Enoshima Aquarium

Enoshima Aquarium is our favourite, and in our opinion, the Best Aquarium near Tokyo. We've visited most of the aquariums in Tokyo, many of them are located within shopping malls and are generally pretty small. On the other hand, Enoshima Aquarium strikes you with a sense of awe from the moment you step in. Especially since it's a relatively newly built aquarium, a lot of attention has been paid to the visitor experience and how visitors can discover the wonders of marine life and also the conservation efforts in the nearby Sagami Bay.

When you first enter the Enoshima Aquarium, you start from an above-water-level view of the main Sagami Bay Huge Tank, before you walk down a slow descending underwater. Making for a great experiential transition from seeing the same scenery you would see just outside the aquarium, to descending downwards to discover the wonders that lay beneath the waves. This type of design thinking is constantly present throughout the aquarium, engaging visitors, and designing exhibits to inform and excite both adults and children alike.

One of the most striking areas is a large open atrium right in front of a gigantic window that lets you peer into the main Sagami Bay Huge Tank, as you can view an almost panoramic view of what the Sagami Bay sea bed would look like. There you can observe all sorts of marine life interacting with one another, including a large school of iwashi (イワシ, Sardine) swirling around in the tank. There's a lot of attention paid to replicating the real Sagami Bay within this artificial enclosure, and you can definitely tell the love that the aquarium staff have for marine creatures.

The Deep Sea exhibits within the Enoshima Aquarium are also fascinating, as the Deep Sea is still a relatively unknown area of the Earth due to the difficulty in observing it due to low light and high water pressure conditions. So here you can view many rare marine creatures from the deep sea that you wouldn't usually be able to find in a regular aquarium, and how they differ from their typical counterparts. Furthermore, you can see a real-life research submarine, the Shinkai 2000, that has retired from active duty and is now displayed in this aquarium in all its glory.

One of the more interesting sections in the aquarium is also dedicated to the marine biology research conducted by the Japanese Imperial Family (皇室, Kōshitsu) over the years, starting from Emperor Showa, and continuing down to members of the Imperial Family today.

We personally really enjoyed the river otter exhibit as well, as you watch this beautifully designed replica of rivers in Southeast Asia with the otters playfully running about, sliding down water slides, and just having a good time. The dolphin show is also fascinating and fun to watch, and you can see firsthand the bond that the dolphin and their trainers share.

The Capyabara Exhibit also allows you to feed the capybara on display for a fixed fee. So check that out if you want a unique memorable experience.

We understand that some people have an apprehension towards aquariums, but one of the things that strikes us about Enoshima Aquarium is that you can really see the care that the staff have for the creatures that live there, and the liveliness and happy nature of the creatures themselves. It's really a joyful and fun place that we enjoy returning to, and would recommend it for both adults and children alike.

Enoshima Aquarium was first built in 1954, before undergoing renovation and re-opening in its current form in 2004. In Japanese, the aquarium is called the "New Enoshima Aquarium" (新江ノ島水族館, Shin-Enoshima Suizokukan). The theme of the aquarium is Sagami Bay (相模湾, Sagami-wan) and the Pacific Ocean (太平洋, Teiheiyō) and the marine life that live in it. The aquarium seeks to be an "Edutainment" facility, allowing visitors to learn about the oceans and environment while also having fun and enjoying the experience. Within the museum, the first exhibit focuses on the nearby Sagami Bay, followed by deep-sea exploration, jellyfish, and mammals that live in the ocean. The shows and activities are designed to be "surprising and moving" (驚きと感動, odoroki to kandō) and "healing for the soul" (癒し, iyashi). There are also seasonal exhibits, temporary events, and interactive programmes that are conducted in Nagisa's Experimental Lab (なぎさの体験学習館, Nagisa no Taiken Gakushūkan). The aquarium strives to be a place where visitors discover a place of joy, a place of learning, a place of surprise, a place that is moving, a place that is healing, and a beneficial place to spend one's time. An aquarium where "it's comfortable to be, and a place I want to visit again" (また来たくなるような居心地の良い水族館, mata kitakunaru yō na igokochi no yoi suizokukan) is the type of facility the staff are striving to build.

"To know Sagami Bay is to know the world's oceans". Sagami Bay has a wide and varied ecosystem, it's the place where the ocean's cold and warm tides collide, and it plays host to some of the deepest oceans in Japan, there are rocky coasts, beaches, and even tidal flats to support all sorts of marine ecosystem, and so it's a treasure trove containing all sorts of living treasures. "In the world, there are all sorts of living creatures that many people have never seen or even heard of." It's Enoshima Aquarium's duty to showcase each and every bit of this wondrous marine life with respect so as to pass down these wonders from generation to generation.