Landing in the Japanese port city of Kagoshima, we opted not to take one of the ship's excursions, and set out on our own. From the guidebooks, it looked as though Kagoshima boasted a nice aquarium, but we couldn't quite figure out where it was on the map the ship provided. As it turned out, the Kagoshima City Aquarium (Suizoku-kan Ioworld) was quite far from the port, so we hopped in a taxi and found our way there without much trouble.
The Aquarium is fairly small, but features a large tank in the first room, with many different types of fish in it, similar to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I stopped at one of the small display tanks for quite a while, trying to cajole this cute horned fish into turning and smiling for the camera. He finally obliged, giving it his best Mona Lisa impression. I have no idea what kind of fish this is, since the display tag was all in Japanese. Most of the fish are native to the waters around Japan, so even the fish are locals here.
There were a number of interactive stations for kids to look at small organisms close up, and to touch and feel some of the sea creatures. Alex enjoyed going from station to station to see the various displays.
The Kagoshima Aquarium had a nice jellyfish display, with about half a dozen tanks of different types of jellies. It always amazes me that they seem to glow from within.
The glowing jellyfish looked more like space aliens than sea creatures to me. I enjoyed watching them float around in the display for some time.
Aside from the jellies, the Aquarium boasts the world's only collection of tube worms, which normally live on hydro-thermal vents. These looked like little garden snakes standing up at attention.
On our way out, we encountered a huge group of people filing out of an auditorium. We went in, and found that we had just missed the dolphin show. They had several frisky dolphins swimming in a large tank. We went to another Japanese aquarium on our trip to Japan in 2004, and saw a similar show, where the trainers come out and talk about the dolphins, and the dolphins leap out of the water. I read that the shows are primarily educational, and that the dolphins here have access to open water.
The dolphin-toddler combo is irresistible, in my book. The little boy's shirt says, "curious, special, bright." All true statements about little boys and dolphins, I'm sure.
After leaving the Aquarium, we got a good view of the active Mt. Sakurajima volcano across the bay. Kagoshima's sister city is Naples, Italy, due to the similarity of Mt. Sakurajima to Mt. Vesusvius. There is a ferry terminal located next to the aquarium where you board the ferry to go to the volcano. We didn't have time to visit, but it looked dramatic in the distance, with a combination of volcanic smoke and cloud cover.
On our way back to the ship, the taxi driver was very helpful and helped us find a post office ATM. One tip about traveling in Japan to note: the post offices usually have ATMs that work with US bank cards. It's much less expensive to withdraw money directly from your account than exchanging at a currency exchange stop. The exchange rate is generally better, and the fees are often less.
After we boarded the boat, we heard drumbeats outside our window, so we went up on deck to find out what was going on. A group of traditional Japanese Kodo drummers had set up at the pier and were giving us a musical send-off. It was really exciting to see and hear. At the end, they unfurled a banner that said, in English, "See you again!"
Somehow, I don't think this will be our last trip to Japan.
