(日本語版はこちら)

Yesterday I went on my first drive in Japan with a friend. We weren’t too sure where to go at first, but in the end decided on Chiba. One of the really cool things about cars here in Japan is that many of them have these in-car navigation systems that can plot out a course from where you are to where you want to go. They usually use a DVD and have the entire country recorded on it. I know these systems are available in the US also, but they are not very common yet. I wonder if all of the US would be able to fit onto one DVD, because these things are totally cool.

Anyway, going to Chiba from Tokyo took us through the Tokyo Bay Aqualine. I had never heard of the Aqualine before, but it is pretty cool. It is a tunnel and bridge system that goes across the Tokyo Bay. As an example of engineering it is really cool: it is basically a tunnel that goes three quarters of the way across the bay, then pops up and complets the trip across the bay as a bridge. They built an artificial island where the tunnel pops up, in the middle of the bay, and put a restaurant, parking garage, and gift shop there. It was all quite impressive really, but I really thought that Japan is one of the only places that would think “hey! three-quarters of the way through this bay tunnel, we need to construct an artificial island, and put a gift shop there!” According to my friend, not enough people take the Aqualine (it is expensive – about $25 one way!) and it is losing money. I can’t believe it took 31 years to complete the thing!

We checked out some Chiba-ken tourist information at Umi Hotaru (the sea firefly – that artificial island) and decided to go to the Kamogawa Seaworld. It was a nice trip, taking some small narrow twisty roads through the countryside hills. We saw some performances by the Beluga whales, the Killer Whales, and Sea Lions – similar to other things that I’ve seen before. I was glad that I’ve been to a bunch of similar things because I was able to understand what everyone was saying – all that neat beluga echolocation stuff and so on.

On the way out you have to exit through the gift shop. I thought it was really funny that they were selling sea-food related items though. I don’t think you would see that in America. But then again, while looking at some of the different fish, my friend also made comments like “that one is delicious!” so there you go. The giant crabs looked particularly yummy to me…

Also, the Mola Mola were amazingly strange and crazy. They are just hilarious.