13.Aug.2010 The Aomori Aquarium

Well I got up today and some of the other JET’s in the area went together to the aquarium. It was quite road trip. The aquarium itself is located a little bit northeast of Aomori city close to the beach. We drove east from Towada, which si located in the Nambu region of the prefecture a little bit east of the center. From there we went north through Shichinohe, Tohoku, and through to Aomori city. The aquarium itself was really nice, there were some giant tortoises at the front that looked like they needed a bit more room. Further inside there was an area where you could walk under a fishtank and observe the fish. We saw a manta ray that was around 2 meters wide. Also there was this seal that was WAY too fat and was resting in the headstand position. It was so bizarre there was a sign attached in Japanese that warned that the seal was actually not dead. Further in there was a dolphin and some other varieties of fish. After that we relaxed at the beach and threw a football around. We made friends with some Japanese dudes who were interested in learning how to throw the football. They were super nice and when they left they gave us a bag of chips and these bizarre cheese/fish tube things, as a thank you. After that we decided to go to the onsen (Japanese hot spring) which is actually the third one I’ve been to so far. This one was especially good because it had an amazing view of the coastline. Finally we grabbed some ramen at a shop that my friend wanted to try out, and then headed back to Towada. All in all a very fun day I can’t wait to get my car and probably a GPS of some kind and do some exploring of my own.