Numazu Deep Sea Aquarium Coelacanth Museum
It is a rare aquarium in the world specializing in deep-sea species, located near Numazu Port, about 15 minutes by bus from JR Numazu Station. As may be expected of being expert, it has the largest number of deep-sea species exhibitions in Japan.
I very much enjoyed walking through the Numazu Deep Sea Aquarium on a recent outing. Although I have lived near Numazu for many years I never took the time to see this Aquarium thinking it was mostly for kids. It's not. It's a place for kids an adults to learn about the fish inhabiting the deep blue waters just a stone's throw from the marina where the museum is located. Its two frozen coelacanths can be seen through the windows of a spotlessly clean room that is always kept at -20 deg C. How they keep the windows from frosting I haven't a clue, but the effect for the viewer is an up close, clear, 360 deg look at a "living fossil", an extremely rare creature that hasn't changed much at all in the last 50 million years. In fact, no living coelacanths were known to exist until 1938 when one was brought up accidentally in a fisherman's net. The Numazu Deep Sea Aquarium is the only aquarium/museum in Japan able to display them in a frozen state where you can see every detail of the fish's scales, fins, eyes, mouth etc. that are usually not preserved well in taxidermy specimens. The museum also has three taxidermy specimens, but the two frozen ones are a must see for fans of the deep blue sea.