Oita Marine Palace Aquarium "Umitamago"

Umitama and dolphin shows are excellent.
Be there earlier than show time to get seats.
Many others to have experience with sea animals.

This place is amazing! It has a great area for toddlers/kids to play, too. Parking is cash only and upfront. You can purchase tickets with a credit card, and 1 of the 2 restaurants accepts cards, too. We highly recommend watching the dolphin performance and the walrus/ sea lion performance. I'd plan to spend at least 4 hours if you want to do it all.

Great place to enjoy and learn about sea creatures. There are also hourly shows with pelicans, walrus and dolphins. Feel the wet and rough skin of the walrus and the slimy stingray. Depending on how long you take to admire the fish and mammals, it takes around 1.5h to complete the tour. Amazing seeing all the fish, sea lions, penguins and eels.
Remember to get the ticket 2840yen with transport + monkey mountain.
Entry Price 2300yen

Not that big as normal aquariums but still a cosy and fun place especially for kids. Dolphin show was wonderful. Not a lot of tourists too so you can get close to the exhibits. Once you're done you can even check out the monkeys across the road.

Unexpectedly large aquarium easily accessed by bus from Oita city or Beppu. Entry fee is 2600 yen for adults, and it is right next to the Takasakiyama monkey park, making for an easy 2 in 1 trip. Good range of animals on display, including walruses, sea lions, sharks, dolphins, and stingrays. Great place to take the family or go on a date. A cafe is also attached, along with a small children’s play area. Information is mainly displayed in Japanese.

Love the walrus show. Mi chang is so cute.

Exceeded my expectations! One of the most interesting aquarium I’ve ever visited. Shows and animal performances were very entertaining and engaging. Audience can sit at the open theatre to get close to and get a glimpse at the performing animals, for example, a sea otter, a swarm of sea lions and a pelican, and their trainers! Animals are very smart and tame. After the show, audience can even touch the performing giant lion which has a rough skin like sand paper! Visitors can also touch and hold live sea stars and sea cucumbers for pictures, which is very educational and exciting. On top of this, there’re rays in the open tanks where visitors can touch and observe closely.

Wonderful aquarium to spend time with kids. The kids can touch some live sea creatures, such as starfish and cucmbers.
Remember to check the time for show before visiting the aquarium.
They offer pearl workshop for kids where you can make your own accessories with the pearl.

They have walruses! They were trained to perform! Quite amazing.

Another great aquarium.

Beautiful place. Beyond expectations. One of the best aquarium I have ever visited. Shows and animal performances are very entertaining and interesting. Don't miss the shows of course! Children will love the shows and learn about many fishes. Audience can sit at the open place and enjoy the show. You can also touch the performing seal. Dolphin shows are also entertaining. One of the unique things I found is that you can find pearls from snails and use them to make jewellery(ring, pendant). It took 20 mins only. There is also restaurant and souvenir shop.

There is a large aquarium where you can relax watching the rays and sharks swim gracefully. There are places for children to play, so families can enjoy it.

It s a very interesting place, the shows are excellant!

Umitamago is a wonderful aquarium with a lot of English help. Most signs are written in English and the staff is super helpful! The menus at the cafes (both the second floor and the first floor) have English options.

The classical music that plays throughout the whole aquarium is very nice and calming and the whole building just makes me calm.

The dolphins are really smart! Great trainers. The sealion walking around was really hardworking. When it reached the sealion exhibit, the one inside turned upside down and looked at him with very large surprised eyes. Haha! "Dude, how did you get out?"

Note: if you are visiting I recommend getting the pass from the tourist office at Beppu Station that gives you tickets to the aquarium, monkey park ticket (across the street from the aquarium) and bus tickets for a round trip to the area from Beppu Station.

A very fun aquarium with most activities than most others. There’s the usual feeding of the animals, but after the shows (which are short but entertaining) you can feed and/or pet the walrus, get your nails decorated, find pearls, go to the small beach (mostly for children) right next to the dolphins. Some of the activities are free, others where you get something aren’t. The aquarium is bigger then it seems with a lot of different animals.

We are annual members every year here. Excellent aquarium and membership gets you into the Tsukumi dolphin park for free.

Great fun for the family, wonderful live shows, allot of huge aquariums to enjoy. Take your time and enjoy all the aquatic lifes.

It's like smaller version of Sea World in San Diego. Less attractions and way smaller than that though. Still, this place is very decent to visit with kids. Just one thing. When it's Summer, please be ready to hydrate yourself. Extremely humid and hot. Lol

Excellent aquarium. There are many shows throughout the day. The views of the sea are gorgeous and all of the marine animals are taken care of extremely well. As for souvenirs, I highly recommend the small egg shaped cakes. They are amazing.

Large selection of marine and fresh water species. The main attraction was a large tank containing large selection of marine species.