Today we got up and rode the Shinkansen bullet train to Niigata. The trip takes about 2 hours and goes through an area with beautiful mountains on each side. The valley is not much to look at. It’s all rice fields.

On arriving to Niigata, we stopped at Mr Amano’s house to see the garden and the famous 10,000L (?) Aquarium. It was hard to get a picture. There was lots of glare and about 15 people trying to get pics. The garden is beautiful. A very natural setting. A lot like what you would see in the south around a creek. We met Mrs Amano and we were invited to sit and have tea and snacks. The room that aquarium is in is not as big at it seems in the pics. It’s an impressive room with the aquarium and garden none-the-less.

We left Mr. Amano’s home and went to the Nature Aquaium Gallery. It is definitely just as impressive as in the pictures. The planted tanks are beautiful, green, and healthy. There is about 20 large tanks and maybe 15 small ones. There is also 2 salt water tanks. Sorry about the bad pics. It was very hard to take anything. Two walls of the gallery are glass, the floor is very shiny, and there are aquarium lights everywhere. So all you can get in the pictures is glare off the glass. Upon entry into the gallery there is a tank that is about 9 meters (12+ feet long) It’s amazing. Low foreground plants in the whole tank with a few hundred cardinals.

Note here, I went back and forth between taking pics in the gallery and watching the aquascaping demonstration. That is why the pics are mixed together.

After awhile at the gallery, Mr. Amano had an aquascaping demonstration. He commented that it was a new type aquascape and that there were none like it in the gallery. It had a sand foreground and many layers of plants in the back with driftwood. The driftwood was covered in moss and anubias. The first few layers past the foreground was 5 different kinds of crypts. Similar species were grouped together with different species on the left and right for contrast. The usual stem plants were in the back. I’m not sure the major difference, but maybe one of you can point it out. I think maybe it was just different than what was currently sitting in the gallery.

After the aquascaping demonstration we went to a restaurant and had a traditional Japanese supper. It was a lot of fun. Ricky and I only like beef and potatoes, but we had a good time. The Japanese definitely know how to party. You haven’t lived until you’ve heard “Day Dream Believer” sung in Japanese on Karokee. COMPAI !!!

When we finally got to the hotel, I fell in the bed. Ricky stayed out with Oliver, the other Germans, the Poles, and the others.