Science Lesson Anyone?

January 5, 2017

So after having about ten days off in Houston, I got to return back to a few more days of holiday with one of my favorite people, my boyfriend. He is currently living in Nagoya so as soon as I landed in Osaka and dropped off some things, I hopped on a 2.5 hour train to Nagoya. I know, tiring and long day it was but it was important to see him and also get to spend the following day together as our off days rarely ever coincide.

So on Thursday the 5th, we spend the afternoon at the Science Museum in Nagoya. I had once before tried to come here on an earlier trip to Nagoya but had put it off once seeing the long ticket line and swarms of young kids. Being that it was now a Thursday, we figured it wouldn't be so crowded. We were wrong. It was still very crowded.

But before all of that, we had to be fed! One of the things my boyfriend likes to do together often is get "proper breakfast." That sounds funny but it's actually something I really enjoy too. Japan doesn't really have breakfast culture like in the West, so finding a place to get breakfast, at breakfast time, is actually difficult. We ended up going to Elk Cafe at about 10 am, right when they opened. I had seen an Elk Cafe in Osaka but never got the chance to go. Once we got seated, we ordered a couple dishes to share, an eggs Benedict and strawberry tiramisu pancake. The eggs Benedict was good but nothing special, the pancakes on the other hand were unlike any pancake I've had before. Firstly, the pancakes took thirty minutes to make and they were the fluffiest things ever! I'm sure you've seen online postings or videos about the famous fluffy pancakes in Japan before. Well let me just tell you, it's nothing like you're used to. The pancakes were more like a cake/dessert than breakfast meal. Ours was served with a generous serving of whip cream and syrup as well. It was super yummy and between the two of us, we finished three fluffy ones! I was so stuffed after breakfast so it was a good thing we were doing some walking before going to the museum.

The Science Museum of Nagoya had different price options for adults. It ranged from 800 yen to 1,800 yen. We chose the 1,800 yen option which included the museum, current exhibit and planetarium. I've gone to the science museum in Houston many times and knew it would probably be more geared toward kids, but figured it would still be fun to go.

Even though all the signage was in Japanese, me and Caoliang still found it enjoyable. We went through the many floors of the museum, touching and playing with the different displays. We couldn't really understand anything we were doing, so I think we went by the museum section faster than a normal guest. I didn't mind though because the current exhibit was what I was most excited for.

TeamLab is this group who makes art that is interactive and plays largely on light. In this particular exhibit, there were a couple different rooms and things you could interact with. The first was the room with a projection of many flowers. The flower projections would move around the room and was accompanied by relaxing music. Me and Caoliang pulled out our cameras to take photos and blend in with the flowers.

My boyfriend is also doing this "backflip a day" project, which, if you couldn't guess, you basically do a backflip a day and film it. In the end he intends to make a pretty cool video with it so I'm eager to see how it will turn out in the end of the year. Anyways, I got to help him with some filming and being that we were in this pretty cool space, we thought it would be fitting to try to get some flips in. It was funny holding the camera and trying to watch him wait for a decent amount of space not to kick anyone while flipping. I also find it funny people's reaction after when a random dude just back flips out of no where. So after a quick flip and a few pictures, we moved onto the next room.

The next room included three walls of projections and a line of bean bag chairs in front of it. It was suppose to be a calm, reflective one where you just sit, watch and listen to it versus take photos in front of it. The images were cool and having a place to sit for a second was nice as well.

The third room was much bigger than the ones before. It actually included large projections on each of the walls with each having a different kind of interaction. The first wall we came upon was the large projection of a natural scene with symbols that fell from the top. When I watched other kids jumping and touching the symbols I understood how the interaction was suppose to work. So you touch the symbols and they would either transform the scene or things would come from them, like a bunch of birds or trail of fire. I felt like a big kid trying to jump and touch these falling symbols but the whole part of the exhibit was to interact so why not!

Another interaction in this room was a light river that when you jump on the shapes it would sparkle into the water. It was kind of like stepping on stones in a river and making a splash. I didn't partake in this though but there was a line of kids that had lots of fun running through the "river."

The biggest part of this room was a two part thing: a large projection on a wall with hand drawn cars, planes, houses and rockets along with many tables with lights and coloring sheets set out before the wall. After observing a bit, we understood that you could color a coloring sheet anyway you liked, have it scanned in right there, then see your drawn object in the projection on the wall. That was pretty cool and many people filled the tables to draw their own objects.

The last part of the exhibit was the most beautiful. Even though it was small and it was a bit frustrating not being able to stay in it longer, it was really magical looking. It was basically a small corner walk way with strings of light from ceiling to floor. The magic part was the mirrored walls made it seem like the strings of light were infinite. Luckily, we got a few photos and even a backflip in before we had to make out way out. It's really amazing what mirrors can do and the illusions they give us.

Soon it was 3:20 and we had to make our way to the 6th floor for the planetarium show. I had been to a planetarium ages ago when I was a kid in Houston and knew it would be a projection show on a dome but was curious to see how it would be in Japanese. I was really expecting something visually interesting but what we got was a 50 minute science lesson about stars which was incredibly boring and even more so because we couldn't understand much. With the little Japanese I know, I got some things but just the way the presentation was did, I felt like even for people who understood it, it was boring. Caoliang took it pretty positively and used the 50 minutes to take a nap.

After seeing everything we wanted to see in the museum, we decided to check out another Nagoya attraction. But before we did, we grabbed a bite to eat and then went back to the hotel to get more clothes. The temperature was dropping and being that the next attraction was outside, we needed more layers to keep warm. The next place we wanted to go was a thirty minute bus from Nagoya station and was this much advertised light tunnel. Like I said before, my boyfriend and I rarely have off days that are the same so we waited till this day to check this tunnel out. Unfortunately, we checked the bus schedule right at the time the last bus was leaving. Yup, you guessed it. We missed it. The tunnel will still be lit through March so hopefully we will have another chance to go. I guess it just wasn't our night.

Even though we didn't get to make all the events we wanted to see, it was still a really nice first day back in Japan. So I was happy with what we did get to see and the photos and videos we did get.

Well thanks for reading till the end and I hope everyone is having a splendid 2017 so far!!


xx
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