The Hiwasa Sea Turtle Museum — known locally as Caretta, after the loggerhead's scientific name Caretta caretta — is a small but earnest conservation centre on the seafront. The indoor exhibits cover sea turtle biology and the nesting cycle, with displays and video footage mostly in Japanese but comprehensible enough without translation. The real draw is the live animals: indoor tanks hold hatchlings and juveniles, while the outdoor pool contains full-grown loggerheads that move with surprising speed when the keeper approaches with food.
Loggerhead turtles come ashore on Hiwasa's Ohama beach from late June through August to lay eggs. During the nesting season the beach is cordoned off after dark, and the museum organises guided night walks for visitors who want to watch a turtle laying — a surreal, slow-motion spectacle if you time it right. The museum releases hatchlings into the sea each year, and the aquarium pool has tag-tracked turtles whose ocean journeys can be followed online.
The museum is a short walk south of Hiwasa Station along the seafront. Entry is inexpensive and children's explanatory materials are available in simple Japanese. If you visit in winter, the turtles are still there in the pools even though the nesting season is over.