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Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan, Osaka, Japan

Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan

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Other  ·  Osaka, Japan 34.6545°N   135.4289°E

Why you should go

Ninety seconds on Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan

Time needed
Two to three hoursNinety minutes at a push
Best time
Weekday afternoonQuieter than weekends
Cost
Timed ticketPrice varies by date
Effort
All downhillStart on the 8th floor
Season
Open most daysSchools fill the mornings
Access
Mostly rampsWheelchairs on loan

Best for the Pacific tank, nine metres deep, which the route circles on its way down, so the whale shark and the manta rays pass you again and again from different floors.

Visiting

Walking down from the eighth floor takes you through a Japanese forest stream with its otters, then round the Pacific tank, which you meet again on almost every level. The first corner where the tank comes into view, just past the Great Barrier Reef, is the most crowded; keep walking, because the windows further down are calmer.

Feeding happens at the surface, so the upper levels see the splash, and the lower windows show the whale shark upright, swallowing. On the fourth floor, a slab of the tank's acrylic, thirty centimetres thick, is on show. Lower still come the giant spider crabs of the Japan Deep and the jellyfish room.

After five o'clock the lighting and music change for the evening. The Aleutian Islands tank, near the start, is closed for renovation.

Know before you goEvery ticket carries a date and an entry time: buy the e-ticket up to thirty days ahead and change the slot if plans move; the ticket window sells same-day tickets only, and if the slot you want is full, you wait for the next free one. On weekdays from February to early March, mid-April to May and October to early December, school groups fill the mornings, so come after lunch.

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