Ahhhhh! It is so great to be home! The trip was wondderful but its nice to be back among the familiar.
So today we went to the Katsurahama Beach in Kohchi which has a beatiful beach (no swimming), a lovely little shrine on an outcropping of rock, a statue of one of the samurai that helped push Japan to be modern, and the aquarium.
I would say the shrine and the beach were the most beautiful and the aquarium was down right depressing.
The statute of formentioned samurai.
Shrine on the cliff, as seen from the statute area.
Same shrine closer up.
Gail wading at the beach.
The pounding surf.
The shrine at the top of the cliff.
A pipe full of eels.
The aquarium had a lot of tanks that were just glass with the fish inside and nothing else. Just fish floating around staring out at you. The also had penguins, seals, otters, and dolphins in tiny outdoor enclosures. It was really depressing watching this seal just swim around and around in circle in this pool of water the size of a kiddy pool.
The highlights of this place has to be the dolphin show and the sea turtles. The sea turtle enclosure is open to the public and for a 100 yen you can feed them sardines with chopsticks. Why chopsticks? Because if you used your hand they would take your fingers with them. Their mouths are great beaks just like a snapping turtles. Here is Gail trying to feed them.
Me feeding the turtles.
Gail feeding the turtles.
Turtle in a tank.
One fo the seals.
An otter.
Penguins
Another attaction was these evil looking fish with glowing red eyes.
The upstairs portion of this building was devoted to whales with a few skeletons smashed together on one side of the room. I feel that the crown jewel of this exhibit must have been the preserved blue whale penis.
This does nothing to help the western notion that the Japanese are obsessed with penises.
So the finale of the visit was the dolphin show.
The dolphins in the tank of green water.
Yes, that water is green, and no you really couldn't see the things when they dove under water becasue the water was so dirty. I really felt bad for them.
After all this adventure it was time to head back to the city center, grab our bags, and catch the bus back home.
It is good to be home
