Kamogawa Sea World / 鴨川シーワルド

The day after our hanami, one of my friends said the owner of the former oden-ya was going to loan him his van for the day and how would we like to join him and his family for a drive to somewhere. Our friend Hama-chan also had the next day off, so it was going to be a family/friend outing of six - my friends Mari and Nori and their two year old son Shoei, me and Mikako, and Hama-chan. The weather wasn't going to all that great so we decided against going to "Mother Farms" and decided to head out to Kamogawa Sea World in Chiba Prefecture. We gathered at Nori's place at 9:00am (we live within a five minute walking distance). We then picked up Hama-chan on our way to Chiba Prefecture. Nori driving, Hama-chan in the passenger seat up front. Me, Mikako, and Shoei in the middle, with Mari sitting by herself in the back. On our way to Kamogawa, we stopped at a place called Umi-hotaru which translates to "Ocean Firefly". It's a service area / tourist spot that jets out into Tokyo Bay. I've seen pictures of the area lit up at night - beautiful! It was gray and overcast when we went. Mikako and I played a game and won a bunch of candy bars. Hama-chan won a medium size Snoopy on a first try on one of those crane games and gave it to Shoei. Shoei was running around here and there. Oh, the power of two-year olds!

花見の次の日、友達が「元おでん屋のマスターが車を貸すから、どっかドライブでも行こう」と私達を誘った。友達の浜ちゃんも次の日休みだったので、六人で行く事になった―ノリ・マリ夫妻と二歳の子供のショウエイ君、僕と美香子、と浜ちゃん。天気予報で明日は曇りのち雨でマザー牧場行くのを却下して、千葉県の鴨川 シーワルドに決定した。ノリの家に朝九時集合（うちは歩いて５分位の距離）。その後、浜ちゃんを向かいに行って出発。運転はノリ、助手席に浜ちゃん。その後ろに僕と美香子とショウ君。一番後ろにマリちゃん一人で座ってた。鴨川に行く途中、海ほたるに止まった。写真でしか見たことないけど、夜はライトアップされ、凄い綺麗。天気は相変わらず、雲って、いまにも雨が降りそうな感じでした。僕と美香子がゲームをやって、お菓子を大量にゲットした。浜ちゃんはUFOキャッチャーをやり一発でスヌーピのぬいぐるみをゲットしてショウ君にあげた。ショウ君ははしゃいであちこち走り回っていた。二歳の子供はパワフルやな。

We reached Kamogawa Sea World around noon. We checked out the aquarium first. There was a humongous crab, a monstrous lobster, sharks, turtles, and a bunch of other weird looking fish. I thought the ocean sunfish was pretty cool. We then had lunch before checking out the various shows. You can check out a bit of the dolphin and killer whale show on the videos posted above. The shows were scheduled at thirty minute intervals. The first show we watched was the beluga whale show. Isn't it cute?

昼位に鴨川シーワルドに到着。最初は館内を見て回った。超デッカイ蟹と伊勢海老がいて、サメや亀、と変な魚がいっぱいおった。特にマンボウが凄かった。いろんなショーもあって、ショー見る前に軽くランチを食べた。イルカとシャチのショーの一部は上のビデオで見れます。最初に観たのは白イルカのショー。可愛いでしょ？でも、ショー自体は微妙。

The next show we watched was the Dophin show. If you already watched the videos, you can see that the dolphin missed hitting the yellow ball! After the show was over, Mikako and I, with Shoei took pictures of us touching the dolphin! It was soft and smooth to the touch. Shoei was excited at first but when we checked the pictures, he had a worried look on his face. Shoei also had his picture taken with his father so he got to touch the dolphin three times.

次はイルカショー。ビデオをも観てたら、イルカガ黄色いボールには当たらなかったね。ショーが終わったあと、僕と美香子がショー君と一緒にイルカを触って記念写真を撮った。ショー君が喜んでたのに、実際出来上がった写真を見ると、ちょっとびびってる顔してた。

Once the dolphin show and picture taking was over, we went to the next show which featured Killer Whales. Sorry the video was short on that. Them whales be huge! And the last show of the day featured a smiling seal!! Check him out!

イルカショーが終わったら次はシャチのショービデオが短くてすみませんね。シャチもでかかった！最後に見たのはアザラシのショー。笑うアザラシがこの水族館の人気者。こいつを見て：

And finally a picture of all of us with the former oden-ya owner's van.

最後におでん屋のマスターの車と皆の記念写真。