Kamogawa Sea World

This is a belated entry – a really late one in fact because this particular trip was taken back in March, using Seishun 18 kippu. Well, remember that we had to postpone hubby’s birthday celebration? We bought combo tickets for Kamogawa Sea World and Mother’s Farm. We both went to the former, but hubby took Mak instead to the latter because by then I already gave birth to Humaidi.

The quiet Awa-Kamogawa eki

Although the easier way to go to Kamogawa from Tokyo would be by taking the express bus from Tokyo Eki; since we already bought seishun 18 kippu, we took the over-2-hour train journey to Awa-Kamogawa from Asakusabashi. From Awa-Kamogawa eki, we took the free shuttle bus to the theme park.

Entrance of Kamogawa Sea World

We purposely went to Kamogawa Sea World on a weekday to avoid the large weekend crowd – but we forgot that it was during the school holidays, so the place was packed with shrieking kids. Like many places of interest in Japan, the theme park offered various rubber-stamping opportunity with the stamps located at various parts of the park. They even sold a souvenir stamp-booklet for 200 yen meant for kids that offers a small pin-up badge for those who completed all the stamping needed in the book. I bought the booklet just for fun, as it contained information on featured animals in hiragana and could be kept whether or not one got all the stamping. But yes, it was also fun queuing with kindergarten kids (exchanging shy smiles part, not the ignoring almost-rude stares part) to get the booklet stamped. In fact, I guess some of them might be thinking along the line of “what is this walrus-like obasan doing collecting stamp marks”. Well, I was huge then – what with being 9 months pregnant and all… In the end, I managed to get all the stamping needed and was presented with a silly pin-up button of a grinning sea-lion. Hubby asked me why didn’t I ask for the nicer button of the killer whales, to which I just shrugged and replied “ala saja-saja je, tak kisahlah apa-apa pun”

By the time we arrived there, it was almost noon, so we had to plan our move well so as not to miss any of the performances. I asked for a map in English at the counter, which also listed the schedules for all the performances, to which we tune our movement. It wasn’t that difficult to strategize actually since the performances last less than 30 minutes each and the grandstands are located almost in a row.

The major highlights are performances by a family of killer whales, some dolphins, a family of sea lions and two beluga whales. Then there were also side performances – such as feeding time for the penguins, the pelicans and the sea lions. It was interesting to note that we could see both penguins which could stand higher temperature in the outdoor as well as their bigger Polar counterparts which had to be showcased in icy aquarium.

Napping pelicans

The turtle said "Hi" on behalf of the shark and the sting ray...

For extra fees between 200 – 1000 yen, visitors could also interact and have closer contact with the animals as they could kiss, touch, take pictures and exchange smiles with the sea animal of their choice. I thought it would be cool to have a picture taken with the killer whale, but hubby immediately killed the thought by saying “tak payahla, buang duit aje”

1,2,3, JUMP!

We enjoyed all the performances tremendously – especially the killer whale show. It is actually a dual performance since one could either view it on the grandstand stadium or from the window of a viewing gallery below water level. Mind you – those who want to sit at the front seats must be prepared with rain coats because the splashes they caused were certainly huge. The park organizer even color-coded the benches (orange for possible wet areas, blue for potentially safer ones) and warnings were announced several times before the show began.

Lepas tangan pun tak jatuh tau...

Ok, jaga-jaga ye tuan-tuan dan puan-puan, lepas ni nak buat splash besar punya...

It would be better to purchase the rain coat in advance – perhaps at the Daiso store in the shopping mall at the back of Awa-Kamogawa eki. Snacks and drinks could also be purchased ahead at the Jusco outlet there- because yes, just like in other theme parks, the drinks and snacks in the Sea World are quite costly. (Unlike in Malaysia where Jusco is often regarded as a middle-class shopping place and are mostly found in big cities, here in Japan, Jusco outlets are mostly located in smaller towns. I think the only Jusco I’ve seen in Tokyo is the one which could be seen as one passes from Minami-Sunimachi to Nishi Kasai on the Tozai line subway, but I digress…) The cinnamon imo sticks sold at the stadiums looked very tempting, but I resisted it, instead just bought some potato fries for Huzaifah to munch on as we watched the comical sea lion show. It was humorous, provided one could understand nihongo, since the sea lions were performing some sketches.

Johnny-kun, the star comedian in the sea lion family

As for the exhibits, my favorite is their extensive collection of bizarre crustaceans. I especially enjoyed watching huge crabs which hubby and I refer to as ketam Hokkaido. And now we know that Huzaifah is terrified of eels. Our hero who normally is curious about a lot of things and rarely shows his fear, yelled whenever his Ayah put him close to the display window of some huge eels (which looked more like pythons than eels). I must say that I appreciate that information on the creatures are also provided in English, although most tourists we saw that day were Nihonjin. The “Tropical Island” exhibit area is a good reminder of home sweet home – what with fine white sands, coconut trees and even lying coconuts on the “beach”.

Ujai was really terrified of this huge eel...

Sungguh besaaaaarrrrr ketam itu...

Eh, ini kat Kamogawa ke kat Teluk Kemang ni?

Breathtakingly beautiful imitation coral reef

We spent more than 5 hours at the park – a worthy excursion since all of us enjoyed it, hubby, Huzaifah and preggy me. However, by the time we finished seeing the last performance by the Beluga whale at the Marine Theater, there was no more free shuttle service going back to Awa- Kamogawa eki, so we had to walk back to the eki, which took us about 30 minutes or so. Nevertheless, I must say that Kamogawa Sea World provides a healthy balance of education and entertainment, so personally I would recommend it for parents with school-going/kindergarten kids. I wish I could say the same for Mother’s Farm, but since both hubby and Mak (who went there when I was still in the hospital after Humaidi was born) gave it thumbs-down, I shall not comment any further.

Intelligent Beluga whale