Blogmas Day 02: Okinawa Ocean Expo Park

We spent a full day at the Ocean park and I'm pretty sure I could have spend a couple of days exploring the place - I LOVE aquariums and lucky for us the weather was brilliant.  In fact I intentionally chose Okinawa for some fun sun times, even though November is one of the cooler months, the temperature was still pushing 30 degrees which is heat wave temperature in my books!

In order to get to the Ocean Expo Park from Naha, you either need to take the bus or hire a car.  We took the bus route as to avoid driving with some severe jet-lag, otherwise from what I saw, driving around Okinawa should be fairly simple, highways don't get too fast and they drive on the same side of the road us so definitely a good option for next time when I decide to take a longer relaxing holiday there! :D

The quickest bus is the Yanbaru Express Bus - there is no English on the website but I used google translate to find times and prices, it took us roughly 2 hours to get there and it cost us 1900 JPY per bus ticket (about £14).

We went to the Churaumi Aquarium first, it was already busy at 9 in the morning, albeit it was a Saturday but definitely I hope to go back to this aquarium on an off-peak day.  I imagine it would be a rather relaxing place when its quiet. 

After walking through the ticket gates, like a child, I ran straight to the tank of star fish, of course I was surrounded by school kids, and stuck my hand in the water to touch and poke at all the poor sea life.  It is genuinely not as gross as you would think it'd be.

Some quick sketches of the sea life we got to see.  It was very busy so I had to do quick little drawings and then move out of the way for all the other tourists, again another reason why I'd love to go back when its quiet, so I can then draw for hours.

Now this is main reason for any trip to Okinawa, the showstopper of the entire Ocean Park! The tank carries roughly 9000000 litres of water and 26000 creatures.  There is a fantastic seating area and a cafe round the other side of the tank for you to marvel at the sea life for as long as you want.

Fun family food is all you'll really find at the Ocean Park, not that I'm complaining, and the lunch I dug into was a Taco Rice.  It is precisely what it claims to be - a mince taco filling with lettuce, cheese and salsa, topped onto some Japanese sushi rice.  This is an Okinawan dish derived from the American/Mexican influence.  I was expecting to enjoy it for the junk food that it was, followed usually by that yucky feeling of regret afterwards but this actually tasted really good.  It's definitely a recipe I could easily replicate at home and of course a hot day at the park wouldn't be complete without some ice cream - mango flavoured on the screen left, purple sweet potato on the right, another Okinawan specialty.

Of course the Dolphin Show is a must.

Okinawa Ocean Expo Park is a LARGE park.  Between the Aquarium, Museum and Tropical Dream Center, take the time to just wander around the park.  The whole area is surrounded by the ocean, which means every view is a stellar view.

In Okinawa November to February/March is 'winter' season so not only will there be a lot less water sports available but beaches in general are closed.  Emerald Beach at Ocean Park is not technically closed to the public, however swimming and entering the water is prohibited, which means that the beach is as good as closed.  Not of course for beach-deprived old me - it was an afternoon of lounging around on a gorgeous DESOLATE white sand beach.

Quick beach doodle

Other Posts:

- Blogmas Day 03: Shurijo Castle and Kinjo-cho Stone Path

- Blogmas Day 01: First Okinawan Food

- Blogmas Intro: Japan Trip

I HEART NYC

Went on holiday last week to fabulous New York City.  I was in full-on tourist mode and did all the big main sites! I'm still very much exhausted and slightly jet-lagged but of course I took a sketchbook with me and doodled whenever I could.  I never bothered to take any water-colours with me because my shoulder bag was already so heavy with travel junk so my sketches are definitely lacking some colour and the one main advantage to drawing in cold weather are the several pockets in your jacket you can use to hold drawing tools, so summer in New York meant no jacket so an A5 sketchbook in one hand, a brush pen and graphite stick in the other, a heavy bag on my shoulder and a big SLR camera around my neck :3

 

View from a window at the MOMA, you weren't even allowed to draw with pens at this museum and most of these places were incredibly overcrowded but I managed to find this sweet spot at the MOMA to draw this view because this window hid behind a wall where most people thought the exhibition ended not realizing that there was another display behind it! :)

 

Rodin's Adam at the Metropolitan Art Museum

I bought these brush pens in Kinokuniya, a big Japanese book/stationary by Bryant park and they're meant for Japanese/Chinese calligraphy.  I'd tried different ones before but this shop had 'testers' of all their different pens, which was how I found this one and I think I've finally found a brush pen that I love and love drawing with! I've tried every available brush pen at my local art shops but all their nibs crap-out on me after not much use.  I wish I bought more from the shop in New York so hopefully I'll be able to get them online.

 

Leopards at the American Natural History Museum.  Great displays of wild animals that you would rarely get to see, at least not still and in a great pose! :)

 

Spider Monkey at the American Natural History Museum.

 

View from a window on the fourth floor at the American Natural History Museum.

 

People sitting outside Macy's.  Didn't do too much drawing of people but this was me experimenting with drawing figures with that brush pen really.

 

Spent our last day at Central Park.  It was a perfect day for it and I were so tired from the week that it meant after a little exploring around the park, I could just sit for a couple hours and draw.  Real bummed that I didn't have water-colours with me though! 

 

Highlights for me was definitely walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, we walked across from Brooklyn to Manhattan, just as the sun was disappearing, it was really a magical way to view the Manhattan skyline and then watching Polina Semionova dance with the American Ballet Theatre and the Metropolitan Opera House was a dream come true.

 

Zoo Sketches

It is so outrageously sunny in Scotland just now.  I had the computer running at half ten this morning and I was preparing for a day of animation but then I decided that I needed to get out, so I drove up to the zoo and had a fun drawing day.  Spent most of my time in the outdoor enclosures, of course.  It was so nice to be drawing out in the sun! :)

Sketches

My first assignment at Animation Mentor was to take sketches in a public place and then pick our favourite sketch to pose our character in Maya.  I'll upload those sketches with the pose this weekend but because the character I'm posing is a fully grown human, I had a bunch of baby sketches in my sketchbook - when you sketch during the day at a shopping park, there are bound to be lots of babies!

Mela Sketches

Sketches from yesterdays West End festival.  I go every year for a wee sketch session, a big yummy burger and leave when it starts to rain, thats about 2-3 hours in the afternoon! :D

Summerlee Sketch

Quick sketch at Summerlee Industrial museum.   That's me getting back into more location drawing again, I can't quite brave the cold yet but Summerlee was a place that I hadn't been to since I was really wee.  Once it warms back up again or atleast not freezing cold then I'll go back to draw around the builing, it's a great building.

York and Chester Zoo sketches

Two quick sketches from my wee trip to York last week, one of which was in the National Railway Museum. Spent more time shopping than sketching really, the town looks just like something from Harry Potter!


Also spent a day at Chester Zoo. I'm embarrassed at how much fun I had at this zoo because it just shows how little I've traveled to more exotic countries. Just a few sketches here but I did manage to fill up a whole book! Lots of great ideas and inspirations for fun little characters which I hope to create this week - there was this one orangutan that kept doing rolly-pollies!

Sketchcrawl