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| Transportation Museum: Kanda | |||
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The audience for animation and video games may be growing, but the sights and sounds of planes, trains and automobiles continue to fascinate kids of all ages. My son is obsessed with trains. Not yet three, he can distinguish between a dozen shinkansen models and refuses to leave a station platform until he has waved goodbye to every conductor.
His jaw dropped when we entered Akihabara's Transportation Museum, where all the machines that keep us mobile are celebrated under one roof. The first thing you see are two gargantuan steam locomotives (Japan's first and the Emperor Meji's), one with its sides cut away. The sheer size is awe striking, and seeing how its interior works proved more interesting than I'd imagined. Exhibits offer little or no English information, but most are fairly self-explanatory (an English guide map is available near the entrance). You don't need English instructions, however, to operate the subway exhibits, where we spent most of our day. A conductor's subway car has been cut away to reveal the driving apparatus, with a movie screen set in front showing footage (some real, some VR) of moving from station to station. Some even accelerate or stop, depending on how well the controls are used. The lines can take well over 30 minutes on the weekends, but I wouldn't wait that long. There are several similar exhibits scattered through the back halls of the first floor. Don't miss the model train show that happens every hour. In a glassed-in room larger than my apartment, scale models of trains used in Japan today chug by miniature trees and hillsides, with an announcer heralding each entrance to mobs of kids pressed against the glass. The second and third floors are dedicated to all other means of transportation, including cars, jets, boats, rockets and rickshaws. Like the building, some of the exhibits show their age, but there are enough intriguing sights to occupy an afternoon. Huge motors, lighthouse lamps and a cockpit are on display, as well as giant scale-model wooden ships nearly 2 meters tall, complete with sails, quarters for royalty and nearly a hundred miniature oars for enslaved rowers below deck. All fascinating to me, but a bore to my son, who continually dragged me back downstairs to "drive" the train again. He wouldn't wait for the third floor theater's steam locomotive documentary, either, which was just as well: It was boiling hot in there (you've been warned). Food is available in the attached restaurant, but enter only if you like Tonkatsu sandwiches or bland curry. A better choice is the Mansei Akihabara building across the street. The second, third and fourth floor constitute a reasonably priced family-style steakhouse (look for the giant cow logo on the building). Granted, it's not for vegetarians, but it's non-smoking, has a kid's menu, opens at 11 and has a great view of train lines that roll past the museum. All that train-conducting just might build an appetite. by Jason Jenkins |
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