Sankaku Market done; the next place on the itinerary was Otaru Aquarium where we’d spend the rest of the morning. We swing back to the bus terminal, look for station counter 3, and board bus 11. The Otaru Aquarium Pass already covers the bus trip from Otaru Station to the aquarium. The bus ride travels fairly leisurely, and takes 30 minutes to cover the roughly 5km between station and aquarium. We’d also misjudged our timing quite a bit: we boarded the 9AM-ish bus, and got to the aquarium entrance 25 minutes before opening hour, and the shutters were all down still. The aquarium sits on a small hill, so the snowfall and cold wind was blasting right at us for 25 minutes. The novelty of the experience died real quick after a minute, and we ended up huddling in a circle like those Emperor Penguins and their chicks that we see on Planet Earth haha. We literally counted the minutes down, and a few minutes before the 10AM opening hour, the shutters finally came up and we were able to get into the aquarium to warm up.
Other comments!
Having visited aquariums in cities elsewhere in Japan, the United States and of course Singapore’s very own S.E.A. Aquarium, the Otaru Aquarium is small in comparison, and made even tinier because – from the map at least – half of the aquarium area-wise – is closed for the winter season. Without the feeding sessions and shows, you could cover the entire walking circuit, leisurely, in 20 minutes flat.
There are a few large tanks, but they just seem to be enclosures for specimens to swim about. The marine reef aquariums – with their typically brightly lit tanks with colorful coral – were pitifully small.
We stayed for the seal-feeding, the dolphin show, and also penguin walk. The first and last takes place outdoor, and with the wind blasting in our faces alongside snowfall, the weather felt like it was freezing! The dolphin show is great – and putting aside any compunctions you might have about dolphins in captivity – the three dolphins on show performed a large number of routines that wowed the audience. The commentary is entirely in Japanese though, so photographers who don’t know the language will have to make educated guesses what the dolphins are doing next.
The penguin walk should had been great too: the penguins do a circuit around a walking path, twice, with the walking path running along the circumference around a central area for visitors to watch and take pictures. What made it less pleasant was the crowd: there were a large number of tourists from that country up north – one can easily tell from their shrill voices – who pushed and shoved to get good views, and a couple of their kids wanted to even toss snow at the penguins.
So, in all – mixed feelings. Basically, if you already have seen the penguin walk elsewhere, e.g. at Arashiyama Zoo, and have watched dolphin shows before, then I feel there’s little else significant about Otaru Aquarium. The Otaru Aquarium pass though is fabulous value for money, as it covers the cost of getting from Sapporo to Otaru, the two way bus-rides from Otaru Station to the Aquarium itself, and the aquarium admission of course too.
Continued in the next post where we explored Otaru Canal!
Recent comments