Brunch & The Shinagawa Aquarium

Our second ITT tour was having brunch at the New Sanno hotel, which is a great military hotel smack dab in the middle of downtown Tokyo.  It was a great buffet style brunch and it was nice seeing the hotel decked out for Christmas.  "A" enjoyed walking around the outside to burn off all the food she ate.

After brunch, the bus drove us through downtown Tokyo on our way to the Shinagawa Aquarium.  I enjoy looking out the bus windows and taking in the massive scale of the Tokyo Metropolis.  Here is a quick view from the bus.  That red tower is the Tokyo Tower, which used to be the tallest structure in Tokyo, until they decided to build an even bigger tower, The Sky Tree, which opens up May 2012.

We get to the Shinagawa Aquarium, a medium sized aquarium in Tokyo.  It's amazing to find this aquarium in the middle of all that concrete and buildings.  Typical green garden/pond oasis found throughout downtown Tokyo.

The Shinagawa Aquarium had some decent displays.  I really liked the little tank of skin eating fish.  I guess it's a spa thing where people pay to have tiny fish eat the dead skin off your feet.  You got to try it out by sticking your hand in a little tank and watch the fish go to town on your nasty dry hands.  Sorry, I couldn't get a photo since I was having my hands eaten by zombie fish.  If your interested, here's a link for Dr. Fish.  Another area we enjoyed was the underground seal tank.  The aquarium built see through tunnels that allowed you to walk into the seal tank.

Seal above...                                      Seal Below...

Besides the flesh eating fish and the seal tank, we experienced the typical aquatic animal displays found at most stateside aquariums.  However, here are some exceptionally rare wild animals.

"A" found a friend, too.  It's Happy Feet!

I want to take this guy home for dinner.

"A" and the jellyfish

 Big Catfish

We found Nemo

Token Dolphin shot

So that was our experience at the Shinagawa Aquarium.   It was okay, what made it better was enjoying it with the family.  Plus, Abby likes aquariums.  Don't believe me?  Here's a past and present shot of "A" at two different aquariums.

Here is a recent picture of "A" at the Shinagawa Aquarium.

And here is "A" at 9 months old at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta.  Love that aquarium.  And I love these crabs.  They look so yummy.

So our second ITT trip is over.  Still lots more of Japan to see and experience.  Rest up.