Saturday, December 2, 2017

Japan 2.13: End of Line. Cylons, birds, toys, and vampires.

This is my longest post yet on the blog.  I considered splitting it in half, but decided against it.  Be prepared.

Today was our final full day in Japan.  We leave early next morning to return home.  We got to sleep in a little today.  Our first stop for the day was on a small island southeast of us called Odaiba.  It is generally a bit of a pain to get there.  Luckily, our hotel sits on top of a subway line that leads to a station that has a sky train that goes through the island.

We arrived at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation at around 10:00.  This museum popped up on my searches for robots in Japan.  I bought us tickets for a short 3d movie that they were showing as well, named "The Man from the 9 dimensions."  We saw a creepy looking robot that was supposed to respond to stimuli but we couldn't find any correlation with its movements and our movements and sounds.



Opposite the robot was an area where a video was telling a story about how in fifty years there will be a terrible existence and that they were trying to send back requests for help into the past.  We were instructed to pick up a paper and stamp one cause that we would like to pack.  Miles chose to get rid of inequality and poverty.  Then, we went to a computer, entered our choice, and "sent" it into the future.  We chose a path, which is then compared to an obstacle course in front of us.  It was extremely hard.  Your efforts never made it unless you studied the course and had perfect implementation, and then were able to get past the random moving parts as well.  So, instead of seeing how this could possibly help the future, we were always sent to a nearby computer saying that our efforts had no effect.  This perfectly illustrates what ended up being the problem with this museum.  Some great ideas and learning potential combined with poor implementation, leaving you underwhelmed and frustrated.



The movie was about to start, so we left for the theater.  We were given high tech 3d glasses that fit well over regular glasses that I use during movies.  We were also given an earpiece with an English translation given to us, often a split second after dialogue in the movie.  While the movie was pretty, its plot was incoherent, and the ending ridiculous.  It had potential, but completely fell flat.  I believe they advertised that it was directed by the creator of the Grudge Japanese horror movies.  Perhaps science was simply not compatible with such a director.

The technology used to project the 3d movie

We went back to the first exhibition room and tried out an area where you used your ticket, in line, to create a circular body around you, that followed you around and interacted with other people nearby and different kiosks.  The kiosks tried to imply that it was part of a research experiment and that it was studying you, and each kiosk would give a mysterious reveal and progression.  It was all amateur nonsense to be honest.  It made video game writing look like Shakespeare.  Another great idea with a terrible execution.



In the second exhibition area, they had a 1:1 replica of an area of the International Space Station, which was cute to walk through.



We tried another exhibit that tried to show how we can use robots to do surgery, but the implementation was flimsy and left you doubting the possibility, rather than being inspired.  I will not continue with the rest, because it is more of the same kind of story.

What WAS cool, however, were two of the robots.  One of them was a robot created to use as a therapeutic tool for comfort, such as for those in hospitals.  It was supposed to react to touch and sound.




The second was a ten minute presentation of "Asimo," a robot created by Honda.  It was a little repetitive, but pretty neat nonetheless.

ASIMO

We left the museum and went for lunch.  Nearby, was a newly installed twenty meter tall robot from a long running anime show, Gundam.  I tried to watch one episode with Miles a while back, but he had no interest.



Nearby was a small shop and cafe dedicated to the show.  Miles had a hot dog and I had a very good "mexican chicken" sandwich.

We didn't get these Gundam snacks, but they did look cool.

Still on the island, there was a third destination of interest.  I had discovered it in the same search for robots that brought me to these first two locations(Yes, the site that I found had considered a statue of a cartoon robot to be a robot) had listed the IREX convention as something to check out.  Apparently, the largest robot convention in the world happened to be going on this weekend.  It was free if you filled out an application in October, which I had done.

It was a twenty five minute walk to the convention center, but luckily it was very sunny out.  We passed a large Ferris Wheel,an interesting looking bridge that was actually a walking corridor over the water, and a weird building with what looked like a ball near the top.



The convention center, Tokyo Big Sight, looked pretty scary.  I was dreading going up, but luckily the event was held in the large buildings to the side of it.



I was a bit hesitant about the convention.  I had no idea what to expect, and how many cool things really should be expected when it was free to attend?  To be fair, it was $10 if you ended up paying on the day, but how many people did that(I guess probably many?).

On one side of the large room we entered, were many one armed robots.  On the other side, however, were many humanlike, and very awesome robots.  Be prepared, there are a lot of pictures!








We left a little after 3:30.  We were about 50 minutes away from an at museum I had been wanting to look at, called the Nezu Museum.  It required us getting off Odaiba island, transferring to another train, and then walking a short distance.  Its location also had great synergy with another animal cafe I wanted to bring Miles to.  It closed at 5:00, however.  While on the train ride over, I noticed two young guys carrying huge bags marked with "Gundam" all over them.  I asked if they understood English.  It turned out that they were from Thailand and knew just a little English.  We talked for a while.  I always enjoy connecting with people on my trips.

We went as fast as we could, stopping only to take a picture of one really cool building, and arrived at 4:40.  There was a "closed" sign out front.  This was not a surprise to me.

The cool building.

Less than five minutes away was a bird cafe that was highly rated.  We were able to spend a few minutes with a cockatiel, and ordered a very cute cake, delivered in a bird cage.  We also had a nice conversation with a New Zealander and his Japanese lady friend.  They both spoke excellent English(Well, obviously for one, but surprisingly so from the Japan born other).



I needed to make a stop at a JR station in order to book our train tickets for tomorrow morning(we had been taking the subway).  I found a station near our hotel and restaurant reservations for the evening, and we went there.  While walking to the station I saw a super bizarre display in a store window.



After booking the tickets, we had about an hour to spare before dinner.  I suggested Akihabara, because I figured that Miles would enjoy the stores.  I made the mistake of asking him if he'd rather do that or go back to our hotel room in between.  He said the hotel room.  I decided to overrule him, because I really thought he would enjoy it and we skipped Nakano Broadway earlier in the trip as he had requested.

It was an eight minute train ride away.  While on the train, I looked up some recommended stores near the station.  The first store we entered was pretty cool.  It had four floors and Miles loved it.  He insisted that he buy himself a small Pokemon stuffed animal there.  We visited a few more stores and enjoyed ourselves before we had to leave for the restaurant.



While on our way to dinner, we saw two more bizarre store window displays.



The restaurant was on the 7th floor of a building.  Miles again had no idea what it was.  It was a vampire themed restaurant.  We were greeted by a talking Reaperesque statue and a creepy vampire host.  The music was great, the menu was great, and even the bathroom was great.  The meal was actually incredible, in my opinion.



On the way home, we passed one neat looking building and another with a lit up snake wrapped around it.



It was a full day.