I apologize for not updating my blog on time. Between exploring new places, figuring out which train stop to get on and off at, and eating and taking hella picture, I do get very tired by the time I return to the hostel. My memory might have holes as I try to recall events that have happened a few days prior so bear with me here.
September 2nd:
We woke up around 10ish and quickly discussed where we wanted to go in Nagoya. I recommended that my cousin and I go to the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology and later on in the day go to the Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium.
After a bit of deliberation, we set off to the Toyota Museum. The museum was pretty big. It was built to preserve the history and legacy of the Toyoda family and their many achievements. As one of the introductory boards reads: “In 1911, Sakichi Toyoda, the founder of the Toyota Group established the Toyoda Jido Shokufu Kojo , here in Sako, Nagoya-city , for the research and development of automatic looms”. So to summarize, Toyota used to be spelled Toyoda and that the company started out in the textiles industry, developing automatic looms before moving into the automobile industry. Inside the main lobby sits a working model of a circular loom developed by Sakichi Toyoda in 1906. There is a introduction card on it with a brief description of its history and a schedule of when the model actually works for live demonstrations through out the day. In the First main exhibit hall, there are exhibits of early technology that humans used to process cotton in to yarn, and early weaving processes. As you move along, there are early examples of weaving machines/looms. There are also examples of different kinds of fibers that are currently used, how they are harvested and their applications. As one progresses through the museum floor, the machinery gets more and more complex through concurrent with the time period. Almost all of the machinery in the exhibit hall works and can be demonstrated by a tour guide. Im not going to get into anymore details because that would be boring and you can probably read about it on their website, Wikipedia, or one day go yourself. But it got me thinking how technological advancements are. The progress throughout the centauries is truly remarkable. From simple manual devices to huge machines that only require some human interaction, It really was a sight to behold.
After the exhibit on looms, you go to a slightly smaller area where they explain some metalworking and the transition of the Toyota Group into machinery and more industrial endeavors. I didn’t pay too much attention here but they had a small section that showed other technologies that the Toyota Group had dabbled in from memory media, to actuators, to sensors and such. This section is actually very well placed because the next section is the automobile pavilion and that is where they have exhibits of the first Toyota automobiles and explains how the Toyota Group got into the automotive industry.
In 1933, Kiichiro Toyoda (Sakichi’s son) established the Automobile department in the Toyota group. Skipping over some details, at the entrance of the pavilion are boards that explain how the Toyoda’s got into mechanics of automobiles and how they were influenced. One of the more memorable exhibits explained how the first Toyota prototype was built. The next major section in the automobile pavilion goes further into depth of the history of Toyota Automobiles. This exhibit features all the major models of Toyota automobiles throughout history, technologies, engines, transmissions and such. Eventually, I will probably create a photo dump of some sort and you guys can take a look at that. There is also a Toyota Automobile Meusem but that’s in another town about 45 minutes away. I really wanted to go see that place but it was too far and we were running out of time. By the time we had finished exploring the automobile pavilion, I was starving. We left the exhibit and was back in the main lobby. My cousin and I deliberated where we should go eat but had not solid ideas. Then we used google map’s explore function and found a cheap noodle joint not too far away from the train station we needed to go to.
Not long after we left the Toyota museum, we were on our way. The noodle joint was very small in a very narrow building. We ordered our meals from a small machine that vended out tickets. The machine a series of buttons and corresponding prices. We couldn’t tell what was what since I don’t know a lick of Japanese and my cousin was bad at the script that was on the machine. So we took a gamble and ordered away. We put in the corresponding amount of currency required for each dish and the machine vended our tickets. We presented the tickets to the cooks behind the counter and sat down and waited. The place was very small and probably had only enough seats for 8 people max. It was close to 2 pm at this time and some businessmen who worked by came in for a fast meal before going back to work. I ordered some kind of thick-noodled udon and it was delicious. The broth was a bit on the salty side (lots of MSG). There was a lot of scallions, a few big pork slices, and lots and lots of bamboo shoots. After the meal, we walked to the closest train station and took a train to the Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium.
After hopping off the train, we made our way up to the ground level. We followed a jetty around to the port area. There was a mall area and a Red Lobster. Looking around there was a big port observatory as well as a big orange coast guard ship. Then right in front of us maybe 50 or so meters away was the Aquarium. Like any Aquarium, we purchased our entry tickets for about 1200 yen each and proceeded inside. The closest exhibits by the lobby were big glass tanks where they held dolphins, seals, and whales. A trainer was showing off a well trained seal and many little kids and parents were thoroughly entertained. I thought the little round critter did quite some impressive tricks and it was pretty cute and round. I looked around and notice a schedule of performances throughout the day. By the time we got there it was 4 pm and we missed many of the performances. However we were in time for the final dolphin show of the day and went upstairs for that. The dolphins did an assortment of tricks but the most amazing ones I bother to recall was the trainers surfing on them and how the dolphins skipped over water on their tails alone. The dolphin surfing was CRAZY. I don’t recall the last time I saw a dolphin show but this was some intense radical shit. That was like the highlight of the day. I was also amazed on how strong the dolphin’s tail muscles were, they skipped through the water with ease and it was cool to see. Afterwards we also saw penguin feeding time. These little birds were round and rowdy. I think there were 4 kinds of penguins there. The emperor penguins were the funniest to me because they were big and super round. Eventually we got bored of watching them and walked around the aquarium to see other exhibits. We saw all types of fish and even baby seas turtles. The most interesting exhibit I have to admit is probably the one on dangerous sea creatures. They ranged from alligator snapping turtles, to blue ringed octopus. Every creature in this exhibit posed a serious threat to humans. Be it touching them, eating them, or getting attacked, all of them had a serious potential to harm humans. I thought to myself, damn Mother Nature, you scary as hell.
After about and hour and half to two hours in the Aquarium, it was closing time and we took the train back to the hotel. I was dead tired and had to sit down for about 30 minutes. Then we changed and stopped by curry udon place for dinner. This place also had very decent food. I ordered cheese fries with mayonnaise and ketchup on the side (yes mayo with fries is a thing) and some curry noodles. It was pretty good. After dinner we headed back to the hotel, looked up things we wanted to do during the rest of our time in Japan, and went to sleep.
And this concludes the second night in Japan.
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