Izu-Mito Sea Paradise

About three kilometres down the road from Awashima Marine Park is another aquarium and marine park called Izu-Mito Sea Paradise. It's bigger and a little more slick than Awashima; consequently it costs more to get in (1900 yen per adult at the time of writing this) and the dolphins do more entertaining tricks. Unfortunately none of our photos of the fishies turned out very well, but the aquarium is quite extensive and worth a look. Anyway, here's a sample of what's on offer.

No touristy establishment is complete without the photography service you can pay extra for.

Yep, they're just as ugly up close.

Crush lives here.

I don't know how much extra it costs to don an orange life jacket and see the dolphins jumping from up really close, but I bet it's kind of cool to do so.

The dolphins did some neat tricks with this woman, the most spectacular one being to throw her up really high out of the water (we didn't get it on camera). There's also a show in a different pool featuring seals doing balancing tricks and Pacific white-sided dolphins which swim really fast and do some cool stuff. The interesting thing about that show is that the pool is above ground with a glass wall so you can see what the dolphins are doing under water.

This is less exciting than it looks. But at least it shows you something of what else is there. Other animals include a few varieties of seals, a sea otter and Humboldt penguins (which stink).

Personally I prefer Awashima Marine Park, but this place is still worth a visit if you've got the time. Certainly the dolphin shows here are better, but I think that's the only thing it's got over Awashima.

*****
To get there, take the Kisho bus from stop number 8 on the south side of Numazu Station. It takes roughly half an hour, it's another stop or two past Awashima Marine Park, and it stops on the main road just outside the entrance.