The Japanese are an intriguing people. They're always looking toward tomorrow, but remember never to forget the past. I've noticed this all over this foreign land. Day to day activities are footed squarely in the present and exemplified by modern technology, but values haven't deviated from the traditions of the past. Day 9 would show me just how far they've come and how much further they could go.
There was an illness going around our group. 1 student came onto the trip with a scratchy throat. Great. We all know where that leads. 23 students jammed together on an airplane for 12 hours and then jammed together on multiple buses over the course of a week going nonstop with everybody getting the least amount of rest possible? Somebody was gonna get sick. I went downstairs to the lobby of Keio Plaza to meet up with everybody. The group seemed smaller today. I was busy trying to hatch a shiny Eevee in Pokemon, so I didn't really realize what was going on until we were about to leave. The student who complained of strep throat symptoms had a mask over his face, as did his roommate. Uh-oh. The contagion was spreading.
They said that they wouldn't be joining us today due to illness. Fair enough. One of our chaperones had to stay behind to keep an eye on them, though. The clock was ticking, and we had to leave or we'd be late for our first appointment. I looked around. Where was Alice? Probably putting her makeup on or something. She had already been late for multiple rendezvous thus far, but today she was cutting it really close. Our tour guide had put up with plenty of shenanigans up until this point, but this time we had gone too far. Those damn lazy Americans not showing up on time. The Japanese are very punctual, you know.
After some investigation it turned out that Alice's roommate had fallen ill too. They slept through multiple alarms, completely missed the meeting time and now it was too late. They were to miss all of the day's activities. Shit. Well, at least they had a good excuse.
We had left pretty early today. It was only a little after 9 when we reached our first destination. This morning we would be treated to a performance of Nihon Buyo, or traditional Japanese dance. This was an art form that traces all the way back to the origins of Japan, and being able to see a master perform it up close and personal was yet another once in a lifetime opportunity. Our instructor this morning was a man named Nishikawa Minosuke. He began learning the Nihon Buyo from the age of three, and later went on to graduate from the Theater Course of Waseda University's School of Letters. But that's not all; after graduating he further studied in the UK for two years learning about Western history and literature. The complete package, to say the least. He spoke very good English. 2 years in London will do that, I suppose. It wasn't the way he communicated with his words that was impressive, but through his dance. Music is a universal language, after all. He was composed, yet fluid; strong, yet delicate. The conviction in his step was impressive.
Through the various dances he performed he took the guise of different characters. Some were female. He explained the differences between male and female characters, and how much more difficult it was to portray a woman. (and what the differences were between portraying a woman and a girl) You had to be so much more graceful. The most subtle movements make all the difference.
Then he wanted some volunteers to come on stage and perform the dances he had shown us. Uh-oh. Look, I'm no stranger to the stage. As a matter of fact, I usually take any chance I can to jump into the limelight and direct all attention to myself. Call me self centered but its just who I am. However, I'm not a fan of dance. I can respect the art form and I'm impressed by what people can do on the dance floor, (or stage) but when it comes to actually getting in front of people and dancing I'm about as white as a white person can get. Three groups of students went up on stage and repeated the master's performance. In between each take, the students in our group turned to me to go up on stage. Ha, no thanks! Its far too early in the morning to massacre an ancient cultural treasure.
The performance and lesson went by far too quickly. Even though I'm not terribly interested in dance, I know a rare opportunity when I see it and its a shame this one couldn't last just a little bit longer. To think how few people in the world are masters of this particular art form, and we basically got a private performance and instruction from one of them. My interest in traditional Japanese culture deepens.
The first half of Day 9 gave us a demonstration of a
tradition held over from Japan's past. During the second half, we would get a peek
into its future, but first we needed to eat lunch. It took place in an almost American style eatery that
pumped in covers of seemingly random Western songs without lyrics. Take into
account the fact that this restaurant was also in the middle of a giant mall
and I think we all felt a little more at home.
We got about an hour to explore the mall as well. By this point I was running out of money, so there really wasn't much to consider purchasing. That didn't stop me from buying an all Nintendo themed magazine, however. It had Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire on the cover, how could I just leave it there? I explored the mall some more and came upon a pet shop, but this was no ordinary pet shop...it was a Japanese pet shop. You know what that means, right? Interactivity! Japan's cat fetish comes into focus. Called Cat Plus, the shop had an area set up like a normal living room. I peered in through the window and saw 5 or 6 kittens, tiny fluffy adorable kittens, all running around loose inside. They had the entire place to themselves, it looked like, but after a little investigation I saw that you could pay to spend time in there. It was an interactive kitten room! Are you kidding me? Add this to the list of things we need in America.
We got about an hour to explore the mall as well. By this point I was running out of money, so there really wasn't much to consider purchasing. That didn't stop me from buying an all Nintendo themed magazine, however. It had Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire on the cover, how could I just leave it there? I explored the mall some more and came upon a pet shop, but this was no ordinary pet shop...it was a Japanese pet shop. You know what that means, right? Interactivity! Japan's cat fetish comes into focus. Called Cat Plus, the shop had an area set up like a normal living room. I peered in through the window and saw 5 or 6 kittens, tiny fluffy adorable kittens, all running around loose inside. They had the entire place to themselves, it looked like, but after a little investigation I saw that you could pay to spend time in there. It was an interactive kitten room! Are you kidding me? Add this to the list of things we need in America.
Our destination after lunch would be the last stop on the
Kakehashi Project's itinerary: the National Museum of Emerging Science and
Innovation. Yes! Sciency stuff! I love science. Not the actual practice of
science because I'm terrible at math, but the whole 'advancing our understanding
of the world and the universe' kind of stuff. Just stepping into the lobby, I could tell that this place
was a science geek's dream. It was an enormous windowed foyer surrounded by a
spiral walkway connected to all the different floors of the museum, and in the
center, hanging in what seemed to be mid-air, was one of the museum's main
attractions: a giant 1/2 millionth scale model of Earth.
But this is Japan! It was no ordinary 1/2 millionth scale model of the Earth. With a diameter of 6 meters, the globe was covered in 10,362 organic LED square panels that projected a highly detailed image of Earth's geography with accompanying moving weather patterns. The images across all of those screens came from weather satellites, reflecting an up to date portrayal of the present state of the Earth. It was amazing. As if an accurate representation of what the Earth looks like from space wasn't enough, at the top of every hour the globe would play an informative 15 minute movie. There were a bunch of different videos programmed into the geo-sphere. Some were a visualization of scientific data, such as a projection of future air temperature. Others were historical retrospectives such as the shape of the continents over millions of years or the migration paths of early humans. You know, real interesting stuff. The floor of the lobby had soft little mini couches so you could lay down while admiring the ever changing globe. We rested our feet until our tour guide came around to tell us our tickets were ready and we could explore the museum. Let the learning begin!
The top floor was themed to outer space and undersea exploration, so naturally that's where I headed first. There was a cafe right outside of the exhibit that served drinks and snacks. The final frontier was calling...but I could go for an ice cream cone first. It was a vanilla cone featuring sky blue whipped cream and pop rocks. Pop rocks! Emerging innovation, indeed.
The museum was fun but there was a lingering sense of depression in the air. The lack of Alice and the other students who were left behind at the hotel deflated us a bit. We tried to make jokes and poke fun at each other but...it just wasn't the same. To say the least, our enthusiasm throughout the day was subdued. No matter. I was surrounded by nifty science things. Surely Japanese innovation would keep me occupied. Hell, without distractions maybe I would actually learn something.
Indeed, there were far too many cool things to see. You could go inside a recreation of a room in the International Space Station, feel claustrophobic in one of those deep sea submersible research vessels or even monitor the constant shaking of the earth underneath the museum. Seriously, the geology of Japan is so kinetic that even though you can't feel it you're always shaking.
But this is Japan! It was no ordinary 1/2 millionth scale model of the Earth. With a diameter of 6 meters, the globe was covered in 10,362 organic LED square panels that projected a highly detailed image of Earth's geography with accompanying moving weather patterns. The images across all of those screens came from weather satellites, reflecting an up to date portrayal of the present state of the Earth. It was amazing. As if an accurate representation of what the Earth looks like from space wasn't enough, at the top of every hour the globe would play an informative 15 minute movie. There were a bunch of different videos programmed into the geo-sphere. Some were a visualization of scientific data, such as a projection of future air temperature. Others were historical retrospectives such as the shape of the continents over millions of years or the migration paths of early humans. You know, real interesting stuff. The floor of the lobby had soft little mini couches so you could lay down while admiring the ever changing globe. We rested our feet until our tour guide came around to tell us our tickets were ready and we could explore the museum. Let the learning begin!
The top floor was themed to outer space and undersea exploration, so naturally that's where I headed first. There was a cafe right outside of the exhibit that served drinks and snacks. The final frontier was calling...but I could go for an ice cream cone first. It was a vanilla cone featuring sky blue whipped cream and pop rocks. Pop rocks! Emerging innovation, indeed.
The museum was fun but there was a lingering sense of depression in the air. The lack of Alice and the other students who were left behind at the hotel deflated us a bit. We tried to make jokes and poke fun at each other but...it just wasn't the same. To say the least, our enthusiasm throughout the day was subdued. No matter. I was surrounded by nifty science things. Surely Japanese innovation would keep me occupied. Hell, without distractions maybe I would actually learn something.
Indeed, there were far too many cool things to see. You could go inside a recreation of a room in the International Space Station, feel claustrophobic in one of those deep sea submersible research vessels or even monitor the constant shaking of the earth underneath the museum. Seriously, the geology of Japan is so kinetic that even though you can't feel it you're always shaking.
There were too many neat things to see in the museum, but
one thing I didn't see were the
robots. Well, specifically I failed to see ASIMO. You know, that clunky white
robot that walks around and sometimes dances? YouTube has desensitized me. I just
didn't see the excitement in watching a 14 year old beta test prance around in
front of his human masters for their amusement. Since ASIMO's introduction
almost 15 years ago, consumer electronics have finally caught up to consumer
creativity. You can see much cooler robots on the internet, and ones made in
the garages of regular Joes at that!
But once again, this is Japan. ASIMO wasn't the only robot on display. There was an entire floor dedicated to them. Robots that would someday explore space, robots that are supposed to look like people but only succeed in fueling nightmares, and robots that really do look like people. Well...they almost look like people. The field of robotics has come far, but I'm not quite convinced that we can create realistic looking peoplebots just yet. We're close, but not yet. They moved with a rigid fluidity and spoke with a repetitious specificity. I'm not entirely certain of their purpose, either. There were explanations of why these machines exist but most of them were in Japanese. If only I spoke it fluently.
But once again, this is Japan. ASIMO wasn't the only robot on display. There was an entire floor dedicated to them. Robots that would someday explore space, robots that are supposed to look like people but only succeed in fueling nightmares, and robots that really do look like people. Well...they almost look like people. The field of robotics has come far, but I'm not quite convinced that we can create realistic looking peoplebots just yet. We're close, but not yet. They moved with a rigid fluidity and spoke with a repetitious specificity. I'm not entirely certain of their purpose, either. There were explanations of why these machines exist but most of them were in Japanese. If only I spoke it fluently.
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