Okinawa Trip Part Go ...

Only two parts left to this Okinawa trip from February. Thank goodness.

Surprise, surprise it was raining yet again in Okinawa. We decided to rent a car and spend the day at the aquarium located just north of Naha. (Don't worry ... I didn't drive!) :) A lot of people had recommended the aquarium, so we had pretty high hopes. Luckily, we were not disappointed.

We started out with this pretty awesome 'touch pool'. There were all sorts of swimmy, underwater things in there. From star fish to amoebas you could touch it, pick it up, pet it, whatever.

Melissa & Xiao are in there somewhere.

And then we moved through some smaller aquariums with lots of colorful (and some slightly strange looking) fish.

And eventually we ended up at this HUGE aquarium. It was enormous, super sized, monstrous, massive, you pick the word. We stood here for quite some time watching the whale sharks, sting rays, mantas and whatever else was floating by. There was also a restaurant with tables directly next to the tank. The wait was incredibly long and the menu was kind of scary (sting ray, lots of raw fish I couldn't pronounce, eel) so we didn't stick around for dinner.

And I even uploaded a video. :) Yay me.

Despite the fact that it was raining and rather cold, we decided to brave the dolphin show. I'm still not so sure this was the brightest decision but who doesn't love dolphins?

Especially ones with this much personality. :)

So I took this video of the dolphin show and it pretty much sucks. I can't exactly figure out how to rotate the video, so just turn your head sideways. :) Not only that but it was so cold that we were all trying to keep our hands inside our sleeves so my motion was limited (nobody thought to bring gloves to a tropical island), the wind is blowing so hard & no about of 'wind reduction' could help that, and mostly you can see people fleeing from their seats and taking cover inside. With all that in mind, watch if you want to. :)

And then we headed back in to check out the rest of the sea creatures, not to mention escape the strong winds and too-low-for-the-liking temperatures.

This is a species of starfish that I found particularly awesome.

And a pretty intense lobster.

This things were SO creepy. I wasn't even interested in knowing what they were, that's how creepy there were.
The underside of a sea urchin.
And I managed to take a short video of some of the smaller aquariums with the sweet fish. I'm never going to be a videographer when I grow up because I'm not very good at it. (That's my disclaimer).


much love
-tara-
xx