Japan's largest aquarium by tank volume occupies a sweeping wedge-shaped building on the central pier of Nagoya Port. The signature exhibit is the bottlenose dolphin and false killer whale pool — the largest dolphin tank in the world when it opened in 2001, with a five-deck stadium viewing arena and underwater windows that let you swim eye-to-eye (almost) with the largest cetaceans in captivity in Japan.
A second wing houses Japanese coastal species, an emperor penguin colony (one of the country's most successful breeding programmes), and a sea-turtle nesting beach exhibit. The port area around the aquarium has been redeveloped with an open-air shopping mall, a Lego-themed indoor playground, and a small antarctic museum (the original 1956 expedition ship Fuji is moored permanently here). Nagoyako Station (Meijo line), 15 minutes from Sakae.