英語雑記：「都市型水族館」とは何か？
水族館は好きですか？
2023年の7月に札幌のど真ん中にできたばかりの「都市型水族館」に行ってきました。私はどちらかというとこういう娯楽施設に率先していくタイプではなく、家族のリクエストに応じる形で、特にこれという期待もなく生ぬるいモチベーションで行ってきたのですが・・・これが、とても良かったのです！水族館自体は比較的好きなほうで、昔、葛西臨海公園の水族館で、マグロの大群をずっと二時間くらいぼーっと眺めてたことがあるくらいなのですが、家族と出かけるようになってからはそんな酔狂で我儘なこともできないので、水族館でも動物園でも、個人的な楽しみを追求するような感じはもうずっとありませんでした。でも、このAOAO SAPPOROに行って、「ああ、これはひとりのほうが絶対楽しいやつだ」と、あの懐かしい感覚が蘇ってきました。
This week, we went to this newly built aquarium. It was placed in Tanuki-koji, a famous shopping street at the middle of city center in Sapporo. They say it's an "urban type aqua museum". Except its location, I didn't suppose what it mean, but I came to know to how they could say so. That was really urban.
Ascending on the escalator, at the 4th floor of the building, a dim-blue lighted dark space suddenly showed up in front of us. The aquarium occupies from 4th to 6th floor. What do you expect for the aquarium? A lot of us usually expect the things like a flock of tunas in huge tank or a water splashing dolphin show. But there were no such entertainment. No sharks, no seals, no hippopotamus. The most dynamic exhibition was a pack of penguins walking or swiming in the pool. Most of kids would be bored soon as like my son. Yes. Because they seemed to set their modest collections not for kids, but rather for grown-ups. You would understand once you get into those rooms beautifully designed by some concept each other. It's rather like a museum than an aquarium. A kinds of little marine lives were moving in the little unique shaped tanks. There were also bunch of books about marine and lives here and there. You can read those books on the benches. Yeah, there were lot of benches here and there all the floor. No need to keep walking. Sit and rest in the dark as you like, looking the colored tiny tropical fishes swiming in the bright water tank. Thirsty? Hungry? Nothing worry. There is a bar between the penguin's pool and jellyfish's tanks. Beer, sparkling wine. Sausages, potates, and a kinds of danish breads. It's so that fun to watch jellyfishes floating as sipping beer. It wasn't an aquarium anymore. It might be better to call a huge dinning bar with the water tanks and a little library.
Unfortunatelly, I had a heavy headache at the time, and my son got bored so soon, I couldn't take a sip of beer. I sweared that I'll be back all by myself. A lot of weird marine lives, unique books, benches in the dark, and a beer in the plastic cup are calling, waiting for me. AOAO sapporo is the pretty good place. If you visit Sapporo, just hit it!
普通の水族館ではない他の証拠として、ここは夜10時まで営業してるんです。僕がやりたいなーと妄想してるのは、会社（ここから徒歩5分）の帰りにふらっと寄って、適当にソーセージとか食べながら、ビールを飲んで、クラゲや変な海藻とかヤドカリとかを見て、またビールを飲んで、海洋学の本なんかをペラペラめくって、またクラゲを見て、それでプロジェクションマッピングの部屋でぼーっとしているうちに眠くなってきて・・・というやつですね。まさに大人のための都市型水族館。入場料が高いんですが、いつかやってみよう。
あと、いまは無いようですが、年間パスポートを作ってほしいです。そうですね、1万円なら余裕で買います。3万円なら、少し悩んでから買うと思います。8万円だと・・・？