Shimoda Underwater Aquarium — Attraction in Shimoda

I had the misfortune to cycle past this place while enjoying a cycling trip around beautiful Shimoda! At the front entrance is a pool containing two very large sea turtles, this pool is tiny (around 4x4 meters) and the two turtles just swim aimlessly in circles, when I approached one turtle came to the edge of the pool and you could tell from the look it's eye that it was unhappy. There is nothing in this pool, simply tiled walls, tiled floor. It is completely inhumane and cruel. If this is what greets you at the entrance I don't even want to know what's inside the aquarium... but from reading other one star reviews for this place I get a good idea. This place should be SHUT DOWN and all animals either returned to the wild, or if that's not possible, rehomed in an appropriate and caring environment as close to being wild as possible. Japan is a wonderful country with such a focus on the natural world, I simply don't understand how places like this are being allowed to continue to operate. Don't visit this place and send the owners a clear message that this...

If you're planning on coming here, try to reserve some of the dolphin show add-ons. They're only available by advance reservation, and up-close interaction with the dolphins is pretty much the main selling point of this aquarium, especially if you have children.

This facility is a bit small, very old, and not the best maintained, but it has a very smart construction and is well-designed for the dolphin shows, which are clearly the main attraction for the aquarium.

There are shows roughly twice an hour. The dolphin shows (Wonder Ocean) are definitely the main event, but all of the other shows are worth seeing as well. It takes around two hours to catch everything.

It's not the most well-kept or modern aquarium but the animals are extremely well-trained and some of the tricks they do are genuinely impressive. If you're already in the area, this is...

An interesting aquarium taking the advantage of a natural gulf to create huge enclosures for dolphins. The animals seem happy and you can get very close to them. The dolphin show features an underwater dance with a trainer with small scuba diving gear. One of the best in the world. The seal show is good too.

When I was there on June 2016, a dolphin mother was mourning for the death of her baby dolphin. She would just keep swimming with the swelling corpse, a pretty sad scene. The keeper hardly spoke English but he told me that the dolphin mother was already doing this for a few days. I was going to ask why not removing the corpse from the water but he did not understand. I guess it might be a humane thing to just let the mother to slowly accept her...