Tsukuba Science Museum

Sorry! These posts are out of sync! Because our flight was a night flight we took our time in getting to the airport and took a diversion to the science museum in Tsukuba. There was a lot of hands on stuff to do, plenty of experiments and pretty much everything had an English explanation too!

Surprisingly it wasn't very busy. We spent a couple of hours in there which was enough, it wasn't big enough for an all day event.

I imagine it gets used a lot for school trips and looked like upstairs they had group talks etc. Worth a visit if you are in the area. 

Once we were done we headed off to the airport.

Our Weekend In Pictures

My husband had something on in Tokyo on Saturday so Ebi-kun and I went on a mission…to find Kit-Kats! Now, as daft as that sounds, Japan has all kinds of seasonal flavoured kit-kat and a friend had sent us a box of different kinds of Tim-Tams so we were looking for Kit-Kats to send in return. So, we headed to Ikebukro and Ebi-kun decided he was going to find the shop by himself, all we knew was that is was in the basement of the Seibu store. He managed to get us there, for anyone who has ever been in a Japanese train station, you will know that it was no mean feat! 

It was somewhat a disappointment, they only had 5 types of Kit-Kat, one was sold out and one was regular plus the queue was massive so we gave up and headed to a 7/11 instead!

I did spot these rather adorable macaroons though…

We headed to Ueno and grabbed something to eat from the station, no, we didn't try one of these fruit sandwiches…

We found a nice spot for a picnic in Ueno park and as an added bonus…

We got free entertainment whilst we ate!

After lunch we had a wander then headed down to Ameyoko Dori to see if we could get Ebi-kun some new shoes, it is 2 or 3 main streets which are linked by these little alleys..

Basically, all that is sold on the street is food and clothes, more specifically, stinky fish and shoes - I'll save you from the 'sole' joke.

We found the shoes and treated ourselves to Melon On A Stick, great but messy!

How cute are these panda barriers?

We headed back to the park and had a wander around but Ebi-kun started complaining about all the walking - how come kids can play football for 3 hours straight but ask them to walk up and down a couple of streets and suddenly their legs stop working!

So we went to the science museum and tried out all the experiments, luckily it wasn't very busy.

Daddy called just as we were leaving the museum, so we met up with him at the station and headed back to Omiya where we had dinner.

Turned out to be a very long day! But it was fun just to hang out with no specific plan for a change, we did find some kit-kats and ended up ordering some online. Can't show the haul yet, not until our friend gets them!

The Miraikan...

After we visited the maritime museum we headed off to the Miraikan, which is the big science and innovation museum. The building itself is very impressive, love the architecture of it.

Although it is 7 floors, not all the floor are in use for the public. The ground floor had a special exhibit on when we went but we didn't look at it and there is also the shop. The third floor is 'Create your future' and is great, loads of hands on stuff to do, very interactive and everything is fully bilingual. I noticed Ebi-kun always chose the English version, even if I wasn't with him when he made the choice.

There were also volunteers who explained things to the kids, this guy was chatting away for ages, when I went to investigate, he was talking about quantum electronics! 

They also have Asimo there at the moment, I'm not sure if he is always there, so he came out for a demo... Also on this floor are workshops but you need to book ahead to get a place, looked quite interesting though, maybe we will do that another time.

The 5th floor is 'Explore the Frontiers' lots of things to do up here too, quite a big section of space travel, the inside of a section of the space station, that kind of thing. Also, lot of things to do with the body. This section had different types of buttons and levels to make the interactive screens work, it was a bit busier here and we had to wait a few minutes to get on some of the exhibits.

Ebi-kun has a small version of this puzzle so it didn't take him long to put it together but later we tried a brain puzzle and it took us ages, maybe brain surgeon is not the career choice for us.

This enormous globe hangs between the floors and is mesmerising, they have talks and use the globe as a screen, if that makes sense, the images move so they can show the migration of birds or the changing of air currents. It is very clever and super cool, I should have videoed it really!

There is also a planetarium but you need to reserve your seat as soon as you get there.

The only thing I found disappointing about this place was the cafe, the restaurant has been closed down so there is the choice of Lotteria (burger place) or the cafe. We went to the cafe but the food was not up to much, I recommend eating before you go!

I am pretty sure we will come here again, there was so much to see and do and far too much to take in with just one visit! I think next time we will plan ahead and try and book into a workshop too and make a full day of it.

A trip to the Museum of Maritime Science

We took a trip down to Odaiba again recently, it is a long way to go but there are a lot of fun things to do down there. This time we visited the Museum of Maritime Science. Actually most of the museum is closed for refurbishment but the ship Soya is still open and it is free too!

The Soya is famous for being the first Japanese observation ship to go to Antarctica and it was pretty cool to wander around. Many of the rooms have been preserved, so you can see how the crew would have lived... I am sure there is a witty comment to be made about this picture!

Even the most comfortable rooms didn't look very comfortable to me, I am not a fan of the sea so I don't think you would catch me on the boat more than an hour.

A couple of the rooms had been turned into information rooms, with some hands on equipment and videos. It was interesting to be sitting on the ship as they showed video footage of the ship being rescued by the Russians when it got trapped in ice.

Ebi-kun fancying himself as the captain...

You don't have total run of the ship but you are allowed on a good portion of it, we were there on a national holiday and it wasn't busy at all.

So, if you are in Odaiba and you have an hour or so to kill, this gets the thumbs up, I'm not sure when the whole of the museum will re-open but the rest of the information about it can be found on the website here.

Tokorozawa Aviation Museum

We recently visited Tokorozawa Aviation Museum, Ebi-kun and daddy loved it, although you wouldn't think so  looking at his face in this picture, he had just bashed his leg on that bit of metal!

There are several planes and helicopters in the main hanger, some of which you can climb in and have a good look around.

The museum isn't that big, you can probably do it all in half a day, it is set in a big park so it would be perfect to take a picnic along and have a play outside too. We played football for a while but the wind was bitterly cold!

They have a few flight simulators too but be prepared to wait, we got there early and had to wait 20 minutes to have a go on this one (lasts for 4 minutes) and a similar wait for the helicopter ride. I personally didn't rate the museum as being very good, although, I am only interested in planes if I am getting on one to leave for somewhere exciting! That said, I believe a good museum will capture the imagination of those who are not interested in the subject matter - this place did not. There were a few interactive things for the kids to try, quite a few of them didn't work, the explanations were aimed at adults, not simplified versions with pictures for kids to understand. In Ebi-kun's words, "too much kanji"

The highlight for the boys was the Zero Fighter, this was a special exhibit that you had to pay extra for.

There is a restaurant which has a set buffet, a Imax theatre and of course a gift shop with loads of planes in it - plus toys and kites for the park. There is a discount coupon on the website too.

The boys did enjoy it, myself, I won't be rushing back, if your kids get excited at the train museum they will probably like it here, go on a nice day so at least you can make good use of the park too.

Manchester, Museums and A Toilet Called Teri

A couple of days into the new year we arranged to meet one of my uni friends, Lesley and her kids in Manchester. There are several museums in Manchester, we opted for the MOSI or Museum Of Science and Industry.

My brother takes his kids here quite often and I am pretty impressed with it, the kids of course loved all the hands on stuff available.

The explanations were well written and simple enough for the kids (and moms!) to understand.

We explored the main building, the transport building, which also has a spot for eating your lunch if you decided to take your own and the train building. The kids have only met once before, I-chan was just a wee babe in arms and G-kun was about 2 so they don't really remember one another. When we first met up, the kids just stared at each other but it didn't take them long to warm up and start chasing each other around.

Ebi-kun asked the following day if we could meet up with them again because he loved playing with G.

By the end of the day, they were best buddies and Lesley and I had chance to catch up and have a good old natter, it was sad to say goodbye but I-chan was tired and we thought it best before meltdowns happened, best leave on a good note!

Ebi-kun had seen a sign for 'underground Manchester' which was another part of the museum, so we went and explored there before heading home. It was rather odd, all about the sewers, pretty revolting really, Teri the Talking Toilet did make us giggle though.

So, if you are in Manchester and looking for something to do, I give the MOSI a big thumbs up, it is free too and if you take your own lunch it amounts to a cheap day out. There is a cafe and a gift shop, the gift shop wasn't anything exciting, the usual museum stuff. There is plenty of space for the kids to run around and lots of hands on equipment. Of course, having great company helps to make a good day  into a great day!

Tokyo Lego Discovery Rocks!

On Saturday we went to the Lego Discovery Centre in Tokyo and met up with our friends, we had a great day and we all loved the discovery centre.

The first part is a short history of Lego and explanation with hands on parts on how it is made. After that is a ride where you have to shoot skeletons and trolls to free the princess, the boys loved this ride and I think we ended up going on 4 or 5 times!

After the ride, there is the room with models of buildings in Tokyo, including the Sumo dojo and you can make the skinny sumo wrestlers actually fight.

I didn't take photos of everything, there was a jungle gym type of place for the kids to burn off some energy and an AMAZING movie theatre, I won't spoil what happens in there but it was brilliant. There was also another ride that they boys went on alone. 

The boys got totally engrossed in the make it and test it room, there were lots of tubs of Lego and then a variety of ramps so you can race or test how well your vehicle works.

The only disappointing part was the cafe, there was very little choice, a few sandwiches and a couple of not very enticing bento's and you are not allowed to take your own food in. That said, I saw more than one person with a big McDonalds bag in there.

They have classes with 'Master Builders', you need to book a time slot then the master builder shows you how to make whatever it is - this was the parrot class.

We were in there for over 5 hours and could have easily stayed longer. Of course, when you leave you have to go through the shop. Ebi-kun had some birthday money so he got himself some more ninjago Lego. We will definitely be going back but it takes us about 1hr 30mins to get there which is a shame. If we lived closer we would get a yearly pass. 

Are your kids Lego fans? We love it ! 

Messing around at the river museum...

We have stopped at the Saitama Museum Of Rivers before, it is great and I highly recommend it. We didn't have that much time so we opted just to do the water play area, which you have to pay a bit extra for.

The main part of the museum is really good but I recommend that if you go, do that first and take a change of clothes because if you go in this section the kids will get wet. Lots of climbing, jumping, pulling, paddling and splashing....