Asamushi Aquarium

This was our first major Japanese outing. We decided to brave the Japanese back roads and find our way to the aquarium that is about an hour and a half away from Misawa. There is a toll road that can get you there faster, but we are cheap and like the mystery of not knowing where we are. We have a navigation system in our car but it only speaks Japanese so it is super helpful. Luckily our phones are in English and can find their way around.

The aquarium is just on the east side of the Aomori Bay and right by the water. It is such a beautiful drive from Misawa, both on the toll road and going the long way around. The toll road takes you through the mountains with tunnels (which the boys love) and a pretty river running alongside parts of the road. The long way around takes you along the Mutsu Bay and through cute little Japanese fishing villages.

Enough about the drive! (I really do love it though) The aquarium is only about $10 for adults and $5 for kids, so for my cheap husband and I it was a perfect outing. When you first walk in you have to buy your tickets through a vending machine (welcome to Japan!) and then give them to the person at the desk. Once you enter with your ticket you are greeted by some giant sea turtles! It was absolutely breathtaking! I could watch those turtles (or tortoises) all day!

After the turtles there is a tunnel that you can walk through and there are fish swimming all around. The coolest part about that was the manta rays and the sharks. (Yes, I know these are crappy pictures. I think there was a bad setting on my phone. It couldn't possibly be the picture takers fault.)

Once we went through the tunnel where the kids were scared the shark was going to get them, we walked through and saw all the other exhibits. Here are a few of my favorites:

Fighting Crabs

My Lunch (I Wish. Going to the aquarium makes me want to eat crab. Is that bad?)

Do not tell me this is in the ocean!

Dory!

Nemo was hiding behind the anemone

Lobster! (Also delicious)

Creepy squid things

Octopus

Eel. (Yeah, Ursula was crazy for having these guys hanging around)

Penguin

These were very big fish in a very empty tank. 

Sea lion or otter or something.  (I am really good with knowing my marine animal names)

Sea lion. I think. 

Once we made it through all the exhibits we headed over to the dolphin tank. It was really cool to get up close to the dolphins. I was taking a video of them swimming around and one of them jumped right in front of me. I dropped my phone and tried desperately to catch it so it didn't fall in the water. The results of that are quite funny. Here are some pictures of the dolphins and maybe I will be able to get the video to upload. It isn't wanting to work right now, but maybe it will want to work later. 

There was also a dolphin show at the aquarium. It was all in Japanese, but still fun to watch. I didn't get too many pictures because I didn't want my phone to get wet. We were sitting in the splash zone. Randy's Idea. Not my idea. 

This was a great outing and we had tons of fun. Dylan even fell asleep in the car on the way home. We went again last week while my mom was visiting and it was just as good. We even got hot chocolate in a can out of a vending machine that also had cold drinks. Japan is amazing with their vending machines. We got microwave popcorn out of a vending machine too. It even cooked it for us. That was cool. We are enjoying being here and we are so grateful for our opportunity to live outside the U.S.