Ocean Expo Park is a collection of indoor and outdoor exhibits centering around the culture and environment of Okinawa. The big draw is the aquarium; that’s where we went first.
We watched a show of dolphins playing and jumping and doing various other tricks on command. I thought it was interesting to observe the trainers and the dolphins interacting(note that the show was in Japanese). Seeing the dolphins perform was like playing Carmina Burana--I’d always wondered what it would be like to experience that event, and how it would effect me. Turns out the dolphins just led me to wonder more about life and awareness. Cool.
After the show, I walked to a stand and bought a large green coconut. I watched as the vendor hacked a small hole in it and stuck a straw inside. The contents surprised me; didn’t taste like coconut ‘milk,’ more like coconut water. Honestly, I don’t know if there’s an actual difference between the two, but it tasted really different from coconut milk. Plus, it was really heavy and full, which is not what I’d imagined. I suppose I just don’t have a lot of experience with this tropical island paradise stuff.
I couldn’t find my friends soon after the coconut stand, so I walked around by myself for a while.
I saw the sea turtles and the manatees, and then I went to the indoor aquarium.It was a fantastic aquarium, starting with Okinawa’s shallow ocean life, and a ‘please-touch pool,’ moving on to larger and larger tanks. I was particularly impressed by the blue, yellow, and white giant lobster and by a sign, which directed attention to the damselfishes. I read it as ‘damn-selfishes’ and pondered where they came up with such a name for such a nice-looking fish. :)
The space finally opened up to a humongous tank(27m long x 35m wide x 10m deep) containing rays, yellow-fin tunas, other large sealife, and the imposing whale shark. We got to watch divers hop in to feed them: no bloody body parts flying--how disappointing. ; )
The deep sea collection, the last exhibit, was the one I enjoyed the most. There are really bizarre-looking creatures that live where (almost) no one can see them. I didn’t know that those fish with the periscope eyes were actually real fish, but I saw one, so now I’m a believer. I also liked the cute little fish that stood straight up on the ocean floor, with their heads spiraled like fiddleheads. They were perfectly still, like they were trying to blend in with the environment, but they were so obviously fish that it was funny.
I got lunch after that, something called ‘ran soba,’ an Okinawan twist on soba noodles. Then I walked through the ‘Tropical Paradise Arboretum.’ The crowds that packed the aquarium were suddenly nowhere to be found, and I was able to enjoy the walk immensely.
There was Okinawan folk music being played through some hidden speakers somewhere as I continued walking on into the Traditional Okinawan Village. There were small stone walkways with short stone walls on either side, and under the canopy of palms I could see roofs thatched with straw--houses and graneries.
Back at the car, I reconnected with the others, and we spent the rest of the day at the beach. Kara and I collected some shells, and Dave and John built a sand turtle. The water was niiiiice.
Just before bed, I went to the hotel store and bought an expensive bottle of alcohol as a favor to a friend.
The real snake sitting frozen in the bottom of the bottle of Awamori, the local fire-water, stared at me for some time before it was neatly boxed and wrapped and worked with until appeared as cute as the general chazarai that surrounded it on the shelves.
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