Awashima Marine Park

We took another Sunday excursion yesterday, this time to Awashima Marine Park. Awashima is a tiny little island not far from here which had nothing going for it until someone decided to build an aquarium there. So now you pay 1200 yen for the privilege of jumping on a small ferry which paddles for about five minutes to the island, and being able to stay there as long as you like. (And if you miss the last ferry back at 4:45 p.m., there's even a swank hotel on the island that will no doubt be happy to take your business.) I'm not sure if they have a problem in summer with people attempting to swim to it. As the crow flies the distance is less than 100 metres.

Anyway, it's a pretty cool little place. They have an aquarium, a dolphin display area, a seal display area, a penguin area, and in the last few months they even added a frog house which you pay an extra 100 yen to go into (definitely worth it). There's also a salt water swimming pool which is evidently open in the summertime only. The whole island is about 2.5 km in perimeter and has a nice cut path all around it which takes about half an hour to stroll.



My favourite part was the new frog house, because they had heaps of really groovy lookin' frogs in there, including beautifully coloured poison dart frogs. The dolphin display wasn't too bad although nothing spectacular. They had two dolphins performing a few tricks -- fetching balls, jumping over poles, jumping up high enough to touch a ball suspended from the top of a ladder, waving their flippers at the audience, etc. No human pyramids skiing on their backs or anything fancy-pants like that. But still enjoyable. Unfortunately the seal display area was out of action for refurbishment, although we still got to see the seals mucking around up reasonably close. The aquarium itself has a small hands-on display area where you can pick up starfish and sea urchins, and touch revolting slimy things that live in the ocean if you feel so inclined (for the record, sea slugs feel like jelly). We also happened to arrive just in time for the 12:15 feeding of the penguins -- another little 300-yen diversion which gives you the ability to drop a few fish over the gate and watch them being devoured by the first penguin that grabs them from you.



We really enjoyed our day. It's a simple little place, good for young kids, because you only need a couple of hours to see the whole thing. I'd recommend it especially for one of those days when you just want to get out and about but can't think of anything else to do.

***** ***** *****
How to get there: Take the Kisho bus (it doesn't have a number) from stop number 8 on the south side of Numazu Station. The trip takes about half an hour, and the bus stops just outside the mainland entrance to the park.