Japan 09 - day 3

Surely only in Japan would you have a ‘museum’ dedicated to emerging science and engineering. I wasn’t expecting much but thought we should go to at least one museum on the way to the Panasonic Center in Odaiba, a reclaimed island in Tokyo Bay. It was the Center that seemed to offer more, at least according to the guide. Well, how wrong was I? The Museum was truly spectacular, from the huge globe with up-to-date satellite images suspended in the main entrance, to the seismographs measuring how much the building we were in was shaking. The highlight for Dominic was the various forms of computer games, for me the idea of plastic that conducts electricity and the living capsule (complete with loo) from the International Space Station.

The museum was full of young children – and I mean young – out for the day with parents and grandparents during what is the holiday week. The museum had teaching labs and I passed one full of eight-year old boys learning about robotics. Whilst I love the Science Museum in London, it comes across as deeply patronising in comparison. There was no sense here that science was dull or boring, or that you had to pander to the lowest common denominator in order to engage. I came away feeling that I had genuinely learnt something new. No wonder Japanese kids are streets ahead.

I find the visit to the museum, and to the Panasonic Center nearby, where all the latest Nintendo games and consoles are on display, puzzling in the light of what I’ve been reading about Japanese attitudes to technology. It is hard to square what I see with the idea that the Japanese are at best ambivalent to gadgets and do not consider it necessary to have devices that are ‘labour-saving’. Is this really true – are Japanese homes devoid of such things?

I was also struck by the way children are present in society. It all feels very natural and normal to have children around in most places. I don’t feel self-conscious travelling with an eleven-year old and entry fees are either waved completely or at least half that of an adult. But neither are there the trantrums and screaming I so associate with children in public in Britain. I have been reading a little about Japanese child rearing and how intense the relationships are between parents and children, and I can see the warmth and attention lavished on them. The idea is that because Japanese culture is so interdependent and selfishness so abhorred, it is okay to indulge children early on because of later socialisation. It is truly endearing to watch.

Which brings me to politeness. Dominic and I decided to brave the public transport system to get to Odaiba, which meant the new monorail system. It was a complete dream! No pushing or shoving in the queue to get to the platform, just a gentle flow; once on the platform, people actually formed queues near the doors for the train to arrive. The train was an ultra-modern DLR and whisked us at speed across the Rainbow Bridge to our destination. With the volume of Tokyo’s population, the idea that London operates the way it does because of numbers is simply blown out of the water. Maybe the Japanese child-rearing thing does work?