A tour inside Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan - part 3
This will be the final part of the tour inside Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan. I will take you to the Great Barrier Reef, let you experience an invasion of giant spider crabs, and meet the cute small creatures: jelly fish, clown fish, and sea anemone.
In the final corner of the Aquarium and back on ground floor, you can find a dedicated area for jelly fish. I was actually surprised that there are so many different kinds and how colorful some can be. I also like how relaxing it felt, watching them elegantly swim around. I wish I could keep one at home, but I know that they need special aquariums that ensure flowing water and good temperature control.
At first, I thought these were some kind of coral, but they are actually sea anemones. They are living creatures that can grab their preys with the tentacles and put them in the mouth opening in the center (and no, they aren't innocent belly buttons or anything).
Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral reefs region in the world (about 2000 km long) and in this area, you can see reproduced coral reefs in different color and shapes and bright colored tropical fishes, such as butterfly fish and blue striped angel fish, swimming around.
Japan Deeps
In this area, the highlights are the giant spider crabs, which is the largest kind of crabs in the world. I normally like crabs (especially eating them), but these actually gave me nightmares. In the first picture, it doesn't look that bad, but in the larger picture, that shows you the whole water tank and the lighting, you might think differently.
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Floating Jelly Fish (3F)
In the final corner of the Aquarium and back on ground floor, you can find a dedicated area for jelly fish. I was actually surprised that there are so many different kinds and how colorful some can be. I also like how relaxing it felt, watching them elegantly swim around. I wish I could keep one at home, but I know that they need special aquariums that ensure flowing water and good temperature control. At first, I thought these were some kind of coral, but they are actually sea anemones. They are living creatures that can grab their preys with the tentacles and put them in the mouth opening in the center (and no, they aren't innocent belly buttons or anything).
Clown fish
When you get near the exit, you can still find some small fish in small sized aquariums, such as these cute clown fish.Kaiyukan gallery and museum shop
In the brochure, they recommend visiting these at the end of the tour in the aquarium. In the Kaiyukan gallery, you can see a special exhibition with creatures which you cannot already find in the aquarium or special events that are held periodically. I also think that it is best to visit the museum shop the last, as you don't have to carry heavy stuffed animals around and you can also buy a souvenir that has something to do with the animal that you liked the most during the whole tour.
Some things I didn't get to do
Since I went years ago, I didn't get to see the interactive exhibit, which opened in 2013. I did experience petting small sharks (felt like touching sand paper) and rays (slimy and soft). They seem to have upgraded that small activity with the world's largest dome-shaped ceiling tank in the arctic zone, where you can look eye to eye with a ringed seal, and a Falkland Island zone, in which you can get close to rockhopper penguins.
I also didn't check the website beforehand to note down the feeding times of the animals. You can see how they feed the river otters, waterfowls, sea otters, sea lions, ringtailed coati, capybara, penguins, dolphins, the fish in the coral reef, ringed seals, and the rockhopper penguins.
