Reaching Hakkeijima sea paradise may seem a pretty tedious task to many tourists- from Shinjuku station you get on the JR Shonan- Shinjuku Line and get off at Yokohama station, then hop on the JR Negishi Line and get off again at Shin-sugita station, then hop on the Seaside Line and you'll arrive at Hakkeijima station finally, after..... just a little more than an hour.
Is it really all that worth it?
You bet it is.
Besides, the ride on the Seaside Line was delightful.
The train carriage is visibly smaller than the usual size of trains on all of Tokyo's main subway lines. The floral curtains lining the train's windows, made the whole ride feel like I was on some elementary school trip to the beach.
This seems to be a special edition of a train line serving, well, the Seaside.
I wish I snapped a photo of the interior of the train carriage itself, now that I think of it, I was too busy bouncing with excitement, along with the other Japanese passengers.
Yes, strangely enough, most of the other people who visit Yokohama's Hakkeijima sea paradise are locals, the Japanese themselves!
To be honest I think that's well good, because the locals support their own tourist attractions- implying that there is business/events/activities all year round and not just the tourist-y months. Also, these tourist attractions do not become greedy over-commercialized money-grubbing full of ill-mannered uncouth brats lacking common sense people from another culture (lets' just say they are sadly, Asians, like me. and hail from the country with the largest population in the world)
Pardon my bluntness, but I have had some pretty bad experiences in HongKong DisneyLand which were FILLED WITH THEM.
the day Disney announced the Shanghai Disney Resort, must have been the day the world rejoiced as one- Thank You God, let them have their own.
Back to the point, Yokohama's Hakkeijima sea paradise is a must-go!!!!
There's plenty to see and do!
Unfortunately I only had time for the Aqua Musuem & Aqua Stadium, which includes tickets to the Marine Mammals Show & Dolphin Fantasy & Fureai Lagoon.
I must admit we hit the malls the moment we got off at Yokohama station in the earlier part of the day, and got...carried away.
No worries, I'll be back for more next time! :D
Just a panel of glass separating you from the lovely sea creatures, or in some cases, PROTECTING you from the huge scary ones! Like the special exhibition for whale sharks, who do not perform fancy tricks to entertain you but swim around their tank in circles all day, and still leave you in awe of their magnificent presence.
While waiting for the next animal show at the Aqua Musuem & Stadium, we popped by The Dolphin Lagoon which is a smaller exhibition just minutes away.
I love dolphins, they're cute and intelligent. I vaguely remember I used to tell my mum to stop making tuna sandwiches for me because dolphins were dying from all that tuna-catching! Can't even remember if it was those icky soggy tuna sandwiches or my genuine love for dolphins.
The last photo above of that ugly looking fish is called a Mola Mola aka. Ocean Sunfish. Im sorry but i have to say this poor guy really has some bad genes. It was all alone in a tank in the Dolphin Lagoon, im pretty sure it isnt a dolphin, maybe a distant relative or something and it really looks like some sort of shark's fin that fell off a shark and grew eyes and mutated into some erm...Sunfish which doesn't look like a sun.
Is this what water pollution is doing to our fishies!!?? :O
The animal show is brilliant. Only in Japan ;)
I'm pretty sure I let out a gasp of delight a couple of times or was caught with my mouth hanging open.
Thing is, the dialogue is all in Japanese but somehow or rather you get the gist of the whole show, i mean how hard can it be!
Animal trainer says something, animal does brilliant trick to wow the crowd or animal quirky response to amuse everyone. You don't need to know Japanese to figure that out ;)
Plus, because of the lack of Japanese translation, I stand by my point that Yokohama Hakkeijima sea paradise has not been over-commercialized, you're in Japan so you pretty damn well adapt to the language, culture, lifestyle or go home. Simple.
As if Japan has not amazed me enough, the Fureai Lagoon experience was life-changing.
It's basically an exhibition where the sea animals swim up to the surfaces and you can touch them, or stick your hand into tanks to touch a whole variety of sea animals.
Of course, being Japan, initial hand-washing and hand-sanitizing is essential. We had to queue up in an orderly manner at the sinks near the entrance, all the adults and kids alike. Cute.
Believe it or not, the bigger ones like the dolphins, really enjoy human contact.
My virgin experience touching a shark!
Well, not a whale shark of course, but the mini black houndback something shark. Pardon my bad memory and lack of sense to at least snap a photo of the exhibit's sign.
But it was an amazing experience.
The dolphin's skin was smooth and squeaky, but this shark's skin has a rough but luxurious texture; running your fingers along gives you a tingly feeling, like you were feeling the outer of some handbag made of some really rare animal's skin. It's almost like, "WOW God created something this beautiful."
At that very moment, the inner animal lover in me (yes the very same one who wanted to save the trapped dolphins in tuna nets at 8 years old) decided- That's it. No more Shark's Fin soup for me.
It's a great place for the kids and families, what better way to educate kids than to take them out of boring classrooms and homes- out into the sun, and allowing them to have first-hand experiences with real-life animals?
You don't need a whole lesson in class about wildlife conservation. Like me, just let them touch a real-life shark. :)
That aside, I have to mention that Quil fait bon tarts are arguably the best in the world.
We bought them on the way to Hakkeijima sea paradise, in one of the malls connecting to Yokohama station. But I'm pretty sure they have many stores around Tokyo too.
The box packaging is absolutely exquisite, the Japanese take their packaging very seriously you know.
Though I wonder how much waste is produced in Japan each year :/ but im sure these clever people have come up with some sort of trash-eating robot ^^
The tart is unbelievably fresh, not overly sweet like how fruit tarts are made with artificial flavourings, sugar, additives, canned fruits and more crap. The flavour and taste mostly come from the fresh fruits/ compote/ cream/ pastry...............................oh Japan, won't you just take all my money.
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