Yesterday I went to the aquarium at Ikebukuro with dad and grandma. I didn’t know that was called an aquarium. I just knew that it was called “suizoukan” （すいぞうかん）. Dad learned a new word ( すいぞうかん) and I learned a new word (aquarium).
Well, we started out pretty good, until we got stuck. It turned out that that we were on the second floor and we were supposed to be on the top floor. Eventually we got to where we were supposed to be and at the same time we were wanted to be. First we saw the penguins. They came out to where all of the people were and ate their food. At the end of the show, we clapped and the penguins marched away. It was a penguin parade.
(Editor’s note: Apparently this is the best way to watch a penguin show.)
Dad thought the fish were outside, but he was wrong. We saw sand eels. I had never seen sand eels. I thought it was neat that they were worms that could live in the water.
Next we went over to a large tank were all kinds of fish were. We saw the show about how different fish eat. There was a diver in the tank who fed the different fish. Some of the fish in that tank were: manta rays, sharks, moray eels, and sea snakes. The tank was full of lots of kinds of smaller fish too.
(Editor’s note: Here the diver is showing how this small black mantra ray eats.)
(Editor’s note: Sachan was unimpressed by the yellow, black dotted moray eel that the diver pulled out of its hole. It was longer than she was. You can just make out its head in the front center of this picture, right behind the manta ray with a trailing remora that zoomed by as I snapped this picture.)
We also saw a tank of sand fish. They lived in the sand. They had sand in their mouth and they would spit it out. They would disappear down their hole. Then they would come back out and spit out more sand.
Then I spotted bright orange fish. They were in a tank with bright orange coral. They were beautiful. The front of the tank came out like a ball with lots of flat sides. Dad said it looked like an orange jewel.
We went to the gift shop and bought a pencil that looked like a sand eel. Dad let me get chocolate chip gelato at the snack stand. It was really good. I ate it all. Then we went home.
(Dad wrote a story about the aquarium too. Click on the word aquarium to read his story. He told me to write this.)
WOW! The aquarium was really wonderful. The spoilers should have loved that! I loved all the seal life but the best was the picture of Samantha on Brian’s shoulders, watching the penguins. That will be a poignant “dad” memory.
I remember the first penguins we saw at Sea World in Florida. I thought they would be much taller! And I was a whole lot older than Samantha when I got to see them!
Glad you all are having such a great time.