Ring of Fire, Ring of Life. That is the guiding principle that Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan tries to leave on its visitors.
Based on the Gaia hypothesis by British scientist James Lovelock, the theory proposes that all organisms and their inorganic surroundings are closely integrated to form a single and self-regulating complex system.
The Ring of Fire is of course the volcano belt in the Pacific Ocean, which overlaps the Ring of Life, the high density biodiversity. Taking into account theses two “rings”, Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan recreated the natural environment around the Pacific Ocean as faithfully as possible.
So it was a real treat and a good reason to visit one of the biggest aquariums in the world. Fun fact: There are 30,000 marine creature made up of 620 species at the Kaiyukan.
Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan is spread out over two buildings and eight floors. Upon entering, you walk through the Aqua Gate, the tunnel-shaped tank that gives visitors the sense that they’re walking underwater. Visitors then take the escalator to the top floor and work their way down via spiral ramp.
On the 8th floor featuring Japan’s Forest, we found Asian small-clawed otters, and Japanese giant salamanders.
The 7th floor features animals from the Aleutian Islands, Monterey Bay, Gulf of Panama, Ecuador rain forest, Antarctica, Tasman Sea, and the Great Barrier Reef. Some of the animals visitors can see here are the tufted puffin, harbour seals, California sea lion, ring-tailed coati, long-spine porcupine fish, pirarucu, capybara, Adelie penguin, King Penguin, Pacific white-sided dolphin, butterflyfish, damselfish, and more.
The massive Pacific Ocean tank starts from the 6th floor, continuing down to the 4th floor. The tank contains 5,400 tons of water with a depth of nine metres. The acrylic glass used is 30 centimetres thick and there are 103 glass panes, weighing 314 tons in total. The largest piece weighs 10 tons!
We saw the huge whale shark, scalloped hammerheads, humphead wrasses and other marine life swimming peacefully in the water. It was so mesmerizing.
Also on the 6th floor are barred knife jaw, red seabream, spiny lobster, octopuses, halibut and more at the Seto Inland Sea exhibit.
Continuing onto the 5th floor, there was the Coast of Chile and Cook Strait exhibits, where visitors can view a giant, silvery school of Japanese anchovies and loggerhead turtles.
But prepare yourself when you get to the 4th floor when you come face-to-face with this giant spider crab, the biggest crab in the world! Holy poop, this crab was HUGE. I thoroughly creeped Sean out when I asked him to envision what the exoskeleton remains must look like after this giant spider crab sheds his shell.
The jellyfish area with its large wall of jellyfish was exceptionally beautiful. I could’ve stared at it all night, totally transfixed.
On the same floor, we passed by the chilly Arctic exhibit where ringed seals can be found in the overhead dome tank. We stopped by the Falkland Islands exhibit to say hello to the rockhopper penguins.
That led us to the last exhibit, the Maldives touch pool, where visitors are able to touch and feel the texture of sharks and rays. It was such a neat feeling touching the rays’ back. I didn’t know what to expect, but the flesh was slick and slippery – akin to touching a peeled lychee. Sean expected sharks to feel smooth, but was surprised that sharks felt very stubbly.
Pro-tip: A minimum of 1 1/2 hour is recommended to see the permanent exhibits located from 8th floor to 3rd floor of the main building, plus the experience area from the 3rd to 4th floor. Make sure you give yourself enough time – we got there just before 7pm and was reminded several times by staff at check points about how much we still had left to see. (You’re only 20% finished!)
Sean and I had a great time at the beautiful Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan. It’s impressive and so well laid out with its multitude perspectives. My favourite was the Pacific Ocean tank and the jellyfish area because of my love for jellyfish. If you want to get a sense of what lies beneath the Pacific Ocean, hit up the Kaiyukan next time you’re in Osaka.
View more photos of Osaka and Japan on my Flickr albums.
Hours:
10am-8pm (opening hours vary by season) | Last admission is one hour before closing.
Address:
1-1-10 Kaigandori, Minato-ku, Osaka City 552-0022
GPS coordinates: 34.654801, 135.428965
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