Today we did a whole bunch of things (and actually got out of the house early for once xD)!

Shinagawa Aquarium

The first part of the day was spent on a visit to the Shinagawa Aquarium. There are quite a few aquariums in Tokyo, so we just kind of took the closest one (although it also did seem the most exciting with it’s long glass tunnel). I took a lot of pictures, so most of this article is probably just going to be images. You have been warned!

So, in no particular order we saw:

Axolotls! I didn’t get the greatest pictures but it was still really cool to see some in real life for the first time

They’re so small!!

Cliones, also known as “Sea Angels”. I’ve been really fascinated of them ever since a Nintendo DS game I played in which they sort of featured, but I didn’t realise they were an actual animal until much later and this is the first time I’ve seen one in real life as well! This was also where I remembered I have an app for full manual control of my phone camera (the autofocus was not doing what I wanted it to), so now I have half a million pictures of them on my phone xD. At least that means some of them are almost sharp and useable!

You can understand why they are called Sea Angels sometimes.

One of the people I’m traveling with is super into Jellyfish, and so we of course had to spend a lot of time in that room. They are really cool actually, but just like with a lot of marine life I’d prefer to stay on the other side of a glass pane when interacting with them.

Pretty Jellyfish!

There were also two otters swimming about in one of the areas. They had quite an interesting enclosure with blankets and a little extended area where they could nap and peer out on the visitors. Unfortunately it looked like they were quite bored, which is sort of my main problem with aquariums. I just feel so bad for the animals sometimes. This place probably takes really good care of them and keeps them entertained enough, but it’s still something I worry about!

Adorable, but maybe a little bit bored…

Then of course we had to see the big shark in an absolutely enormous circular enclosure. It had plenty of smaller fish swimming along with it, and was generally quite intimidating. When I first peered in I couldn’t even see where it was, so when it suddenly appeared from the other side of the tank it actually scared me a bit!

Shork!

The final indoor attraction was the glass tunnel under one of the biggest tanks. There were plenty of fish, a couple of turtles and even a Manta Ray!!

Look at this majestic Manta Ray.

The next few creatures we visited were all outside! First up were the penguins, where there even were a couple of younglings as well as older penguins. I was even lucky and got to see them eat.

omg! Penglings!

Second to last of the big attractions were the dolphins and the dolphin show! I missed most of the show because I elected to walk around the rest of the aquarium in some peace and quiet, but the parts I saw were really cool! Just after they were done I also managed to snap this picture of a dolphin jumping!

They really jump high, this wasn’t a very good photo unfortunately.

Finally we also went to see the seals! They had just been fed before I got to them, so a few of them were still up on land. There was this one little guy who had sat himself in a hole, and I respect the hell out of that, he was just straight chilling.

Such a mood.

Finally before we headed back we went to a local restaurant to get some food, and it was amazing! It certainly wasn’t a special place at all, but we were warmly welcomed and the staff were incredibly nice. I got some beef and a katsu!

There was lots of food too!

Shibuya Nightlife

We had a lot to drink here.

After the food it was time to head to Shibuya and go partying! We met up with some local friends and went out for all you can drink. After our time was up (and we were sufficiently sloshed) we continued on to another place where they had Lemon Sour for ¥50 (which is like 0.3 euro). We met a group of Japanese students there who we cheered with and took some photos with!

Still after all that we managed to be done before midnight, and thus were able to catch the final train and get home without having to wait until the trains start to run again at 5am!

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