Then we got our car and drove to the aquarium. The aquarium is in an area with several free exhibits/activities, but we for sure wanted to see the aquarium as it's supposed to be the second best in world (behind Atlanta). It was really crowded even for a weekday. All of the tourists were from Japan and other Asian countries. We saw one American family there and that was it. They were the only ones that we saw in all of Okinawa outside of the airport. It was funny when we got to the resort everyone knew exactly who we were and what room we were in since we were the only Americans there! It was so funny.
The aquarium lived up to its name. There were a lot of exhibits, with the big one being a huge tank with 4 whale sharks. Those are the ones that I dove with in Atlanta. This tank was a bit smaller and there were tamer animals in it (not all the sharks like in Atlanta). You could view the tank from all angles but the best was a floor to ceiling window. There was also a restaurant outside of the tank, so we grabbed some food there. The picture is of the table in front of us, but those people left and we grabbed that seat. It was so cool. Pretty much like scuba diving as we were right next to the fish.
After lunch, where we had the traditional taco rice (seriously, that's what they eat here!), we went to the shark research area. They had a tank of bull sharks, tigers sharks and a few others. I feel bad for whoever has to clean that because bull sharks and tiger sharks are aggressive! Not like the nurse or sand sharks that wouldn't hurt a fly. I told Dave they were smiling at him and he was less than amused.
There was also a section called the ocean's planetarium. These were all deep sea fish that lit up. It was hard to take picture, but it was so cool. Their eyes lit up like aliens! The other big thing around here are garden eels. They look like itty bitty versions of the worm from Tremors. They were all sticking out of the sand like little weeds and would move up and down. So cute!
We finished up the aquarium and headed to the manatee pool, sea turtle pool and dolphin poo. There was also a dolphin show for free, but we skipped it. The manatees were first. There were two tanks - one with two females and one with two males. They were feeding them heads of lettuce. It was hard to see from the top, but when you went to the viewing window underneath you could see them take the lettuce from the guy feeding them (literally took from his hand) and then sunk to the bottom to eat it. They used their front little flippers like hands to shovel it into their mouth. They also spun around in circles a bit, so very cute.
The sea turtles were chilling in a few different pools and there were two pools of baby ones. One of the tanks was connected to a beach in the homes that the turtles would next. A sign said that breeding in captivity is rarely successful, so not sure where the baby turtles came from.
Next we saw the dolphins, but since there was no underwater viewing area, we left. We headed out and next drove to the Pineapple Park. We're going to be giving it a 2/5 on TripAdvisor! It was about $5 each to get in and they have you get on an automated little cart to go through the pineapple area. The cart was cool as it was on an invisible track and it moved automatically. We saw the pineapples growing, but it was hard to tell what everything else was. The ride was over in under 5 minutes and they had taken some photos of us that they tried to sell to us at the end. We passed on them. Then we walked through multiple gift shops. The good part was that you could sample the food and drinks. They made pineapple wine here, so we had tastes of multiple kinds. We bought one of them because it was delicious. There were also pineapple cakes, cookies, chocolate, etc.
We headed out and went back to the hotel where we went into the thalasso pool again. There were more people in it this time (last time we were the only ones in it!), but it was still really nice. We quickly showered and went to have cocktails in the lobby area. They had some snacks out as well, but they were kind of weird. There was smoked salmon, some kind of pork item and a few other meats. Then there was minimal fruit and some cheese (but no crackers). Dave got some mango juice that was delicious. We watched the sunset (really just more get dark since the sun was on the other side) over the ocean with a really nice breeze. We had read online that the top restaurant in our area was called Captain Kangaroo and they serve crazy burgers. We went there (it was a little hole in the wall), but they closed early for whatever reason, so we missed out. Right next to it was Restaurant Flipper, which serves steak/lobster. We think when all was said and done, it was like the Applebee's of Japan, but tasted better. I had a cheeseburger steak and Dave had a bento box with rice, sashimi, random tempura and other random items that we had to taste to figure out. They also were known for making homemade pies, so we grabbed some of them (although they were more like crescent little pastries than a pie). Then we headed back and chilled out on the balcony playing on the computer/reading, enjoying the sound of the waves and snacking on the pies (apple and custard) before going to bed.
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