Welcome to the International Space Station...

...right here in Japan!

We made a trip up to the Odaiba area to visit the International Space Station. These high schoolers are entering into a mock up of part of the ISS at Miraikan.

Space toilet!

This is a replica of a private room in the International Space Station. The blue bag on the left is a sleep sack. The astronauts zip themselves into it to sleep.

The above reads, "Japanese Space Foods. Foods made in Japan and authorized in 2007 for the first time for use by astronauts."

Tuna with Miso Sauce space food.

Soy Sauce Ramen.

These are the two packages of space food we bought. I'll take pictures when we eventually open the packages.

Obama coverage here in Japan.

This aired Wednesday morning at 06:00 which is 16:00 Tuesday afternoon in D.C.

The live coverage led the Tokyo newscasts this morning and continued throughout the news hour in a little box while they moved on to other news.

Robots!!! We are in Japan, dontcha know?

There will be future posts from Miraikan. There was so much to see and do that I want to break different sections down into separate posts.
Above is ASIMO. You may have seen her on the news. She is a robot that moves kind of like a human. It kind of troubled me a bit. When she walked toward us I kept thinking, "Must kill humanoid!"

She is kicking a ball in the photo above. It is just a regular ball, it just looks like a glowing ball in the picture.

If you go, you can catch the ASIMO show at 11:00 and 14:00. It is worth seeing it!

This may not be the best picture to show it, but the above little vehicle kind of floats above that track. It works on magnets. Those kids are controlling it.

More fun with magnets! You can control these little hover-craft like things.

This is another robot demonstration.

This display is kind of neat, even if those dolls are kind of creepy. There are two microphones on either side. When you talk into them, the dolls and the robot appear to be you talking.

Space Food, Japanese Style!

This post is a preview. We went to the International Museum for Emerging Science today and I'm a little too worn out this evening to do a complete post. For now, please enjoy some Japanese freeze-dried Japanese food. We bought the Takoyaki flavor and the Daigaku Imo flavored one.

Look! Space Curry! They only had beef flavor.

Shakado Kiritoshi 釈迦堂切通し

Shakado Kiritoshi is a really beautiful, almost secret place in Kamakura. You can get to it driving if you are very, very brave and there is no parking. Katie and I drove to it a few months ago, but today I walked. I recommend walking. The entrance is just 1.9 kilometers from Kamakura Station or 400 meters from Hokokuji.
According to another website, the tunnel was built around 1200. It is very large. There were no people walking through this morning, so I couldn't use them for scale. The pictures below are from the Kinubari Yama trail. Shakado Kiritoshi is not on the trail, but they are not far from each other. I think they were only 500 meters apart.
There are caves all over Kamakura. This one is quite big. It is just under the peak on Kinubari Yama. When you get to the highest point on the trail you have to make a decision between a trail and stairs. If you choose the stairs to get down, you'll come across this big cave.
The other side of Kinubari Yama is a beautiful dense forest.
This was the view from Kinubari Yama. Fuji wasn't visible this morning.

Sagami Bay

I saw a photo from this location on Google Earth and dragged my friend Katie with me to navigate. Let's just say we found it on the way back. It was worth the wait though... in my opinion.

I love this view of Mt. Fuji. I took it from Rt. 207. It is about 5km north of Tateishi.
I tried to crop the white lighthouse out of all of my photos, but this one snuck through. The lighthouse is known as the Yujiro Lighthouse in commemoration of Yujiro Ishihara. Ishihara was an actor who died in 1987.

The Cultural Center at Shonan-dai

Feel free to touch everything!!!

What a fun place! It is called the Cultural Center at Shonan-dai. Right now the planetarium and star theater are closed for repairs. That is what is in that big globe. No worries. There is still plenty to do!

We had the whole place to ourselves until three different preschools came in. Believe it or not, there was still plenty to do without stepping on each other's feet.

Those kids above are playing in the Forest area. I would call it a prehistoric area. Those are dinosaur eggs they are climbing through.

The second floor of the Children's Center is the Loop Gallery. It is filled with different things about space. They have a video gallery, computer games, and a "terescope" of infrared rays among other things. Unfortunately, if you don't speak or read Japanese, you may be a little lost up here.

Back downstairs now. In this area, you can paint up your face. There are a bunch of photos pinned above the mirrors and you can make your face up to look like them if you choose.

This area is called, "Musical Instruments of the World". There are a few instruments in glass cases, but the rest are open for you to try any of them out. There are plenty of drums, but my favorite are all the instruments you play by plucking them with your thumb.

Near the forest area is this honeycomb. You're not really supposed to climb on it, but it was comically big and I like comically big things.
What are you looking at?

This! This area had a bunch of different lenses to alter things.

These pyramids have things you can look through and see different things. There are also little experiments in between the pyramids. There are kaleidoscopes, a microscope that kids can manipulate on their own to see what different things look like magnified. There is also a fun-house mirror.

This is the Costumes of a World area. Take off your shoes and see what you look like dressed as an Egyptian child.

There is also an area called "Toys of the World" where you can play with toys from all over the world. The whole place is very hands on.

Admission is 300-yen for adults. Adults are considered high school age and above.

100-yen for kids from the age of 6 to high school.

Kids under the age of 6 are free.

It's closed on Mondays.