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aquarium

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Today we went to the aquarium that's run by the city of Shinagawa. It was a pleasant trek following the route along our shopping street. That street is a fairly small and innocent-looking today but it was once known as the Tokaido, one of the five major highways that radiated from Edo (the old name for Tokyo) in the era of the shogun. Today it's dotted with shops and restaurants and residences, a pleasant mix that makes for plenty of rubbernecking along its route. Neither Mari or I had been quite as far along its many-kilometer route as we did today. It was fun.

The aquarium is a modest affair that boasts a pool with dolphin and sea-lion shows as well as a special area where you walk around in tubes among a habtat for seals. There are also the inevitable walk-through tanks and a giant shark aquarium (this one ruled by a pair of disturbing Lemon sharks). It was the perfect place to take Kenny, he got right into everything that was going on. When Mari took him to the exhibit where kids can handle starfish he got the idea immediately, picking up a yellowish individual and exploring it carefully.

I took the photo below at arm's length while we were watching the seal-lion show.