Nagoya Science Centre

This past Saturday we went to Nagoya.  Adam will have to work Saturdays from now until the end of January so it was our last free weekend for a while.  Unfortunately, it was a rainy day so we decided to do some indoor activities in Nagoya.

Nagoya's train station is pretty big, so of course we went out the wrong exit at first and had to back track to the other side of the station.  The walk to the Science Museum was a wet one.  When we arrived at the museum, we were met with a beautiful park.  There was a big fountain and this guy doing a choreographed dance by himself- yup random stuff in Nagoya.

The Park by the Science Museum

The giant "ball" has the planetarium inside.

On entering the Science Museum, we were given the option of three different types of tickets.  We ended up choosing the one with the planetarium.  The planetarium is the largest dome shaped "screen" in the world.  We went to the first show available in the planetarium.  We were told that it was only in Japanese and were asked if that was OK. We assumed that it would be a giant Imax type movie, so we thought it would be fine.  In the end, after 50 minutes of sitting in the dark with the night sky above us and a guy using a mouse to explain what constellations were where with some Greek mythology (all in Japanese), the show was over.  I think this experience would have been interesting if we understood Japanese.  It was kind of cool to be in a "simulated" cloud free starry night, but I was hoping to have that feeling of moving while actually being still like in Imax theatres.

After that we had our lunch and then checked out the rest of the centre.  They have this -30 C room with a simulated aurora that you can go into (you need a special ticket and to line up).  We figured that we get that in Canada and we don't have to line up for it, so we didn't go.  The centre is really big and well worth the 400 yen to see the place.

I think the coolest exhibit for me was this table with all these tiny little balls that moved according to the pitch of sound.  You could move this wand back and forth to make the pitch higher or lower.  The little balls would vibrate depending on the pitch and actually looked like real sound waves.

Here are some videos and pictures from the Science Museum:

This was a simulated tornado.

Having fun with some mirrors.

Where did your body go?

The human body exhibit.

We could see a star with this telescope.

 The sun came out as we were finishing up the science museum.  Outside there were a couple groups doing choreographed hip hop dances in front of the fountain along with a drama club or something going on.

The sun came out!

 We walked to the Sakae shopping district and I felt a little like I was back in Europe.  There's all these shops, people walking, and it's decorated for Christmas.

Sakae shopping district

Sunday, we rode our bikes for the second time to church and set up our house for Christmas.  This involves a 3 foot Christmas tree, Advent wreath, and Nativity scene.  I like looking at the Nativity scene (without baby Jesus in it yet) and reflecting on waiting with Mary and Joseph for Jesus to come and save us

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