Tokyo Sea Life Park

     With over 100 public aquariums in the country, Japan is a hobbyist's paradise. Tokyo Sea Life Park is no exception. It was built to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Ueno Zoological Garden and opened on October 10th, 1989. The first Japanese public aquarium was opened at the Ueno Zoo in 1882. Since that time Japan has showcased regional marine life, cutting-edge technology and husbandry techniques in its aquariums.   

    The aquarium is located at the end of the zoological garden. It is about a five minute, comfortable walk on a well marked path. The path takes you right out toward Tokyo Bay. The garden is a beautifully landscaped Asian style park with many interesting statues and decorations. Upon reaching the aquarium entrance the most striking feature is a large glass dome. This architectural feature is built on a concrete platform surrounded by fountains and pools with an infinity edge. It can give the illusion that this structure blends right in with Tokyo Bay. 

    Upon entering the glass dome an escalator takes you underground to the galleries. This public aquarium is very education oriented. Throughout the building there are many topical exhibits, demonstrations, laboratory displays and awareness programs such as marine pollution. There is even a public library with periodicals, books and electronic resources that is staffed by fulltime librarians.

    The open water exhibit titled "Voyagers of the Sea" is a circular, swim-about tank of impressive size. The showcase of this exhibit are the large tuna, sharks, eagle rays and the amazing ocean sunfish or Mola mola. There are multiple viewing panels for this tank located in different parts of the building so you can enjoy the curved view or a tall window view of the same exhibit.

    There are multiple tanks used to display deep sea marine creatures and those from the arctic regions. Some of these animals are collected from depths in excess of 200 feet and kept in cold temperature water. Among the inhabitants are the long-stalked isocrinid sea lily, giant isopods, unusual fishes, and sea pens.

    The Caribbean coral reef exhibit displays many of the fishes found off of the Florida coast and around the Florida Keys. This display comes complete with a large Acropora cervicornis thicket and Montastrea annularis coral heads.

    The outer exhibit hall is lined with aquariums that have a regional and habitat theme. This series of displays is aptly named "Seas of the World". Each aquarium holds approximately 2000-3000 gallons. They utilize natural sunlight that is supplemented by Metal Halide spot lighting. Because the tanks are up to 7 feet deep, the natural sunlight evenly fills the displays and the Metal Halides add depth penetration giving the tanks a very bright appearance. These tanks are plumbed together with rigorous filtration and water changes with natural seawater. 

    At the end of the hall is a stairwell that leads up to a second level. A walkway on this level takes you along the top of the exhibits giving a birds eye view of the design, filtration, and lighting methods. There are also some small temporary aquariums set up here and educational displays.

    The Indian ocean tanks in the Seas of the World exhibit hall displays many of the popular marine fishes. Fishes from the Seychelles islands include a Gem Tang, a mated pair of Zebra Angelfish Genicanthus caudovittatus, brightly colored Anthias and wrasses. They also have in this aquarium an Indian Butterflyfish, Chaetodon mitratus.

    Many of the fishes from the Red Sea found in the aquarium trade are on display in this gallery as well. All of the fishes were quite mature, showed good body weight, and no HLLD pitting. It was also interesting to note that there was no evidence of damage from aggression in the form of damage, bite marks, or even nipped fins. It may be due in part to these fish combinations growing up together much like ones in home aquariums over time.

    There are 2 aquariums in this exhibit hall that showcase Southern Australian Fishes. The First is a Weedy Seadragon tank. These are always popular animals to display. They had a total of 4 specimens in a half-cylinder tank of approximately 800 gallons.

       The second Southern Australian tank had many interesting fishes. All of which were vibrantly colored. The colored puffer fish, painted trigger and Shaw's trunkfish were all popular with visitors. 

    Another interesting tank in this exhibit hall is the Pacific lagoon display. It is nothing striking to the casual observer, but it is a beautiful representation of a near shore seagrass lagoon. It is aquascaped with a central coral head covered in Acropora species. This is surrounded by healthy seagrass and macro algaes. Populations of damselfish, juvenile wrasses and surgeonfishes, shrimp fish and many mobile invertebrates complete the display. It is easy to spend ten minutes or more examining the layout and community in this tank.

    The Seas of Tokyo exhibits focuses on the marine fish communities found around the islands of Izu and Ogasawara. Although they are home to some Pacific species found in the aquarium trade, there are many fishes unique to these areas and not often seen in European and North American aquariums. Among the fish that are really striking to watch are the Japanese Pygmy Angelfish (Centropyge interruptus), Wrought Iron Butterflyfish (Chaetodon daedalma), Yellowback Fusilier (Caesio teres), Striped Boarfish (Evistias acutirostris), and the Lime Green Wrasse (Thalassoma lutescens).

The life in Tokyo Bay exhibit includes colorful gobies and blennies, filefish, striped mullet, mudskippers and the bluefin searobin (Chelidonichthys spinosus). There are also outdoor displays of marine birds and even penguins.

If you Go:

    Tokyo Sea Life Park is easily accessible from most parts of Tokyo. A convenient form of transit is the train system. The aquarium is on the same train line that services Tokyo Disneyland (Keiyo Line) so if you have any trouble with directions just ask for Disneyland. Then get off at the train station just before Disneyland, JR Kasai Rinkai Koen Station. Much of the train ride out along Tokyo Bay is above ground. Watch out the train windows as you get close to the Bay and on a relatively clear day you may glimpse Mt. Fuji in the distance!  Allow about 2 hours to comfortably see all of the exhibits at the aquarium. Price is about $6.50 US to enter the aquarium, a bargain for what you get! They also have a gift shop and small snack area. Fortunately for westerners, The train station also has a McDonalds restaurant and 7-11 style market. Additional information about the aquarium is available at:
http://www.tokyo-zoo.net/english/kasai/main.html#about