Japan Orca Parks - March 2006

 Kamogawa SeaWorld

So this was my first park and I can’t express how excited I was to be here. I first learnt about the captive orcas in 2003, and Kamogawa has been a staple park throughout all that time. It’s the OG orca park of Japan. And so I was super excited to meet Lovey and Lara who I’ve known since I was 11. When I arrived I went straight to the orca stadium and was delighted to see it was already open – as I’m accustomed to stadiums only being open at set times like Loro Parque. And there they were, the three girls – Lovey, Lara and Luna. They were lapping in unison when I arrived. I stayed at the glass the whole time before the first show – I probably did like a 1000 squats that whole day to get a good view of the orcas, as the underwater view requires getting low. It was so cool to see them hangout with each other and interact. It appeared that Luna and Lara were more of a pairing and Lovey occasionally did her own thing. I also noticed Lovey’s jaw injury which I later learnt happened when she and Lara were upset over Ran leaving. Poor girls. But I did also noticed that Lovey had some prominent rake marks down her side which I found curious. I also later heard that apparently Lovey isn’t the dominant female and the other two pick on her. This surprised me. Other than Lovey doing ‘her own thing’ more I never really observed behaviours that made me think they didn’t get along. I thought Lovey was hanging alone because she was the dominant one, not thinking it was because she was picked on. I did see Lovey and Luna ‘mouthing’ each other quite a bit but I didn’t think it looked aggressive. Only one moment it seemed the girls got a bit ‘feisty’ but it was over so quickly and it was too hard to see what was going on because of the splashes and water disturbance.

 Anyway, so obviously the significant thing about Kamogawa is that they still do waterworks in their shows – something I haven’t seen in 16 years. I’m not overly a fan of trainers standing on the orcas backs and faces, but it does look like the trainers do have a nice relationship with the orcas. And they height they can reach when the orcas propel them into the air is quite spectacular! It was also refreshing that the Kamogawa shows alternated their soundtrack every other show, unlike Loro Parque which does the exact same show format every singe time. And there were more shows than Loro Parque too. We were also not asked to leave the stadium in-between shoes either, so that was amazing – literally getting to camp out at the orcas all day! It was also super interesting to see what a hardcore ‘orca fan club’ there was at Kamogawa. Lots of locals with so much orca merchandise, proper cameras and just hanging out all day with the orcas. It was really cool – closest I’d seen that was my last trip to Marineland France but not really at the SeaWorld parks or LP. My only regret for Kamogawa was not going to the underwater restaurant – I saw the restaurant but had no idea that it had viewing glass to the orca pool. Shame. I just assumed it was above only access as the orca fans stayed up there.

 

Nagoya

Well I was sad that I would be visiting Nagoya with Earth no longer there. But what a great facility it is. I loved the opportunity to see Lynn all day either above or below water. The days I was there, Lynn spent the first half of the day in the back pools and then the second half of the day she had access to the show pool and one back pool. Honestly, wow. Seeing her in the show pool is incredible. What a huge pool! I wish all captive cetaceans (not just orcas) could live in pools this big. From my observations of Lynn, she was active all day. She wasn’t an overly lethargic orca floating lifelessly like I’ve seen some others. She was always moving and interacted with her two dolphin pool mates too. The trainers often gave her ice cubes in-between training sessions. She did two training sessions a day – the first in the back pools and the second in the show pool. The sessions were quite good at striving to be educational, unlike the Kamogawa ones which were purely for entertainment. An observation of the dolphins at Nagoya is they all seemed to have this stereotypical behavior of swimming upside down, blowing bubbles and then righting themselves to chomp on the bubbles as they rose. Even the one year old calf was doing it! And Lynn’s stereotypical behavior would be swimming the pool in loops – swimming upside down near the bottom of the pool and then swimming upright at the surface. She often had one or two dolphins accompanying her with this. It’s a shame she has to live without any other orcas company. We’ll see if she gains a companion again or not.. At Nagoya I also met Masumi-Chan, a nice Japanese lady. We communicated through Google translate, it was quite fun to talk about the orcas with her!

 

Kobe Suma Sea World

 So my last park was the newest of the Japan parks, almost marking two years of having orcas there. Of the three parks it was the most expensive, but has less to see. Perhaps because of having less to see this is why they had more shows. At the weekend which is when I went, there were 5 to 6 shows per day and longer opening hours. However I arrived and saw there was a Dine with the orcas buffet experience at the underwater glass which I reserved for Sunday dinner! So it was my first time to meet Stella who I had also known of for 23 years – Mama Stella. And then pretty daughter Ran. Stella appeared ‘sociable’ as before the shows she spent much of her time hanging out in front of the glass. Great photo opportunities for everyone. Whereas Ran was less social, spending more time floating by the wall.

 Like Kamogawa, Kobe also does waterworks with the orcas. Must’ve been interesting for Stella to re-train that after having so many years without it. The shows were shorter than Kamogawa – about 15 mins exactly, but I guess that’s what allowed them to have more shows in the day. However unlike Kamogawa we had to leave the stadium in-between the shows. And frustratingly I never knew how long the stadium was closed for. A staff member told me that the stadium opened 30 minutes before, but I found that it actually opened even earlier than that. I never figured out the exact time.

 As for Stella and Ran, they would lap the pool together at times but also spent time apart. I noticed Stella had rake arks, which again I was surprised about like with Lovey. Turns out that Ran isn’t always the nicest to her mother, which shocked me. I assumed Stella was the matriarch and they would co-exist peacefully as they are family.

 The second day at the park I made a friend – a fellow orca fan Alex who was there with his mum to also see all the Japan parks and the China ones too. It was so cool to chat about the orcas. We spent the day together and we had the same dinner reservation by chance. I got to join their table at the glass. It was so cool to dine with the orcas and see them from underneath. We also go to see the last show from this new point. Super cool to see the trainers in the water and the signals they give to the orcas via various body cues.

 

Yeah, so what a trip! I think the order I visited the parks is also the order I favour them from most to least. Kamogawa is just the OG park and Nagoya has the huge pools, whereas Kobe doesn’t have much to make it feel too special, apart from the underwater glass restaurant. No idea if I will ever come to these parks again, but so glad I did!