Taiji 

• Taiji has a rich cultural and natural heritage, with beautiful surroundings.
• Our first impression of Taiji was that of a ghost town – deserted, abandoned, with whale sculptures and signs of whales everywhere. Inhabitants of larger cities we reached out to seemed to be blissfully unaware of the cetacean slaughter in Taiji. The town seemed to deliberately keep a low profile.
• The only two foreign tourists we met after four days at the hotel were completely oblivious to the slaughtering situation. They had come to hike in the mountains.
• The local businesses, restaurants and hotels seemed to be suffering from the lack of clients. The financial motivation behind the slaughtering did not seem to benefit the town as a whole.
• The police kept the few visitors closely watched at all times. While in town, we were halted and questioned thoroughly – including about our dietary preferences. The rare civilian passers-by seemed suspicious of us, showing hostility and angry looks.
• From the hotel, we were able to view areas of restricted access to the whale museum.
• Outside our hotel, a whaling boat with its clamp to catch whales was displayed. The same kind of boat is still used today.
• What happens in the whale museum?. We only found out after entering! We witnessed the ceaseless training of dolphins and melon-headed whales for export purpose. The animals were held captive in either small dirty tanks or in small cages for training purposes.
• The dolphins were only fed a few small fish from time to time, which is unlikely to be sufficient amount of food.
• The trainers were young and seemed proud to have dominion over the dolphins, standing and surfing on them while teaching them tricks for marine parks.
• The park’s employees seemed particularly stressed about visitors taking photos and shooting videos. 
• In a crowded and dirty tank, four blind dolphins were swimming in an opposite direction from all the other dolphins.
• While overlooked by the park’s employees, the tourists often allowed themselves to feed and touch the dolphins. That practice put the animals at risk, making them particularly vulnerable to transmittable diseases and skin bruises. In summer, tourists could also learn to train and swim with the dolphins.
• We noticed a group of striped dolphins in a crowded old pool. As most of their mates, they followed a busy schedule, which included from 4 to 8 performances a day.
• In the bay, we identified a False Killer whale, a short fin Pilot whale, and a Melon Risso dolphin, 6-, 4- and 3-meter long, respectively, being trained simultaneously for the shows. The trainers would walk and step on them, and play high-pitched music continuously. The animals were granted no food or time to rest – they looked utterly bored and dejected.
• This so called “whale museum” contained so many cages with dolphins captured and forcefully trained nonstop.
• The entrance fee to the whale museum and to the dolphins was of 1500 yen – the equivalent of 10 euros.
• The whale museum displayed the whaling equipment (e.g. harpoons). They also provided a detailed explanation of the whaling history, and tradition of the killing process.
• The museum’s souvenir shop sold whale meat, among other items.