Gentian's Photographic Misadventures

[Gentian]

A little further along was the biggest piece of salt I've ever seen. It's "Wieliczka Salt," so named because it comes from the Wieliczka salt mine in Poland, which is filled with gorgeous salt carvings, and deservedly, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

[Gentian]

Yes, that's a real one, and you'd think it would be on the 4th floor with the other space stuff, but instead it stood alone in the display about textiles and dyes. Or maybe it was exploring? It is built to explore strange new worlds, after all.

No, there was no pony version.

[Gentian]

A collection of herbal medicines, just beyond the textile and dye displays.

[Gentian]

The second floor was nothing but interactive displays, of the type you could find in The Museum of Science and Industry, or MOSI as we called it. There were kids everywhere, and it sounded like the primate enclosure at the zoo, and looked more frenetic than a freshly overturned ant-mound, and we bee-lined right for the escalator down to the 1st floor.

Now, you may recall the first floor led to an escalator down to B1 for the tickets, so, apart from the main entrance, half of the first floor held a cafe, and the gift shop; the other half was all about energy! Here are some insulating supporters for power lines. Beneath the cutaway, there is a little placard which identifies it as a 250mm insulator, rated for a 15 ton load.

[Gentian]

In the same display as the insulators, but on the opposite side, there is a display of cables. The one in the case Twilight is standing on is rated for 34.5 kV, and 800 A. You'll see the rest of the cables in a moment, but for now, let's look at that tower.

[Gentian]

This is what really snagged me as I walked in. I have a recurring dream of the high-tension towers that pass over a river near my apartment coming to life and trudging through the neighborhood, trumpeting like the walkers from War of the Worlds, and blaring air-raid sirens, waving their broken wires like tentacles and snatching people up in them. I've had that dream since before I even came to Japan, and before the relevant version of War of the Worlds came out, so you can imagine how walking into this brought it instantly to my mind.

[Gentian]

Here's another shot, with Twilove still in the same place. You can see the insulators from picture 19 on the far right, and this angle also shows off the model of a residential telephone pole, and lets you see the rest of the cables on display in pic 20. If you're curious, they are rated as follows:

The 6 touchables, from left to right are listed as: 500kV, 275kV, 154kV, 77kV, 66kV, and 200V.
The 4 behind the plastic are listed as CV cables with ratings of: 275kV, 1454A; 154kV, 1481A; 77kV, 1500A; and 6600V, 355A.

[Gentian]

To the bottom left of the telephone pole in pic 22, you can see the top of a cylinder. This cylinder is, in fact a model of a residential transformer. Ever wonder what one looks like inside, without the oil? Now you know!

[Gentian]

This is a turbine, of the kind used in a nuclear reactor. They neglected to mention which one, or what it's expected output or efficiency would be. If you look at the picture in the bottom right corner of the window, you can see an image of an assembly of turbines as they would be in an actual power plant. They're of various sizes, and unexpectedly wasp-waisted. The one on display is the largest kind in the photograph.

[Gentian]

Spoiler

Wow, post 1000! 20170804 - 1246am

After the turbine, we'd reached the end of the museum, and after a disappointing look through the gift shop decided to make for our next objective: The park and rose-garden at the eastern tip of Nakanoshima. As late as it is in the season, we weren't expecting to see any roses, and we didn't. Nevertheless, the park was nice and beautiful, the homeless were unobtrusive, and Twilight and I spent a pleasant time on a bench watching the boats go by, and the water cannon shoot off. We took no pictures of that, because as we tried to approach the cannon to get a shot, the wind, which had been strong all day, shifted direction and drenched us in back spray. Oh well, we had a laugh about it, and decided not to risk her vessel getting dirty, or my camera getting fried by attempting it again.

However, before all of that, we walked by this building, and the architecture really struck me.