The twitter account of an aquarium is willing to stoop to some serious lows to get more patrons. Literally!

Katsurahama in Kochi prefecture is a beautiful beach, spread out along the southern coast of the area and easily accessible from the capital by bus. Kochi is famous for katsuo tataki (lightly seared bonito fillet), feet-achingly long street markets and being the birthplace of Edo-period hero Sakamoto Ryoma (with a fittingly awesome statue of him to pay tribute). But Katsurahama has another prize attraction, and it seems like it isn’t generating as much revenue as of late.

Katsurahama Aquarium was built in the 1930s and makes its money by teaching us all about the wonderful world of the sea. Open 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. every day of the year, it boasts more than ten separate sections populated with about 250 kinds of specimens (plus one happily sliding seal).

So where are all the customers?!

Here’s the desperate plea that Katsurahama Aquarium staff posted on their corporate Twitter.

“Please come and have fun at the aquarium! If the customer turnout stays this low, we aren’t gonna get paid our salaries!
We only get paid per customer!
#katsurahamaaquarium #katsurahama #hamaaqua #marinelifesquad #layingourselvesatyourfeet”

One of the tweet’s hashtags, dogeza, refers to most intense and humble bow you can give, where you prostrate yourself on your hands and knees to show deference to someone of a higher class. That guy on the far right is really going the extra mile though – a handstand will crush your face even further down into the gravel. Ultimate deference! He’s begging so hard!

But hold on, there’s another tweet.

“ \ we’re not actually paid per customer /

#katsurahamaaquarium #katsurahama #hamaaqua #sorryweliedfortheRTs #butreallydocomehavefun #likealways #marinelifesquad”

They signed off with a completely incomprehensible final tweet.

“Wuhhhhh-ohhhhhh! This wasn’t where I was trying to teleport toooooo!

#katsurahamaaquarium #katsurahama #hamaaqua #marunon”

Seen in this photo is Marunon, the boss of Katsurahama’s marine expert team. He’s clearly a beloved fixture at the aquarium, and features heavily in a lot of their promo material. Here he is advertising Golden Week at the aquarium.

“Ah, I shall spend even these gilded seven days at Katsurahama Aquarium…”

It’s clear to see that these guys love their job. One user in an in-thread conversation mentioned that while their selection of animals might not be the biggest in Japan, the cast members really make the experience come alive; when another user commented “[Customers don’t come] because your entrance fee is so high” the aquarium team gave this passionate response:

“Yeah, we get that a lot! The admission fee may be high but so are our standards for customer service, and we even raised the roof on our car lately so everyone has to look up high at that too! We’re really doing our best!
Here we really run a tough dictatorship where you might find yourself going home with an empty wallet but also you might think ‘Wow, that was more fun than I was expecting’. Please forgive us.”

The commenter responded with “Well, I guess I haven’t been in a while…and I do wanna get a new stuffed animal.”

They may be lying for social media, but at least they’re dedicated, polite and funny while doing so. Check them out if you’re in the Katsurahama area!

Related: Katsurahama Aquarium
Source: Twitter/@katurahama_aq
Featured image: Pakutaso