Day two of my Okinawa trip started extremely early. I woke up just before 6am, got downstairs right when breakfast started at 6:30am, ate as much as I could within 10 minutes, then beelined for the bus stop right outside the Prefectural Office. We had to be on time to catch the Yanbaru Express towards Ocean Expo Park which left right at 6:50am.

One of the downsides of not renting a car in Okinawa is having to plan everything around bus schedules. Ocean Expo Park, where Churaumi Aquarium is located, is actually pretty far from Naha. If we had missed the 6:50am bus, we would have to wait another two hours for the next one, or make a couple of transfers to get there. (@_@)

After two hours on the bus, we finally arrived outside the park just before 9am. The park itself is really big. Aside from the aquarium, there’s also a beach, a planetarium, a Native Okinawan Village and much more. Some of the attractions require admission fees, but just walking through the park is free. I would recommend buying the aquarium tickets in advance at any convenience store in Okinawa, as you can save about 10% off the original admission price.

Once we got to the aquarium, we took the obligatory commemorative photo at the front, then headed inside to see the exhibits. One thing I really liked about the aquarium was that the route was very well planned out. Even though there’s four floors inside, you can hit all the exhibits without having to backtrack if you stay on the path.

One of the main highlights was seeing the Kuroshio Sea Tank, where they have whale sharks in captivity. The size of the tank was huge! Another cool thing about the aquarium was that you can take an elevator up to the top observation deck where you can look down into the Kuroshio Sea Tank. I think Churaumi is the only aquarium I’ve been to which has this feature. They even have a glass floor so you could stand right above the tank!

We spent most of the morning going through all the exhibits inside the aquarium. Maybe because the route was so organized that I felt the aquarium seemed a lot smaller than I had originally thought (considering it’s suppose to be the biggest in Japan). It felt like we went through it in a flash.

Afterwards we headed outside to see the Sea Turtle Pool, the Manatee Pool and the Dolphin Lagoon. We even had time to catch a Dolphin show at the Okichan Theater before stopping for a buffet lunch at Inoh, on the fourth floor of the aquarium. We got there right when it opened at 11:30am. You pay for the buffet upon entering and then you can pick your seat inside the restaurant. The food itself was just average, but it was worth the price and the view from our table.

Since we completed everything on our list in the morning, it meant we had lots of time to spend in Sesoko Beach, which was our next stop that day. There’s actually quite a few beaches out in Nago, where the aquarium is. Unfortunately many are hard to get to unless you drive. Carmen and I decided it was worth it to fork over money for a taxi to take us directly to the beach.

The weather that day wasn’t as hot as the previous day and the sky was a little overcast, but it turned out to be a perfect day to relax at the beach. Sesoko Beach is actually quite small, but the facilities inside are really good. They have adequate change rooms and showers, plus a snack bar and rental shop, and they even have lifeguards on duty. I didn’t pack a swimsuit with me so I opted to rent a beach chair for 1,000 yen and suntanned on the beach while Carmen tried to look for fish in the water. (She didn’t find any but it might have helped if she actually rented a snorkelling set haha.)

We pretty much stayed at the beach up until it closed at 5pm. It was perfect timing since it started to rain right after. While Carmen changed I called a taxi to pick us up and take us back towards Nago Bus Terminal. Then it was another 90 minutes on the bus before we finally made it back to Naha.

After freshening up at our hotel, we headed back out for dinner at Jack’s. Jack’s Steak House is apparently a staple in Naha and it’s ranked number 2 on TripAdvisor after Yuunangii. I was really excited going in because there was a huge lineup at the door. I figured it must be good if so many people were willing to wait. Little did I know it was totally not the case. The food was mediocre at best. The medium-rare steak I ordered looked mostly rare to me. Unless you’ve never had steak in your life, be prepared for a huge letdown. The only new thing we tried was taco rice, but it’s also nothing special aside from having taco toppings over a plate of rice. Lol

Since we still had time after our meal, we decided to go karaoke for the remainder of the night. It was actually my first time going since I’ve been in Japan, so needless to say I had a blast picking out all the new songs to sing. =P