as the fog was a nice element.

The scenery of Okinawa (not our photo)

We reached the end of the expressway and paid our toll of 1020 yen, merging into the regular traffic and spending the last forty minutes of our drive in stop and go traffic as we slowly approached the aquarium. Thanks to the rain, there were droves of other tourists at the aquarium when we parked, and most of us were running across the street to try to avoid getting soaked. In an unusual twist of events, both Lauren and I had forgotten to bring umbrellas (Lauren usually makes up for my forgetfulness), so we got quite wet walking into the aquarium park and down the hill to the entrance.

Once we reached the entrance, we paid our entry fee of 1850yen per person, and were immediately surrounded by tourists, the place was so busy that walking was often difficult. The entry floor consisted mainly of coral reefs and the fish found there in large displays. As you descent, you reach a gallery below that encircles a massive tank that is home to two whale sharks and a plethora of larger fish that live at slightly greater depths.

We took a few photos here, but to avoid the crows moved into the next room over, a shark lab. This room has a lot of info on how sharks reproduce, samples of their scales, brains in jars, and many shark and whale fetuses for comparison. We left this room and proceeded further downstairs to the deep ocean area, where a large number of specimens from deeper than 200 meters can be viewed, including strange crustaceans, big-eyed fish and other unique forms of deep sea life. As we exited the deep sea area, we realized we had come to the end of the aquarium, a surprise given how large we expected it to be. There was a rather large display with whale and shark skeletons, oarfish specimens and a megalodon jaw that was free to the public just outside the exit, so we spent some time exploring here before moving on to the manatee and sea turtle enclosures that are both outdoor and just down the hill.

Af this point we were both getting rather wet and were ready for a break, so we walked back to the car and headed back to Naha, pulling off to grab a pizza for lunch on the way. We took the scenic coastal highway back to Naha, which took about 2.5 hours, arriving back around 3:30PM. We spent the afternoon relaxing at our AirBnB, writing blog posts and generally staying dry. At 6, we caught a taxi back to Kazusan-tei for another delicious meal, this time including sashimi, and a bottle of Awamori that they gifted to us as thanks for coming back again.

Lauren ordered a beer and was given this little guy as a joke

Some sort of fried pork knuckle. It was pretty good, though very chewy.

Stuffed once again, we walked home in the rain, dodging puddles and trying (though mostly failing) to stay dry.