This little guy here was a robotic seal that was intended to acheive the same therapeutic affects as a pet, for those who can't have pets, such as those in hospital settings. It has three sound receptors, and is responsive to sound and direction of sound. It supposedly knows several words and will respond to them. (This part didn't really work for me, though it could be that the words he knows are in Japanese?) He is also responsive to touch anywhere on his body, and apparently responsive to different types of touch (stroke vs. poke vs. hit, etc). The museum claimed that during clinical trials, he did have the same therapeutic effect as having a pet. All I know is he was cute and soft and when I rubbed his head he pushed back against my hand like a kitty. I liked.
This here is a model of the internet. I'm not sure if I'm going to explain this correctly, so I might have to have Erik correct me if I'm wrong. At a terminal you would select a character to transmit, say the letter "L," and you turn a dial until the letter L is shown. The terminal then lights up 8 lights in either black or white, and you place 8 balls into it that correspond with the lights. Then you send it into the system. These short "8-bit" messages go through a series of routers, until reaching a specified destination. The other terminal reads the 8 balls and is able to determine from them the letter that you entered at the other terminal. Pretty cool, if simplified model of how the internet works. Especially since before I met Erik, I didn't have any idea how it worked... so I think a lot of other people don't know either.
This was a funny little book about matter and anti-matter.
The museum also had a special exhibit on fear, which was really neat. It started out by having you go through a haunted house (and for the record, haunted houses scare the freak out of me... I think I'll stick to scary movies, thanks). Then, after you come out, they had a bunch of displays about various ghost stories/spooky phenomenon and potential scientific explanations. You also had the opportunity to push buttons to scare other haunted house goers, and watch them get scared... heh heh heh. Overall, though, I thought the museum was pretty darn interesting. Some of the displays tried to express complex ideas in such a simple way that they became a bit confusing... however, on the whole it did give you a lot to think about. This would be top on my list of recommendations for anyone who is going to Tokyo (even if you're only slightly nerdy...)
We then went across the street to eat lunch at Venus Fort. Venus Fort is a shopping mall that is decorated inside to look like an Italian city (? piazza? what is the right word for what I'm trying to describe? What does Piazza even mean? Oh well, I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves...)
Part of Venus Fort was MEGAWEB, the Toyota gallery. They had a bunch of concept cars, from small-yet-realistic to almost-kinda-silly:
Huh??? I can't tell if this is intended to be driven on streets or if it's a glorified wheelchair... Also, the steering wheel of this car looks like a drinking fountain.
Thought I'd share.
They also had a model of what I think will most likely be the 4th generation Prius: it is a Hybrid, but it can also be plugged in and charged, presumably so that you could run purely on wall power for short distances.
Hehe, and this little guy was talking about emissions:
Call me juvenile, but that's just funny...
We then went in a little ride in a model of an electric vehicle. It was programmed to drive us around a little track, so we could feel how it runs, etc. All jokes about runaway Toyotas aside, it was actually a somewhat pleasant drive. Also, I had no idea this picture was being taken. Don't judge.
After finishing up at Toyota, we decided to look at the Panasonic gallery. They had a little demonstration about their new 3D television that was actually pretty neat. I usually hate 3D movies because they totally mess with my eyes, but this was actually pretty cool looking. We looked around at other new Panasonic devices, from tiny laptops to underwater cameras to massage chairs to Japanese toilets... however, for some reason the only picture we got in this place was a picture of Erik with Mario.
We wrapped up the day by heading over to Tokyo Decks mall. We had two purposes: 1) to find cat cafe and 2) to play at SEGA Joyopolis. I had no idea what cat cafe was, only that it had a huge cat at the storefront and that it was located at the Tokyo Decks mall. After much searching...
We found it!!
It was a little gift store dedicated to cats. Erik bought a t-shirt, and I bought a few things for Selphie. Hear that Miss Selphie? We are thinking of you and miss you very much!
(Meow?)SEGA Joyopolis is another in-mall amusement park/arcade. They had a bunch of games and several rides. They also had a really cute 3D movie of Sonic the Hedgehog... although they replaced Tails with this character Chip that I had never seen before... come on! Lame-o! I don't know anything about Chip but Tails is awesome and Sonic's lifelong sidekick.
Tails
Not TailsAnywho, the most fun game of the night was this one:
You are strapped onto this board thing, and are swung back and forth until at the top you are almost horizontal. The point of the game/ride is to tilt a little platform within the board at the right moment so you spin. Depending on the timing of your spin, etc, you are awarded points. Whichever team has the most points wins. This game is freaking fun. No lie, put one of these in every suburban town in America? Underage drinking/drug problem. Solved.
I want to read that antimatter comic book XD That first car photo is sooo cute. Also, I think I need one of those spacepods in the third car photo.. but in cotton candy pink.
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