Well, there aren’t really any whales there, but the Osaka Kaiyukan Aquarium does have some really spectacular whale sharks in their enormous tanks for public display. I saw them this past weekend, when I spent the day with a group of other Japanese language students from the Osaka YMCA Gakuin on a field trip to visit Osaka’s beautiful aquarium. The day’s outing is part of an ongoing leadership training program for Kansai area university students, which gives them experience leading foreigners in a collegial atmosphere, and also gives us (the foreigners) a chance to interact with Japanese university students.

The Aquarium

The diversity of species on display at the Osaka Aquarium is probably rivaled only by the largest aquariums. Even comparing this aquarium with the magnificent one in Monterey, California, I have to say that Osaka’s seems to have a much broader spectrum of life on display, organized into “rooms” that represent various parts of the world.

My favorite area was probably the Equadorian Rain Forest room, whose colorful (and motionless) iguana looked truly resplendent. Iguanas can get up to a couple meters in length, but apparently feeds only on leaves, buds, flowers, and fruits of fig trees. Though they have been known to sometimes eat small birds and mammals, I was surprised to learn that iguanas are, by and large, herbivores. They enjoy perching near the water on rocks, bathing in the heat until disturbed, when they leap into the water to scurry away.

In his work, The Voyage of the Beagle (1831-36), Charles Darwin wrote amusingly about about iguanas, “…they are ugly animals … from their low facial angle they have a singularly stupid appearance … In their movements they are lazy and half torpid. [...] I watched one for a long time [making its burrow], till half its body was buried; I then walked up and pulled it by the tail; at this it was greatly astonished, and soon shuffled up to see what was the matter; and then stared me in the face, as much as to say, ‘What made you pull my tail?’”

I used to think that Man’s Best Friend meant Fido, but I now understand that it’s really a penguin (provided you’re carrying a bucket of fish). The Antarctic room sports a rookery of penguins, and they really do look like they’re wearing a tuxedo.  But, unlike the penguin on Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales, these ones did not seem to be doing much talking. In fact, they seemed really intent on eating more fish!

Some of the most interesting things about the aquarium were probably some of the most common points. Of course, there are lots of very spectacular fish and exotic colors to be seen. But I enjoyed seeing some of the less colorful fish just swimming around together. The silver colored fish in the the Seto Island Sea room (see photo, left) were very interesting because they were almost entirely motionless. Except for the fact that a few other fish were moving around, I might have mistaken the tank for an acrylic display of fish. Instead, they seemed to be in some kind of ballast state so that they neither rose nor fell. Only rarely did one of them move in the five or so minutes I watched them. Maybe this is a way for the fish to sleep or take a break, I’m not sure; but whatever they are up to, they’re doing it as a group.

Speaking of groups, our group — consisting entirely of students — was given a set of tasks to do while in the aquarium. Mostly, we were charged with looking up information displayed throughout the museum on the various signboards. However, we were all asked to draw a picture (head on) of the Ocean Sunfish (マンボウ in Japanese). I can’t claim to be much of an artist, but at least I did get a decent straight-on photo to use as a guide! (photo, right)

I tried to take pictures of more of the fish, but discovered the difficulties that wildlife photographers must experience when they’re shooting their subjects: they move! The giant whale sharks are quite spectacular, but it’s really difficult to get a good photograph of them with a pocket camera.

I think everyone had a great time visiting the Osaka Aquarium. Afterward, we all went to Yume-Hachi in Shinsaibashi (Namba) for an enjoyable dinner and a couple hours of revelry, after which some of us departed (study!) and others went on to karaoke. There’s no telling how long that went on…

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