Warrens visit the Aquarium

It's kind of overwhelming when you first get to Okinawa because you have no phone, no car and no idea what you're doing. Luckily, we had awesome sponsors who drove us around to get to all of our checkpoints and familiarize us to the island. I'll be posting more about our housing experience later, but I thought I'd share what we did once the whirlwind subsided and the dust settled : )

We went to the aquarium! We had read about this place before coming to Okinawa and really wanted to see the huge whale sharks. So, we got some yen and headed north on the expressway. As you can see in this picture, we are driving on the left side of the road like good Okinawans. We are also going 80+ km, which is the fastest speed limit on the island and approximately 50 mph. The fastest speed off the expressway is 60km, which is about 35 mph. This is truly upsetting for Jonah.

We also yielded here to the fake Japanese construction worker telling us to get in the other lane. Isn't this hilarious?

Can anyone count how many cute things
are going on in this picture?  

In the background is Iejima island and the East China Sea. 

The aquarium is actually part of a larger park, called the Ocean Expo Park. It's located at the northern part of the island.Once we got there we had lunch, which was really good. The picture above shows some typical Okinawan food. The bitter gourd is on the left, there's some fish tempura, sweet potato tempura (sweet potatoes in Okinawa are bright purple!), seaweed salad and Japanese curry.

 You can click any picture to make it larger.

After lunch we headed into the aquarium and one of the first things you can do is pick up starfish. I learned later that those black things in the background are indeed alive and called sea cucumbers. I saw one at the beach recently and was told that you pretty much have to wear water shoes while swimming in the ocean here because of all the coral and sea life and... things that don't like to be touched.

I'll insert here that Jonah is now scuba-certified and ready to go diving if you're ever in the area! We have been told that you can dive with the whale sharks here in the ocean (in a containment area). He's hoping to do that soon! Below you can see the whale sharks in a 7,500 ton tank they have at the aquarium. There are three whale sharks here and they are each around 7 meters long, which is about 20 feet! There are also manta rays swimming with various kinds of schooling fish, like tuna and bonita.

Well, if you guys ever head this way we will take you to the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium! Love yall!