Aquarium / Tempozan Harbor Village, Osaka

Osaka Aquarium (Kaiyukan)at Tempozan Harbor Village
This is an excellent aquarium with a theme on the 'Ring of Fire', which is the ring of volcanoes that encircle the Pacific Ocean. The $20 admission is a little expensive, but I felt it was well worth it. It is a circular exhibit that you descend in a spiral around a center tank. There is also a marketplace next to the aquarium with shops and restaurants. The world's largest ferris wheel is also located here.

It's huge and the fish are pretty big too!
There are big 'Star Wars like monster crabs'! and sharks and the biggest stingrays you've ever seen!
There is a huge tank in the middle which you walk
around and descend lower and lower so you see all the different levels of life which gives the impression that it's a completely different tank.

Osaka Aquarium is a great place to spend the day and see sea creatures with your family and/or friends. Be very careful though, if you take small children. The place gets so crowded that if your child wanders off, like mine did, you'll be running around frantically trying to find the child. Luckily, Japan is a generally safe place to lose a child. Mine wandered downstairs to the help booth and ended up staying there with another child that had done the same thing playing a game while waiting for me to come pick her up. The aquarium, though, has some great ocean life swimming around in the tanks. So don't forget your camera and a leash for your kid.

I saw the amazing long glass tunnel under the water in this aquarium. The aquarium was very large. There were also many fishes and other ocean creatures there. I liked to visit this aquarium very much.

Osaka Aquarium is one of the largest aquariums in the world. Firstly, you travel up this giant escalator to the very top floor, where you walk your way down as if you are descending through the depths and different layers of the sea. You will see otters, monkeys, penguins, and dolphins. As you descend, you can watch these animals swimming. It is an amazing experience to see the bouyancy of the otters whilst they clean themselves floating on their backs, and you can also watch the dolphins from an underwater point of view as they gracefully swim and play in the sea! Osaka aquarium holds a whale shark, which is the largest shark ever held in an aquarium. There is also a sunfish, which is the strangest looking fish ever! The jellyfish were also amazing to see. They were lit up strategically by UV lights so some glowed a red color, some glowed white, some blue. They pulsate gently, and look like aliens from another world! Oh, talking about aliens, the Japanese Deep Sea Crabs were giant alien looking creatures! They are huge! And creepy! Definately a sight worth seeing! If you go to the aquarium on the weekend, be prepared for many many children and crying babies, perhaps during the week would be more relaxing! However, I went on the weekend, and it was still a very enjoyable experience!

The Osaka Aquarium is a great thing to do if you need a break from the urbanity. I found my visits there very relaxing. The fish are really diverse, my favourites being the whale shark and manta ray in the big central tank and some of the brilliantly coloured jellyfish. On weekends the place can get crowded, and sometimes there are massive groups of students visiting. Also check out the nearby Suntory art museum (the modern looking building next door). The food court in the Harbour Village is fairly standard fare, although I had a great curry/sausage okonomiyaki in one of the sit-down restaurants.

I enjoyed the aquarium, but it's a good idea to go when it's quiet, a weekday for example, otherwise the crowds are horrendous. Osaka people aren't exactly renowned for their manners in such situations either, plenty of elbows going here and there.

There are plenty of different species to look at, and it's worth a visit as long as it's not on the weekend.

Kaiyukan aquarium has 15 tall tanks rising up 8 floors and each tank represents a different habitat such as the " Ring of Fire" and " Ring of Life", over 30,000 creatures can be observed in the tanks.