Miraikan - The Museum From The Future

20th August, 2010 - As mentioned in the previous post, we had come to Odaiba so that my wife could catch up with a good friend of hers (who was temporarily back in Japan). Whilst we were there, I was going to take my son to Miraikan... the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation....

Now this is perhaps a little too old for my (then) 3 year old son... but there was at least one very good reason to go...

Asimo. This robot, first developed in 2000, has become a star attraction. Not just in Miraikan, but is globally famous. And oddly enough, is a child of Honda, the car manufacturer. Asimo - and here I'm pretty sure there's a whole army of them out back - performs every hour or so. And the the shows are always packed (especially in the holidays). And I mean packed. The good thing is that they have an area down the front that is reserved for children (with an accompanying adult) to at least be able to get a good look.

  The routine is quite enjoyable (and no, you don't need to understand Japanese to enjoy)... with lots of movement demonstrations and even a spot of soccer ball kicking. One of the things I didn't understand was the fact that off to the side (out of shot) there appeared to be a man with a computer doing some sort of control. At the end of the day, I assume Asimo isn't quite all that autonomous...

Actually, as you might have guessed, robotics form a major component of the displays at Miraikan... including some disturbing "talking" robots engrossed in their own conversation... unfortunately the explanation given didn't seem to relate much to what was going on (had they decided to throw away the script?)

And of course - if you can't get a real Asimo, the next best thing? Asimo-mini.

Another big driver in the Miraikan displays are references to nature and the natural world. I think these bits are the more educational parts... although of course, you need to have time to talk with your children about what it all means.

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For example there was this complicated display of the different ecological cycles in nature  (though I did suspect that it may have also started out life as a Pachinko machine gone insane).

Now ... let's try and explain DNA to a 3 year old....

One of the more unusual displays was a rotating full-size scanner. You sit down and are rotated through a vertical scanner with the composite image displayed on a large LCD screen,

Actually, the Miraikan building also has a number of exhibitions throughout the year - and I thought we had hit gold when we discovered that the Science Behind Doraemon was going to on whilst we were there. Doraemon is a Japanese institution - a manga/anime character that has been thrilling Japanese children (and perhaps quite a few adults) since 1969. Doraemon is a robotic cat from the future, sent back in time to aid the fortunes of one young boy (and ancestor) Nobita. Doraemon has lots of wonderful gadgets (including a fourth dimensional pocket for storing all sorts of goodies, including an Anywhere-Door and a Bamboo-copter. 

It's a fun series, and L-kun loved it (and still does)... so I was hopeful that our son could have a great time here. And he sort of did... but it was also obvious that the hot weather was starting to take it's toll on him. 

So after a long day of running around, we left Miraikan - and I suspect we'll be back when it's not so hot. Actually, I have to admit that such was our overall exhaustion that L-kun and I had our first  real 'moment' walking back to Venus Fort (where my wife was shopping with her friend). I think you know that you're tired when you start arguing with your 3 year old son... sometimes it's easy to forget who is supposed to be the mature one.

T-chan shot the photo below as we returned... that my friends is the look of sheer relief from utter desperation. Survival. The day had so much already, and was lots of fun... but had quickly turned from laughs and excitement to lots of unhappy tears amidst the stinking hot Tokyo summer. And despite the tears, I can recommend visiting Odaiba! There's so much to do there it's not funny. 

Not all holiday moments are kodak-worthy, and some you want to forget (or at least re-do)... but that's also part of having a holiday. Experiencing the good, and the bad, together as a family.

Roppongi Hills... Big Bold and Eight-Legged Bronze?

 19th August, 2010 - After our fill of celebrity (Julia Roberts, why don't you write to me?), we had a bit more of a look around TV Asahi studios, though at that time of night, there wasn't much to be seen except for a faux-faux-Eiffel Tower (ok, Tokyo Tower might be taller, but will never quite capture the same feeling).



Right next to TV Asahi is the rather delightful surprising Mori Garden... snuggled as it were amongst the glass and steel, and looking beautiful under the artificial Tokyo electric sun in Roppongi.

Side Note: Roppongi is the suburb name, and comes from the Japanese 六本木 which means "6 trees", from roku (六) which means 6, hon (本) or long-cylindrical counter and ki (木) trees.... so why isn't it called rokuhonki?... well, the Japanese in their wisdom realise that some things just don't quite sound right, so they soften the sounds to form roppongi. See Japanese is pretty easy. The history was that the area was actually famous for 6 pine trees, but they were successively killed off and finally the last 3 were destroyed in WWII. In recent times Roppongi has been more synonymous with partying (especially by foreigners)... although strangely enough it's also the home of quite a few foreign embassies as well.

Actually the name, Mori, is sort of well used around this development, commonly known as Roppongi Hills. Mori refers to Mori Minoru (of the Mori clan) and now billionaire building tycoon who constructed the 4 billion dollar development in Roppongi.... the 54 storey Mori Tower being the most dominant part of the development. Whislt Roppongi might have a bit of a mixed reputation, Roppongi Hills is quite a swank location to go out for Japanese, and it also offers a great observation deck (at a pretty pricey 1500 yen) as well as an art gallery and a great selection of restaurants (ranging from reasonable to very expensive).

Just in front of Mori Tower, and just coming out of the Subway Station you will be immediately taken by a very special embassador to Roppongi Hills. Maman. This amazing bronze sculpture which stands some 10m high, straddles the open plaza and entrance to the Mori Art Gallery. It was created by French artist, Louis Bourgeois (1911-2010) who actually intended it to represent the spider aspects of his mother (of all things); a weaver, clever, protector of the family... and of course Maman is the french word for mother. It is used here however to signify that Roppongi Hills was the centre of the social web of Tokyo. It's infuriatingly Japanese in both it's sheer oddity and yet undeniable charm. Though as a last note, the sculpture exists in about 8 or 9 different locations across the globe, so you might yet bump into Louis' immortalised mother on your travels.

Overall, I enjoyed our evening with T-chan's brother in Roppongi Hills - it's a great place to socialise, to eat, see a bit of culture, and possibly head out for a party afterwards. It's also a great place to view that other Tokyo attraction... you guessed it, the real faux-Eiffel Tower, Tokyo Tower. And this view is free.

By the way, Ebisu Garden Place is just a quick train ride away and another great place to socialise. Note - you might also see Ebisu spelt Yebisu... don't get confused, but it's also a name of a beer. Hmmmm Beer.....

And one of the best things to do when you're thinking of beer..... hmmm... is to enjoy a meal of Jingisukan, or Mongolian Lamb BBQ - which is a speciality of my adopted home of Sapporo. And indeed, when in Ebisu Garden Place, you should definitely pop into the Sapporo Beer Station for a Sapporo beer and a slab of bbq'd lamb. Two of my favourite things.

Spare Days And Red Carpet Stardom

19th August, 2010 - Now our trips to Japan have recently focussed on my wife's home of Sapporo, Hokkaido since we had children. So this trip was a bit of a question mark for us. We didn't know how things were going to go in Tokyo with our son, L-kun. Solution, we had programmed a spare day into our itinerary. And after such a long day in Yokohama we needed it. Our plan was therefore to go to Shinjuku for some easy shopping and walking. Other than that, there was no plan, and little expectation.

There wasn't so much photography going on, and to be honest (and this may shock and dismay), I'm not that inspired by the area in terms of photographs anyway. It's a fantastic location for "street photography", but  there's a grimness to much of the endless concrete.

However, I know that the streets of Shinjuku are full of little moments... but when you're walking around with your family and it's very nearly approximating hell (hot and humid), your mind doesn't always go to photography as a priority.

So the photos I was taking were largely random, and largely a function of accidentally pressing the shutter release on the camera at approximately the right time as I was walking.

Now it might also surprise that when we go to Japan we don't necessarily eat "Japanese" food... and T-chan certainly fills up on home-cooked food when she returns to Sapporo. But often times - modern Japanese food differs quite significantly from the image. Normally our lunches are quite, westernised... 

And when visiting the Kirin City cafe, one should of course partake of the Kirin.. Beer. Yummy.

Now after an afternoon of shopping in Shinjuku (and mostly window shopping at that) we arranged to meet up with T-chan's brother in Roppongi Hills later in the evening. Like many workers in Tokyo, work doesn't tend to finish early, and it's often hard to make plans. Anyhow we had a while to kill, so we made our way over to Roppongi... the suburb that at least used to be synonymous with foreigners and bars and the sorts of activities that tend to accumulate around those two things.

Today however, it was a different thing that was becoming apparent. There was a huge number of women walking around in yukata - or a summer kimono-style dress. It's often worn in summer to attend fireworks in the evening - somewhat of a Japanese tradition. So I wasn't too surprised to see it today...

Though there was no mistaking that there were a lot of young women in yukata all of a sudden... no matter where you looked.

And they all looked like they were going somewhere, or meeting someone...

In fact, as we walked around Roppongi Hills, it started becoming apparent that this was no ordinary evening. This was ridiculous! There hundreds of them. It was like we'd stepped in on a yukata convention.

As we walked down around the block, we came across an even stranger sight. Seemingly hundreds more young women squashed in around a bon-odori stage. This was all right next to the TV Asahi studio building (where we were going to take L-kun to see the Doreamon shop (Doraemon being a very popular Japanese children's character).

L-kun and T-chan went into the shop to have a look around (and to make their own Doraemon character), whilst I milled around outside trying to make head-or-tail of what was going on.  

As the minutes went by, the crowd grew and grew... and the security guards became more agitated. Someone was coming... a big black limo pulled up, and who should pop out? Why Julia Roberts of course....

Meanwhile, L-kun and T-chan were obliviously having fun inside...

And Julia (somewhat un-relaxed looking... perhaps it was the heat), strolled down the red-carpet to be surrounded by the sea of screaming, camera-wielding, yukata-wearing womanhood.

The big screen was as close as this paparazzi-wanna-be was going to get.

And about 30 or so minutes later, it was all over, and the Julia was whisked off again to who knows where. The life of a star. I do wonder, what someone like Julia must think of the whole thing. As it turned out this was her first visit to Japan... promoting the movie Eat Pray Love. From what I saw, she was getting the 5 min culture-shock treatment - though perhaps she gets used to that.

Their screams vented, and normality returning, the sea of femininity parted... and finally dispersed, their Hollywood-star-lust satiated.

Time to relax...

And what came of the women... they just melted away into the night. I have no idea where they would have disappeared to... but they certainly had made for an impressive sight.

Of course, L-kun was none the wiser... and after a long evening of making Doraemon, was happily (obliviously) eating his hard-earned ice-cream.... I could be wrong, but I think Julia would have killed someone for an ice-cream to get her through the heat.

So it's interesting how spare days can turn out bizarrely unexpected. 

Minato Mirai 21 - The Future Is Now

18th August, 2010 - After a long, hot day in at Chinatown and then the Anpanman Museum, we walked over to one of our other favourite places in Yokohama. Minato Mirai 21, a typically Japanese entertainment district / business district / port facility that was developed out of land reclamation of Yokohama harbour. Actually the idea came out of the heady 1960's, when the future of Japan beckoned... but had to wait till the 80's when Japan's finances and near-orgasmic-desire-to-build knew no bounds. And thus, out of the sea was born a concrete and steel vista of grand proportions.

The tourist guide has a lot of information on Minato Mirai 21 here, and there's a lot to see and do (more so than we had time after a very busy day). 

View Tokyo Map in a larger map

Still, it was surprising just how rejuvenating it was for the sun to start setting... and as we approached Minato Mirai, the air cooled (not by much), and yet, the streets became strangely quiet. This part of MM21 is much more business oriented I guess, and by 6:30pm the streets were not quite a ghost town, but by Japanese standards it was pretty close.

Our first stop was World Porters, a large shopping complex on the "island" part of MM.... unfortunately no photos, so Google StreetView has come to the rescue. World Porters has a pretty extensive food court available, and is worth popping (along with the much larger Queens Square Towers).

Care of Google StreetView

Food court's are pretty well the same all over... the only thing that changes is the cost, the crowds and the cuisine (ok... that sort of means that every food court is different).

And if you're interested in what sort of prices food court meals are in Japan... well here you're looking at somewhere between 600 and 800 ¥ - in Aussie Dollars that would be approx AUD $7.50  - $10 based on today's rate (about 80 ¥ for each AUD).... drinks separate. 

Well, there was a pretty good selection here, though we went for something traditional. Steak! That's right people, not all Japanese food is the same. Then again, even a dishes like steak tend to take on a different, asiatic, flavour as you might expect.... and the verdict. Well, coming from Australia, where we like our steak big, thick and juicy, it was... ok.

Next stop was Cosmo World, a small amusement park that sports a couple of smallish roller coasters...

It's nice to see Australia front and centre!

 ...and one BIG Ferris Wheel... oddly named the Cosmo Clock.

From this angle it might seem slightly less odd... but for such a big Ferris Wheel (measuring around 100m) you'd think that putting a relatively small clock would not a HUGE clock make).

And some more gratuitous night shots...

L-kun was still a little tired after his long day...

Now, speaking of BIG... one of Yokohama's popular attractions is the Landmark Tower, which stands approximately 296m in height and is currently (at writing) Japan's tallest building and 3rd tallest structure. That's pretty impressive, given that Japan's constant earthquakes have tended to limit the construction of the super-skyscrapers that have developed around the world (in fact, this is only the 80th or so tallest building in the world today). There's a very good observation deck, known as the Sky Garden, on the 69th floor - and 273m high. This is reached through the fastest elevator in Japan... all designed to get you to the 360 degree panorama as fast as possible. That and to quickly unload you of the ¥1000 per adult (between ¥200 and ¥800 for children depending on the age). As we arrived here very late, we decided to give the Sky Garden a miss this trip.

When there's so many other places to visit - like the Ice World attraction, where you too can experience -30 degree temperatures, all whilst it's a hot sweltering 37degrees (with about 80% humidity) outside. With a wife coming from Sapporo, this was not something that we felt a great desire to experience.

One of the attractions that did interest however was this glorious Carousel as part of the even smaller amusement park, known as the Kids Carnival Zone. It actually astounded me that in the middle of a hot Japanese summer (one of the hottest on record back in 2010) that at 8:30pm, there was almost not a soul to be seen around MM21. I'm not sure if this was a sign of the economy, the weather or just the fickle Japanese punter, but for us it was a great night to be out and about. Even as tired as we were, hot summer nights can be fun. And this carousel captivated me, and my camera.

With such an inviting stairway, who could resist taking a ride?

But there were other things to do... a chat with Anpanman and Doraemon (two of L-kun's favourite Japanese children's anime characters)...

Or perhaps ride on a Baikinman (also a character from Anpanman) car... let's just say that this was one Japanese roadway that wasn't congested. At all.

Just down from the Carnival Zone, there's also a beautiful old four-master, the Nippon Maru, permanently moored in Yokohama harbour as a museum. The ship was made in the 1930's as part of Japan's merchant seaman training program. Eventually it was replaced in the mid 80's and since then has been gracefully educating us land-lubbers. Unfortunately opening hours are 10:00am to 5:00pm - so we'll have to take a rain-check on that as well (¥600 per person for high-school students and above, or ¥300 for younger students).

Heading back towards the Landmark Tower we came across a great little ampitheatre that was the home of some very funny and enjoyable street-performers... definitely worth checking out for some 'free' entertainment, but I'm not sure how regular it is. Right next to the ampitheatre is a wonderful modern sculpture known as the "Moku-Moku Waku-Waku Yokohama Yo-Yo" designed by Hisayuki Mogami in 1994. It, along with the Landmark Tower, is a symbol of the Minato Mirai 21 - which was actually a popularly voted name that means the roughly the Future Port of the 21[st century]. MM21 is a modern development and there's much to like about it... but the name also tells you something more... this is, after all, a working port. As we walked around, it certainly felt more like a business district than a life-centre. But perhaps we saw it on a bad night (it was a Wednesday after all).

So as we made our way back to the train station in the Queens Square Tower complex, it was interesting to reflect on our first full day in Tokyo this trip. It was an amazing day - but also exhausting. As we travelled down one of the longest escalators I've been on (and not that enjoyable for someone who doesn't like heights), I looked up to see a happy care-free Snoopy floating past, suspended mid-stride. There are many things that inspire in Japan, and also things that defy explanation. Japan is an amazing country however, filled with many different possible experiences all able to be enjoyed in a single day. Yokohama is one such place, a short train-ride out of Tokyo (though you may not realise that it's a separate city) that is well worth visiting if you've got a spare day - or night. 

Like many places in Japan, built on the promise of an the inexhaustible Future (during the hey-day of Japan's prosperity) there is a sense of modern exuberance and flamboyance... but as the Future collides with the Now in these places (such as MM21 and Odaiba in Tokyo), you realise that Japan is as much a contradiction in perspective as culture. It was the dream of a cleaner, brighter, taller and stronger tomorrow that drove it to build... but one also can imagine that sometimes, just sometimes, people were not always the most important (or even necessary) in that vision of the future... and then again, sometimes that vision needs to be re-interpreted to meet the needs of an increasingly changing Japan.