I have been to three aquariums in these two years. Churami Aquarium in Okinawa. Kagoshima Aquarium in Kagoshima. Enoshima Aquarium in Kanagawa. I think once you do something for enough times, you will start to build a resume in this area.

I won’t exactly call myself an aquarium person though. Pre-marriage, I visited the aquarium at Sunshine City in Tokyo with my high school classmate. I marveled at how the management could keep sea creatures properly in the middle of a bustling shopping mall. I assumed that was it; I wouldn’t have reason to visit another aquarium in Japan in my lifetime.

The winds of fate intervened. I found someone and we not only got married, but also had kids. When you have kids, your travelling style turns topsy-turvy. You’ll find yourself doing stuff that doesn’t rock your boat again and again - for the sake of your children.

Thus lies the difference between kids and adults. Children find the world fresh and exciting, and they are only too happy to repeat an experience profusely, indulging in the dopamine rush. But surely that comes a point when they grow up and become desensitised to the experience. No matter how delightful future iterations of the experience can be, they will find it hard for their hearts to be moved. Heart cells can remember stuff apparently, so maybe that’s how the phrase “tugged the heartstrings” came about. When someone is done often enough, it loses its novelty and becomes trite. Skyrocketing its way towards irrelevance.

How do we keep our heart fresh as adults then? Maybe one way is to remember one thing that is unique about a particular experience so that it doesn’t get entangled in your intertwined web of fuzzy memories. That way, you can tell yourself that you didn’t go through the same experience for nothing.

Churami Aquarium is spell-binding because of its gigantic jinbei zame (whale shark). I liked Kagoshima Aquarium because it has a child-friendly corner for children to touch starfish with their parents. As for Enoshima Aquarium, I loved how the dolphins were displaying their acrobatics amidst the soft orange glow reflected by the sea, thanks to the setting sun.

Or maybe there’s no need even to find the unique value proposition of an experience because I am creating fond memories for my children. And that’s all that matters.