Sunshine Aquarium

Sunshine Aquarium is a compact aquarium on the rooftop of a building in the sunshine shopping center, Ikebukuro Tokyo.

The aquarium is not big. It does have a variety of exhibits and some fun and interesting animals. The outdoor area has a unique design where many of the tanks are floating above your head so you look up to see the animals above you.

I’ve been to a few aquariums in my life, including huge aquariums in Hawaii and Okinawa. Of course this cannot compare. But the nice thing about sunshine aquarium is that, because it is small, it feels more intimate; more personal.

My wife was able to get a day off of work on a weekday. Visiting on the weekend would be too busy, but on a weekday we thought it would be a great chance to bring our kids to see some animals. It was still busy, but I can be confident the weekend would be much worse.

My youngest daughter is at a really cute age. Everything is new and very exciting. Even walking down the street she exclaimed 「すごい！」upon seeing an Eneos truck. It is a great age to visit a zoo or an aquarium. She was staring and even yelling at the cool fish and the whole time.

My older daughter is four now and she doesn't get as excited as her sister. But she also had a fun time demanding 'Papa come look at this!' or 'Mama, over here!' She is also very stubborn and did not want to leave at the end of the day.

I don't know if it common or not, but while we were there, an aquarium staff member was in the tank swimming, feeding, and petting the animals. It was fun to see all the different fish swimming around her hoping for a tasty snack. I imagine working at an aquarium is a very difficult job, but watching the staff member swimming around sure made it look fun.

The most interesting part for me was in the indoor section. There is a large tank filled with many different fish, stingrays, and even a shark. It was very relaxing watching the fish. It was also nice when my daughters were distracted and quiet.

Looking back now, it was a really great day. I will admit that, at the time, it was very stressful and hard to really have any 'fun'.

There is a saying that applies perfectly to my daughters: 'like herding cats'. We can say this about any situation that is difficult or impossible to manage.