Hello, Numazu! This would be my first time visiting you. For my very first trip here, I picked the Mito Sea Paradise (Mito Sea), a place known for its sea animal shows.

The main attraction here would be the dolphins (pacific white-sided dolphins and common bottlenose dolphins), as they were the main focus in two of the three main events here.

Let me introduce the three events one by one. Each of these shows were performed several times a day, so there would be no need to worry about missing them as long as you didn’t visit past 2 pm.

Firstly, the “Dolphin Sea Show Stage”. Three common bottlenose dolphins and two trainers starred the show. The dolphins were called Choco, Chip, and Strass.

It was a show of dolphin’s acrobatic skills. Swimming belly up, jumping hurdles, and some cute actions like waving to the audience with their flukes.

After this show, the audience were asked if they wanted to take a boat ride and watch dolphins up close as well as to touch them, all for just 1000 yen. I went without hesitation. Apparently it would be hard to get a chance on weekends.

This was the boat captain! He was very friendly and explained to me how to interact with the dolphins.

Chip and Strass loved being carassed by humans, so they approached the boat right away. Choco stayed far away. Dolphins were intelligent creatures too, so they had various personalities.

I was able to pet them to my heart’s content. They had such smooth skin. Wonderful creatures.

Next, “Walrus Feeding time”. This show was as its name implied. However, the walrus was also trained to perform many actions, such as waving to people and bowing. This guy was a heavyweight at 480 kg! Apparently the biggest ones could go up to 600 kg.

This guy behaves like a superstar.

Way too near!

Lastly and most interestingly, there was the “Show Stadium”. This was a relay performance by many different animals. The show started with some balancing acts by two sea lions. Pretty much a staple of sea animal shows.

This was followed by a calligraphy session by a seal. He wrote the word “friend” in Japanese.

The trainer then asked the audience if anyone wanted the calligraphy. I raised my hand the quickest and got it! I would treasure this piece of art.

Next was this steller sea lion. He was great at posing. Potential supermodel perhaps?

Then these two penguins came up on stage and … walked… and walked… and exited the stage.

The last segment and the best was the dolpin show. Unlike the Dolphin Sea Show Stage, this time the performers were pacific white-sided dolphins. My jaw really dropped during some parts of the show.

This was a coordinated hurdle jumping by two dolphins.

A 10 meters leap into the air! I never knew dolphins could jump so high. This was the part where my jaw dropped to the floor.

Halos blown through the dolphins’ blow holes! I really loved this!

That was all for the show stadium. 10/10!

There were some other activities here to participate in, such as fishing, dolphin feeding, and swimming with dolphins. I was content with just watching people do these.

Now, let’s talk about the aquarium aspect of this place. Mito Sea calls it the “Country of Fishes”.

There were some fishes and crabs here you could touch. I touched this Japanese bullhead shark… and it didn’t stir at all. Maybe it was sleeping?

Next I touched this crab and it stirred too much so I stopped right away.

This tank had cherry anthias. They were so named because of the cherry blossom-like patterns on their skin. The cherry blossoms in the tank were not real by the way.

This crab had a really fascinating appearance. It’s so… spiky. It was called Paralomis histrix. Cool name huh? It dwelled deep in the sea south of Japan.

Jellyfish! There was a gigantic tank full of jellyfish. There were mirrors around to give you the illusion that there were jellyfish all around you.

There were a lot more to see in the Country of Fishes, but it would be no fun if you saw all of it here and decided not to go right?

That’s all for Mito Sea. The performances were great, and the interaction segment with the dolphin was the best. Pretty worth it for just 1960 yen, and for certain periods of time they would be discounts for students to make it even cheaper. Do visit the website for discounts and check the place out if you pass by the area!

By Desheng.

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* This article was written by a trainee from overseas. Please note that there might be spelling and grammar mistakes.