Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium

We took 3 friends with us to check out the much heralded & anticipated aquarium. In the Okinawan language, "Chura" means beautiful & in Japanese "Umi" means sea. The aquarium definitely lived up to that billing, so we were wise to go ahead & get the unlimited entry annual pass for just twice the 1-day adult admission price. We had quite a fun time admiring all the marine life being cultivated & studied. They boast the world's 3rd largest holding tank (to Chicago & recently Atlanta's aquariums, respectively). And they hold the Guinness world record for largest single viewing window, which is quite impressive. The prize inhabitants are the whale sharks & the largest captive manta rays in the world. I personally enjoyed their shark exhibit area also. We even were able to have lunch without losing sight of the whale sharks & rays in the main tank. It was cool & great inspiration for diving!! We will be going back soon & hopefully taking some of you! We, of course, took many more photos than you care to peruse:

Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium

Note that the first 50 were actually taken with our nifty camera phones (Toshiba W45T which boast a 3MP CMOS sensor) so if you want the high-def, clear photos, skip ahead to the photos of the flowers that we took in the park before we actually went inside the aquarium! ;-)