Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium, Okinawa

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The biggest attraction of Okinawa is the beautiful sea that surrounds the island. It’s fun to actually swim in the blue shining sea and play on the beach, but how about exploring the beautiful sea of Okinawa?
The Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium is located in the Ocean Expo Park, one of the most popular spots in Okinawa Prefecture, with over 3 million visitors every year. In recent years, the number of tourists from overseas has increased, and this spot is often crowded even on weekdays.
Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium is a spot where you can fully enjoy the beautiful Okinawan sea that spreads out in front of you. A magnificent world with a wide variety of creatures spreads, and you can enjoy Okinawa’s ocean to the depths.
The hall is divided into several corners, each of which has plenty of charm so you can enjoy it without getting tired. Here are the highlights of the Churaumi Aquarium, where the Okinawan sea is faithfully reproduced.
“Kuroshio no Ummi” (Black Current Sea) is a popular spot of Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium. By the way, Kuroshio is the largest warm current near Japan. This ocean current has a high temperature and creates a rich ecosystem. “Kuroshio no Ummi” reproduces the world of the Kuroshio sea in a huge aquarium. You can observe about 70 species of fish swimming freely, such as the world’s largest fish, whale sharks, and the world’s first breeding Nanyo Manta. You will be amazed at the world of powerful sea.
If you want to see whale sharks from below, go to the Aqua Room. “Special seat in the sea” with an acrylic panel on the ceiling and a huge aquarium view from below. The appearance of the giant whale shark swimming elegantly overhead is a highlight.
Speaking of Okinawa’s sea, “coral reef”. The Coral Sea is a place where you can enjoy the colorful world of corals. The coral world seen here is a recreation of the scenery in the sea of Motobu town where the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium is located.

The aquarium is capable of large-scale breeding of corals because the hot and strong sunlight of Okinawa and fresh seawater are drawn from the sea in front of the aquarium. This natural environment seems to be comfortable for corals, and there are many corals that are still growing here, more than 10 years after the opening of the aquarium.
The vast majority of the world’s oceans are deep seas with a depth of more than 200 meters, and are still hidden. The “Deep Sea” is a recreation of the mysterious deep sea world. You can meet about 70 diverse creatures living in the deep sea, such as the long-tailed fish “Nagatachikamas” with a length of 1 meter or more and the “Hamadai” that swims with its long, bright red tail fin.
The Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium and its surroundings are full of sights such as dolphins show, planetarium and villages of the Ryukyu dynasty. If you want to go around the main spots, Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium: about 1 hour and 30 minutes, tropical dream center: about 40 minutes, ocean culture center: about 40 minutes, dolphin show: about 20 minutes, it will take about half a day. Please enjoy the “Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium” with reference to this information.

The elegant swimming of fish who are hard to see in other aquariums

Okinawa Prefecture which is also one of Japan’s best sightseeing provinces. The popular place that always monopolizes the top ranking of sightseeing spots in Okinawa is this “Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium”. It is also the most popular aquarium in Japan with more than 3 million visitors per year.
“Churaumi” means Okinawa’s dialect “Pure and beautiful sea”. It is located in the “Kaiyohaku-koen” (the Ocean Expo park) near the Motobu peninsula Bisezaki in the northwestern part of the main island of Okinawa. The Ocean Expo Park is a huge park with a size of 71.6 hectares. The “Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium” located in the park was the world’s largest aquarium until the opening of the Georgia Aquarium in America in 2005.
There are plenty of places to see such as 800 corals, the world’s largest fish, the whale shark, and the world’s first breeding manta. Let’s enjoy the sights of “Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium” by all means.

“The Sea of ​​Black current” is a main spot of this aquarium, which is 10 meters deep, 35 meters wide, 27 meters deep and the world’s largest water tank. There, you can see the elegant swimming of fish who are hard to see in other aquariums, such as whale sharks and manta rays
And in the Ocean Expo Park with this aquarium there are spots where you can meet free sea creatures such as dolphins and sea turtles. That is the place called “Okichan Theater”.
“Okichan Theater” which shows dolphins’ jumps and songs against the superb view of Okinawa is held four times a day. It is surprising that the show which can be seen in such a wonderful place is free. Please go and see!

Amazingly big scale

“The Okinawa Churaumi Suizoku-kan” (Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium), which is a popular tourist spot of Okinawa, is the aquarium of the super big scale. The Jinbezame (whale shark) and the manta swim leisurely in it. Over 10 years has passed since the opening, and display contents are substantial more and more. It is the one of the world’s largest aquariums which featured the theme of “the encounter with the sea of Okinawa” in the Kaiyohaku-koen (the Ocean Expo park). The colorful tropical fish, large-scale breeding of the live coral, and plural breeding of the jinbezame (whale shark) and the manta, the display only in Okinawa is unmissable.

Magnificent figure

The main tourist attraction is the Jinbezame (whale shark) being seen through a transparent huge acrylic panel of 8.2m in height, 22.5m in width, thickness 60cm. You are overwhelmed in a magnificent figure.

Reproduced the world of the sea of Okinawa

The Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium is located in the northern part of Okinawa Island, the Motobu peninsula for approximately two hours by car from Naha. In the aquarium which reproduced the world of the sea of Okinawa, it displays a lot of fish of the wide southern country being introduced from tropical fish to deep-sea fish, and the creatures which you can look at only here.

Whole family can enjoy together

In addition, there are the free facilities including the dolphin show outside the hall and, various experience-based programs are carried out, there are a lot of attracting attention that the whole family can enjoy them together. More than 3,400,000 people have visited these facilities every year.

The beautiful sea

“Churaumi” means “the beautiful sea, or the clear sea” by words of Okinawa. As the name suggests, It is the aquarium which you can fully enjoy coral and colorful tropical fish displaying that reproduced the beautiful sea of Okinawa

Information(Access, Price/Charge, Tel, Address, Official site, etc.)

Name:	Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium
Adresse:	Ishikawa 424 Kunigamigun Motobucho, Okinawa 905-0206 Japan
Access:	Naha Airport (2 hours by car)
Tel:	(+81) 980-48-3748
Price / Charge:	1,880 yen (Adult) 1,250 yen (Under 18 years old) 620 yen (Under 15 years old) Free (Under 6 years old) Please refer the official web page.
Official site:	https://churaumi.okinawa/