Miyajima Public Aquarium
*Disclaimer This was a throwback from the beginning of the year, but since I've been working on my film project, I haven't really had the time to get around to writing about it.*
Before visiting my brother, Dewan, in January, I decided to make a bucket list for Hiroshima. I ended up not being able to do half of what I wanted, but we ate and drank so that was good enough for me. One of the things I wanted to do that was on the itinerary was to visit Miyajima Island.
We asked the hostel manager how to get to the island and she gave us really good directions for using the train and the ferry for the cheapest price. After arriving on the island, we took some photos, got some snacks, and we saw a sign that said Miyajima Aquarium. I didn’t know there was one. We decided to check it out. It seemed moderately sized, for Japanese standards, and it was around ¥1,400 or $13. They had a schedule that repeated three times a day so we could see it all if we spent about two hours in the museum. It was cool. We walked around the exhibits, caught the end of the sea lion show, saw a penguin patrol, and spent a good half and hour getting our feed cleaned by Doctor Fish. They are also called nibble fish. Personally I would call them laughing fish because it's hard to sit still while they are doing their thing.
Bring your camera if you can and turn off your flash. If your lens is big enough, you’ll be able to attract a lot of fish to the glass because they’ll be genuinely curious of you and it. I guess it comes across as a giant eye? Here are some quick shots that I got of these little dudes.
I recommend you spend about two hours in total here. Decide which exhibits or shows you want to see and figure out the time, so that you can check out the tanks and the doctor fish during the down time when you are waiting for a show or an exhibit.
As a tourist I didn’t think it was that bad. When I asked a few natives what they thought about the museum, they said it was kind of old and they wouldn’t want to go. To be fair, some of these individuals had high standards of living, so eh to each their own. Keep your expectations reasonable and have an open mind while on vacation and you’ll be happy with what you get! Look at this cute little dude.
Try the streetfood when you are walking through the side streets. The beer flights at Miyajima Brewery were fun since craft beer and microbreweries are slowly making it's way into Japan. Walk up and down it once so you know what the options and prices, unless you want have fomo for all the awesome food you wish you bought with the few coins you have remaining, since you forgot to go to the atm. Did this happen to me? No, but I considered it so, I went to the atm before getting to the island. TLDR. I had a curried oyster bun and it was amazing.
Safe Travels,
Talks
Eats
Jams
