{"id":27801,"date":"2012-11-12T23:57:10","date_gmt":"2012-11-13T03:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/?p=27801"},"modified":"2012-11-12T23:57:10","modified_gmt":"2012-11-13T03:57:10","slug":"churaumi-aquarium-in-okinawa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/2012\/11\/12\/churaumi-aquarium-in-okinawa\/","title":{"rendered":"Churaumi Aquarium in Okinawa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted by Benjamin Martin<\/strong><\/a>, a 5th year JET in Okinawa<\/a>, publisher of the blog MoreThingsJapanese.com<\/a><\/strong><\/em>\u00a0and author of the YA fantasy novel\u00a0<\/em>Samurai Awakening<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(Tuttle).<\/em><\/p>\n

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Churaumi Aquarium<\/a> (\u7f8e\u3089\u6d77 beautiful ocean aquarium) is one of the premiere tourist attractions in Okinawa prefecture. \u00a0The large aquarium is located within the even larger and interesting Ocean Expo Park on the Motobu\u00a0Peninsula. \u00a0Boasting one of the worlds largest indoor tanks, the stars of the complex are three whale sharks housed with many other fish of varying sizes.<\/p>\n

Though I’ve lived in Okinawa for over five years, I had my first opportunity to visit Churaumi only this past weekend. \u00a0The aquarium is very easy to find since there are easy-to-read signs pointing the way on major streets from Naha. \u00a0For a scenic route, take route 58 north and follow the signs. \u00a0For a quicker trip try the expressway (its a toll road).<\/p>\n

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The surprising thing about the Ocean Expo park is the sheer size of it. \u00a0We went in November which was after the peak season so we had little trouble with traffic or even finding a parking space. \u00a0Other friends noted that they’ve had problems with that during the summer months. We met the first designated parking lot quite far from the\u00a0actual\u00a0aquarium, though there are many attractions along the way, and a tram car you can hire for 200yen\/day. \u00a0If you’re going during non-peak seasons, just drive up to the closest parking lot!<\/p>\n

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The whole complex is cunningly designed for the efficient flow of attendees. From the entry there are wide walkways,\u00a0pavilions,\u00a0 stairs, fountains, and play areas that allow people to move at their own pace without blocking others’ way. \u00a0Once you make it past various information booths, restaurants, and flowering sea life you’ll find escalators that will take you down to the entrance of the aquarium itself.<\/p>\n

…Read more on Churami Aquarium at MoreThingsJapanese.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Posted by Benjamin Martin, a 5th year JET in Okinawa, publisher of the blog MoreThingsJapanese.com\u00a0and author of the YA fantasy novel\u00a0Samurai Awakening\u00a0(Tuttle). Churaumi Aquarium (\u7f8e\u3089\u6d77 beautiful ocean aquarium) is one of the premiere tourist attractions in Okinawa prefecture. \u00a0The large aquarium is located within the even larger and interesting Ocean Expo Park on the Motobu\u00a0Peninsula. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":96,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[76,368],"tags":[806,191,785,624],"class_list":["post-27801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photography","category-traveltourism","tag-animals","tag-japan","tag-okinawa","tag-tourism"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pkZ7m-7ep","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/96"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27801"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27803,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27801\/revisions\/27803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}