Your Japanese word of the week is...

A 360 view of a display in the Bio-Diversity floor of the museum.

"kyoryu" 恐竜 or dinosaur! Yay...... Ever since I heard that the National Museum of Nature and Science (in Ueno Park) had dino skeletons, I've been itching to go. Lucky for me, when I went there was some special exhibit with even more dinosaurs. The actual exhibit is called the "Dinosaurs of Gondwana", Gondwana being the landmasses in the southern hemisphere 200 million years ago as Pangaea (the "singular" continent when all the world's land was joined as one) began breaking up. In the modern day, ex-Gondwana continents include pretty much all the landmass that extends into the southern hemisphere like South America, Africa and Madagascar, Australia and New Zealand, and Antarctica.

Being a science nerd, the Gondwana exhibit was interesting although it is rather short and more than doubles the entry fee to the museum- the regular museum is a bargain at 600yen, rising to not-so-bargainy 1500yen for access to the special exhibit. Either way, the exhibit was a bit of a treat especially since it contained many dinosaurs I've never seen before, such as the Megaraptor namunhuaiquii (L) and both adult and young forms of Mapusaurus roseae (centre and right, respectively). While these, at a quick glance, could be mistaken for other well known, bipedal, large skulled, sharp clawed, carnivorous dinos, there were other varieties of flying and herbivorous species as well.

The best part however (and this might be the future-science-teacher in me speaking) is looking at the mess of bones and thinking "I've seen them somewhere before". It's extremely easy to draw parallels between the structures of the bones in the dinosaurs and those in us or other animals. The thing I like the most (and this is something that particularly interests me) is how their bones have adapted to whatever conditions these dinosaurs experienced. Whether it's the nearly hoof-like front legs of the quadrapedal Maxakalisaurus topai (think 2/3-size Brontosaurus) or the various pelvic girdle sizes to shift the centre of balance on the bipedal species (think T-Rex), nature has a particular way of refining and defining everything for a specific purpose. Then there are, of course, biological elements that don't exist anymore, such as the huge nose hump on the Anhanguera sp. (above). While the lower jaw is reminiscent of a pelican beak, a pelican doesn't have that huge hump nor the pine-needle-like teeth...

The "normal" museum was surprising in its own right. Split among two buildings (one being for "global" science, the other for "Japan" science...) and many many floors (3 basement floors, 3 upper floors), it houses a bit of everything, from various types of kelp found in oceans (above, top), to how proteins are made (above, middle), and a taxonomist's heaven worth of butterflies (above, bottom). Then there are floors for Animals Of The Earth with stuffed animals (taxidermy stuffed, not plush stuffed =P), Progress in Science And Technology (with old machines like computers that take up a whole wall), and The Natural World (with explanations for various phenomenae and even a periodic table with real samples- no Lawrencium though, sadly =P).

The "Japan" building is laid out similarly but includes various samples of animals, plants, precious metals/minerals, human development, and technologies from all across Japan, both geographically and historically. And both buildings are amazingly visual, with lots of displays (above, top) both man-made and natural- I'd be hard pressed to believe that all the animals on display (I mean, 50 species of beetles or nearly-extinct felines??) to be real, but the fakes look real enough and there is a vast collection of everything, even dinosaurs (with kid favourites like the Stegosaurus and, of course, the T-Rex). They even have a replica blue whale outside! (above, bottom)

All is not perfect, however, as the museum is rather foreigner unfriendly. Very little of it includes any English explanation except for the overviews, the audio guides are Japanese-only (I asked), and various touch-screen info panels for the exhibits aren't finished yet (I tried to read about a snow hare only to get a screen that said "Display incomplete"). I could only handle so much reading of furigana (hiragana above the kanji to help people pronounce them) and guessing before I became mentally exhausted...

But it's enough of a visual spectacle that the 600yen entry fee for the regular museum is actually worth it. Even if you just wander around and look at some of the replicas of humongous beetle jaws or spin and push things in their hands-on science lab, it's good for a couple hours.

Oh, and I saw some "Beef Kebab" Pringles on my way home which I just had to try..... there's a very faint beef flavour, but otherwise just comes across as a slightly skewed (no pun intended heh) barbeque flavour.... =P

One last thing...... the weather is warming up in Japan and the bugs are back, which means I'm being eaten alive..... again..... I absolutely despise mosquitoes..... they must be the single most useless creature on the planet >.<......