The Student Experience

Tokyo National Museum – Ueno, Tokyo, Japan.

Unicorn Gundam at Dive City Tokyo Plaza – Odaiba Island, Tokyo, Japan.

Sake Barrels – Meiji Jingu Shrine, Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan.

Day 3: Visit to Museums

On the morning of Day 3, we visited Miraikan, Japan’s National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation. The exhibitions in the museum occupy two floors: 5th and 3rd. The showcases on each floor were divided into sub-areas, such as “Lab”, “Universe”, “Tsunagari”, “Robot” and “Innovation”.

On the 5th floor, there were various exhibitions related to space exploration, elementary particle discovery, sustainable energy, life sciences and geo-data visualization. The “Lab” sub-area features projects such as the Akatsuki Venus Climate Orbiter, the Shinkai 6500 Manned Research Submarine, and the Subaru Telescope at Hawaii. The “Universe” section displays information about the SuperKEKB Particle Accelerator at Tsukaba and the Super-Kamiokande Neutrino Observatory at Mount Ikeno. Near the oval bridge, there is also an exhibit of a module of the international space station, revealing the life of astronauts in space.

Walking down the oval bridge, we can see the Geo-Cosmos, a 3D spherical display rendering geological information around the Earth, such as atmospheric conditions, migration of animals, and population demographics. The Geo-Cosmos is part of Tsunagari, a scientific communication project aimed to deliver geological information effectively to audience through visual displays.

At the “Robot” section on the 3rd floor, there are showcases of humanoid androids, and a live performance by ASIMO, a smart robot capable of handling tasks such as kicking football, dancing, using sign language and singing. The “Innovation” section exhibits trending scientific projects such as quantum computers, conductive polymers, bio-hybrid machines, nano-materials, and fine printing technology.

Overall, I find the Miraikan museum as a good place for the general public to learn more about recent scientific advances and technology at a starting level. To do this, scientific communication is important and the Tsunagari project is a wonderful model of visualizing informative data. Among the various exhibits, I am interested on the projects related to conductive polymers and nanomaterials, as these could be potential fields that I will do research in in the near future.

After our visit to Miraikan, we had lunch at DiverCity Tokyo Plaza. I had tsukemen, a ramen dish that I have to dipped my noodles in a separated bowl of soup before eating it. Outside the shopping mall is an amazing statue of Unicorn Gundam.

Next we head on to Ueno and split into two groups to visit two museums: Tokyo National Museum and National Museum of Nature and Science. I followed the group to Tokyo National Museum and over there, I explored the Japanese art gallery.

The Japanese gallery showcases art pieces from Japan and China, with a temporal evolution of Japanese art from the Jomon Era 12,000 years ago to the late 19th century. These various art pieces include buddhist statues, antique furniture, potteries, paintings, samurai armors, katanas, yukatas.

There were a few pieces that I found to be evoking and admirable, such as the serene buddhist statues, the beautiful design on potteries, and the realistic portrayal of Mount Fuji. As this is my first trip to Japan, the art museum is a good way and opportunity for me to explore about Japanese culture and history.

– Tan Zhao Siu

Ueno and what it had to offer

This morning was yet again another day full of exploration and learning. We all caught the monorail to Ueno Station. It was nice to see the views from the monorail of the industrial areas close to the sea.

To start off our day we headed to the giant Unicorn Gundam currently displayed in Yamashiroya. The inspiration this figure is derived from is not normally my cup-of-tea, but it still was pretty amazing to see. After some photos, we all gathered for a group photo and went and enjoyed a hot drink before making our way to Miraikan Museum a short walk away.

Miraikan Museum was filled with interesting information on developing or developed science, my brain just wanted to try absorb it all! The first spectacular encounter was seeing the Geo-Cosmos globe. The display of Earth shown on a sphere made with numerous little televisions hanging from the ceiling was just awesome. My other favourite thing here was being able to read about the numerous and impressive developments made. Areas with one after the other after the other. I could not help but feel inspired by how intelligent and bright people are to have such amazing ideas. The biggest standouts at the museum were the robots; Paro the therapeutic seal, the Otonaroid which scaringly looked like a real woman and of course ASIMO the humanoid.

The show for ASIMO was very enjoyable. From the moment ASIMO ran out into the sectioned off stage I immediately felt an unexpected joy. I think this surprised feeling stems from the impression already made up in my mind. That being, ASIMO is just a robot and will not be anything much from advanced technology and potentially part of a future where humans may not be comfortable around robots. I already knew it is truly ground breaking to have managed to build a robot, but did not expect the fun interactive side to it. I thoroughly enjoyed watching ASIMO show off the skills it contains; kicking a ball, hopping on one foot and doing Japanese sign language as it sang a song.

After some lunch the next adventure came with the group splitting into two. My group went to the Tokyo National Museum and the other group went to visit the National Museum of Nature and Science. My group took in the ornaments, statues, figures and even mummies from the Asian History gallery display. I found it insightful to walk around an exhibit that showed all the old artefacts. Always makes me wonder how people back then were able to produce such beautiful pieces. I loved seeing the two mummies laying side by side and all the statues related to tombs.

From today I have gathered that Japan once again is able to be well inclined with technology, in particular their specialty of advances in robotics, whilst staying in touch with the history at their other museums.