There is an aquarium called Wotto in Bentenjima, Hamamatsu. It is a small place, but it turned out to be quite fun.

Fish like these

Everything is well looked after.

And these…

Fish like this…

There were plenty of curious creatures.

Fish

Wherever you look, it feels properly maintained.

Shark

Fish

Fish

Turtle

An alligator snapping turtle, and it really did look like Gamera, the giant turtle from the monster movies.

Fish

Shaped like jwipo, the dried filefish snack…

Inside

That is not all of it – step outside and there is an eel farm as well. That part was fun too. Listening to how eels live, apparently they do not taste good if they grow too big. They are at their best at a moderate size with just the right amount of flesh on them… farming them is clearly no easy job. On top of that, the water has been getting warmer lately, so the eels are not very active… and that means more eels that do not taste good… I never imagined global warming would turn up in a place like this… fascinating.

Carp outside

They raise some seriously big carp here, and you can buy carp feed. Toss the feed in and they gather like that. It makes for a pretty decent hands-on lesson, I would say.

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