Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan

The Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan opened in May 1990 on the waterfront at Tempozan in Minato-ku, as part of the redevelopment of the Osaka Bay area. Its concept and exhibits were designed by Peter Chermayeff of Cambridge Seven Associates, and the whole building is themed on the Pacific Ocean and the volcanic Ring of Fire that surrounds it. According to the city's tourism office it holds around 30,000 creatures from more than 600 species.

The route is the clever part. You take an escalator to the eighth floor and then walk down floor by floor to the fourth, passing a sequence of habitats from the Ring of Fire region, among them the Aleutian Islands, Monterey Bay and the Great Barrier Reef. All the way down you keep returning to the central Pacific Ocean tank, which holds 5,400 cubic metres of water and is about 9 metres deep and 34 metres long, so you see the same sharks, rays and shoals of fish from the surface down to the seabed. The stars are the whale sharks: Kaiyukan was the second aquarium in the world, after the Okinawa Ocean Expo Aquarium, to keep them.

Allow about two hours. Opening hours vary through the year, with last entry one hour before closing, and the aquarium closes on a small number of irregular days, including two days in January, so check the official calendar before you go. Ticket prices also vary by season, and e-tickets are sold online, which saves queuing at the counter on weekends and holidays. Feeding times are posted on the website but can change at short notice depending on the animals.

Kaiyukan works well for families with children, couples and anyone interested in marine life, and it is a good wet-weather choice. Weekday mornings are usually calmer than weekends.

The aquarium is about five minutes' walk from Exit 1 of Osakako Station on the Osaka Metro Chuo Line. Next door is the Tempozan Marketplace shopping and dining complex, built as part of the same bay-area redevelopment, which is handy for lunch before or after your visit. Universal Studios Japan lies across the harbour, so some visitors combine the two over a weekend.