Day 3 in Shimoda: The girls were a little disappointed that the Japanese family with a boy and a girl, 9 and 10, left yesterday afternoon. The Danish families left later in the morning. No one seems to stay too long…just a night or two. It is the rainy season in Japan and summer break has not yet started. The girls have so much more fun when they are around other kids.
Today we planned a trip to the local aquarium (we bought discount tickets at the train station). The walk to the aquarium from the hotel was beautiful! The path hugged the cliffs and the ocean; amazing view at every turn.
The girls’ spirits lifted when we arrived at the aquarium and heard the cries of the seals and sea lions. All morning long, we raced from one show to the next – the dolphin show, penguin feeding, fish feeding, another dolphin show and the sea lion show. Our older daughter looked at me and said she was having a lot of fun. We all were. The aquarium is small and intimate. We all learned a lot…like how to tell the difference between a seal and a seal lion (the ears, back legs, front flippers etc…).
Lunch at the aquarium didn’t look great, although it would have been fine. We opted to walk about 5 minutes away to a small Japanese eatery across from a small suspension bridge. It might have been a find but the place specialized in seafood and not the fried shrimp kind and it was also pricey (although from the outside it looked like a shack).
So we marched on towards downtown Shimoda. I thought it was a 10 minute walk but it turned out to more of a long, hot march with near mutinous children. The kids did better than expected, really…and we ended up having ramen near the train station around 2pm.
We caught the hotel’s free shuttle and off we were to the pool. The pool was wonderful after our long walk.
http://www.shimoda-aquarium.com/information/info/english-01.pdf
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