Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan is the world’s largest aquarium. The eight-story edifice houses 30,000 creatures that include 620 species of fauna which include whale sharks, manta rays, otters, sea lions, penguins, and dolphins.
Its 15 large tanks recreate the natural habitats of the animals and takes visitors from the Pacific Ocean to the Arctic. The floor-to-ceiling tanks are sometimes divided into wet and dry parts to exhibit aquatic and terrestrial animals in the same scenery. Often schools of fish of different sizes interact with each other and make a very colorful display of marine life.
The star of Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan is the “Pacific Ocean”, which encompasses four floors of the building and contains 5,400 tons of water. The most jaw-dropping tank showcases whale sharks, the largest fish species in the world.
Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan is known globally because of its innovative and sometimes interactive presentations. Guests can touch some of the animals (I touched a manta ray and shark in the “Touch Pool”) or watch personnel feed chosen animals on their designated schedule (we also witnessed the feeding of the penguins at 1040am).
The special areas of Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan are the following: Aqua Gate, Japan Forest, Aleutian Islands, Monterey Bay, Gulf of Panama, Ecuador Rainforest, Antartica, Tasman Sea, Great Barrier Reef, Pacific Ocean, Seto Inland Sea, Seasonal Exhibit, Coast of Chile, Cook Strait, Japan Deep, New Jellyfish Area, Arctic, Falkland Islands (Malvinas), Maldives, and Special Exhibit.
There is an audio and visual guide to discover wonders and biology of marine animals in Japanese, English, Chinese, and Korean.
Virg and I left Namba a little after 9am and we were at the entrance a little before 10am. We bought the tickets online the night before, so we got our tickets and entered the Aquarium Entrance Gate without any problem.
The entrance is five to seven minutes’ walk from Osakako Station. It is hard to miss if one follows the images of the aquatic animals from the train station until one sees Tempozan Giant Ferris Wheel and Legoland’s giraffe in the corner of the street. Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan has a whale shark (not alive) on its façade.
Even at that early hour, there must have been at least 500 people inside Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan. There were different groups of students who were so cute with their backpacks and caps doing the rounds and excitedly looking for the aquatic animal on their checklists. TR thought they were her playmates. Sorry, little girl.
Aqua Gate
The tunnel shaped tank makes one feel like walking underwater. It is like diving or snorkeling without getting wet. The fishes, which include cownose ray and blotched foxface, are of varied colors and sizes. It was a visual feast.
I tried taking a photo of TR with the fish but the surface was too slippery for someone with bare feet to stand up for two seconds. TR needs shoes!
Just before we took the super long ride in the escalator, Virg and I had our photo taken at the whale shark area. We were not able to get ours because we did not understand the instruction and rode the escalator (we thought we could go back for it but no!).
Japan Forest
The Japanese Forest has real greenery and a tall tree. Some of the animals in this stage are Asian small clawed otter, Japanese giant salamander, red-spotted masu salmon, freshwater minnow, upstream fatminnow, dark chuo, and pike gudeon.
Aleutian Islands
The Aleutian chain lies in a bitterly harsh and frozen environment. The surrounding ocean waters, however, overflow with rich nutrients. This habitat supports a vast range of fish species, along with the tufted puffin and other hearty bird life. Also making their home there are planktons, sea otters, seals, and Steller’s sea lions. My phones took overly blurred photos of these animals, so I did not include them here.
Monterey Bay
This tank has California sea lions and harbor seals on land and underwater. The California sea lions are also called “sea wolves” (Spanish settlers in the area in 18th century called them lobos marinos) because their harsh voices range from a sharp bark to a growing roar.
Gulf of Panama
In this tank, one can watch ring-tailed coatis, blotcheye solderfish, scrawled filefish, Tete sea catfish, and long-spine porcupine fish.
Ecuador Rainforest
The water of rainforest features piracucu, the largest freshwater fish in the world, and capybara, the largest species of rodents in the world, black tetra, blackphantom tetra, South American river turtle, red piranha, green terror, and pinktail chalceus.
Antartica
One word: penguins!
We were fortunate to witness the feeding of penguins. They were the cutest. Yes, cuter than TR. Hehe.
Tasman Sea
From the tropical coral reefs around North Island to the cold, rough shore reefs around South Island where seals and fur seals gather, the sea around New Zealand offers a varied assortment of natural environments that provide ideal habitats for abundant varieties and numbers of marine life. In the Tasman Sea that lies just to the west, large numbers and varieties of coastal-type whales are often spotted, as are dolphins similar in appearance to the Pacific white-sided dolphin.
Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef is referred to as “the cradle of the ocean”. It is the world’s largest and most remarkable coral formation, which extends over 2,000 km along the northeast coast of Australia. The most distant of the nearly 2,500 currently known individual reefs lies approximately 320 kilometers offshore. The area, which is in a constant state of growth and change while giving rise to dangerous sea conditions, forms a natural barrier to intrusions. The Great Barrier Reef follows the edge of the continental shelf fairly closely, its outer edges sliding into the depths of the Coral Seal like a cliff. The marine life in this tank includes butterflyfish, bluegreen damselfish, Moorish idor, sapphire devil, palette surgeonfish, and redbelly yellowtail fusilier.
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest ocean on earth. It is only fitting that it takes up four floors in Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan. Some of the mesmerizing aquatic animals in this ginormous tanks are whale shark, spinetail mobula, flapnose ray, spotted eagle ray, and Indian mackerel.
Most people stop here the longest. The walls of the Pacific Ocean tank were lined with people whose faces were plastered to the acrylic barrier. I could not blame them. Mine was just six inches from the wall.
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How to get to Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan:
By train: Approximately 30 minutes from Osaka (Umeda) and Namba (Shinsaibashi). Walk around five (5) to seven (7) minutes from Osakako Station on Osaka City Subway Chuo Line.
By city bus: Approximately 40 minutes from Osaka (Umeda). Stop is adjacent to Tempozan Harbor Village.
From Kansai International Airport: Approximately 65 minutes by train or 60 minutes by nonstop limousine bus.
From Osaka Airport: Approximately 60 minutes by train.
Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan Operating Hours:
10am to 8pm (last admission at 7pm)
It is subject to change according to the season.
The aquarium is closed on certain dates in January and February (total of four (4) days).
Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan Admission Fee:
Preschool child (age 4 and older): 600 yen (US $5.56)
Child (Elementary and junior high school student): 1,200 yen (US $11.12)
Adult (Age 16 and older or high school student and older): 2,300 yen (US $21.31)
For reservation and inquiries regarding group visit, please call 06-6576-5533.
For more details, please visit kaiyukan.com.