Japan Trip: Kaiyukan Aquarium and Tempozan Ferris Wheel

The best aquarium in Japan is the one in Okinawa. But because Osaka to Okinawa is far and needs plane or Shinkansen + Ship, so I decided to to visit the second best aquarium in Japan, which is Kaiyukan Aquarium, in Osaka. This aquarium located in western Osaka, and if you use subway, you can stop in Osakako station. I visited the museum on Saturday, so when I got out from the train, I saw many families and young couples walked to the same destination like me. From Osakako station, you can walked to the aquarium by following the directions that were appeared in almost everywhere.

That day was rainy, so when we walked from the station, we saw everybody using their own umbrella. It was seems like everybody had prepared for the rain and brought their own umbrella. After walking for about 5 minutes, we finally arrived at the aquarium. The shape of the aquarium is not common and really eye catching.

in front Kaiyukan Museum

After paying entrance fee for 2,300 yen/person, we walked into the museum. The concept of the museum is from the top floor to the bottom. So, at first you should take a long ascending elevator, and then you walked in downward spiral way to the ground floor. With the concepts Ring of Fire and Ring of Life, Kaiyukan recreates natural environment around the Pacific Ocean as faithfully as possible, with hopes that all the visitors feel and reconsider the preciousness and wonder of life and the importance of nature environment all round them. Unlike the other aquarium I have visited, I saw "balance" in this aquarium. So you can see various animals in one aquarium with perfect harmony. The belle of this museum is the Shark Whale. Shark whale is the biggest largest known extant fish species, so you could imagine how huge the aquarium was. Another interesting species is crab. I amazed seeing Alaska King Crab, since its shape was almost as big as my head.

every tickets have different pictures

the long and ascending elevator

Seals are taking some rest

my traveling partner almost kiss the prehistoric fish

yes, the aquarium was this huge

with the famous shark whale

me and the Alaska King Crab

cool jelly fish

just some penguins chilling out

After visiting the aquarium, we walked to the nearby attraction, which is Tempozan Ferris Wheel. The Ferris wheel was made in 1997. It is one of the largest Ferris wheels in the world with 100m in diameter and 112.5m in height.

with green-lighted Tempozan Ferris Wheel as the background

The ticket for the Ferris wheel was 800 yen/person. But because we have Kansai Thru Pass, we got a discount coupon to enter this Ferris wheel. The amazing thing about this Ferris wheel is the lights of the wheel. The light’s color inform about the weather forecast for the next day. Orange lights indicate a sunny day, green lights a cloudy day, and blue lights indicate rain. What I saw that day was green, so the next day should be cloudy.

the entrance ticket

view from Ferris wheel

view of Akashi Strait Pearl bridge from the Ferris wheel

XOXO,
The Tourist