So what the heck?!? It SNOWED IN JAPAN?? That very rarely happens if you aren’t up North! Being Canadian, I’m used to a lot of snow. But Japan clearly isn’t. They really don’t have the infrastructure to deal with it. None of the roads were cleared, even all the schools were closed! Most workplaces had a snow-day, and the next morning people were also advised to stay home. There was about 2 inches of snow, with icy roads. Most people don’t have winter tires for their cars here, and biking on ice is pretty dangerous. But on the bright side, it was really pretty! Kids who have never experienced snow before were outside building snowmen and having snowball fights!

You can see how much it rarely snows given the flowers with snow on them. A unique combination, but the flowers are resilient and beautiful. It really wasn’t that cold, but I’m glad I brought some boots!

I wasn’t sure what to do on my day off, so I decided to go to JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and take a look around. They had a Space Dome and a Planet Cube, and various replicas of Japanese satellites that have been sent up into space. They also had a replica of the piece of the ISS (International Space Station) that they built that you could go inside! I still had time left in the day, so I decided to also go to the Science Square, which is a gallery of emerging technologies.

I even got to hold a baby seal! It is a Therapeutic Seal that was developed by AIST, to cuddle and help people de-stress. It costs about 400,000 yen, and encompasses motion and touch sensors to react to people coming near them or petting them. And omg, they were so so cute! I went back to play with them like 3 times while I was there! They remind me of a high tech version of the FurReal Friends I used to have as a kid. They had a pacifier and they got so sad when you put them down. There is a video down below if you want to see it in action!

There was some other cool stuff too, artificial intelligence, bendable display screens, and much more. Personally, after the Therapeutic Seal, my favourite new tech was the robot, Mahoro, who can do precise, repetitive, and dangerous lab work in place of humans. He can even do work under vacuum conditions! This could greatly help researchers so they don’t have to do lab work, and new experiments can be performed with higher accuracy and lower risk. Even more, you could get a personal Audio Guide so you could listen instead of having to read all the signs. It was an interesting exhibit, new technologies are always on the rise!

This is the first snow-day I’ve had since 11th grade, and I think it was a day well spent!