Gentian's Photographic Misadventures

[Gentian]

Twi Twi and I went out again yesterday. We didn't get home until almost midnight, and by the time I got the pics cleaned up and loaded on DA, it was 0330. I have to work today, so decided to put off sharing them here until after sleeping. Well, I slept, so let's go!

Normally, I'm busy on Wednesdays, but not today! Most of the day was free, so Twilight and I decided to go somewhere we've wanted to for a while. Harborland, or, as Twi referred to it: Wonderland.

After we went to the aquarium, we were kind of at a loss of where we should go next. We both love our times out together, but where to have them? Deciding to cast our sights further afield, we hopped on the net, and found a museum which sounded right up Twi's alley: The Kobe Maritime Museum. It shares a building with the Kawasaki Good Times World. Remember how Twi reacted to the little excavator in the park? I do. Guess which company makes a whole lot of excavators? Kawasaki Heavy Industries, that's who. So two museums dedicated to technology and industry, a sight-seeing tower, and not one, but 2 major shopping centers! It sounds great!

But it's pretty far, and it's summer. Heat, humidity, sun, rain; I hate summer. Not only that, but I need to fit the trip around work. We intended to wait until sometime in September, or October, but the opportunity unexpectedly arose today, so after discussing it with Twilers, off we went!

The first stop of the day, was Kobe Port Tower. It's got a neat design, which you'll see later, but walking from the train station left me hot and sweaty, and I wanted to get in the AC ASAP, so we went right in. These photos were taken from the "4th floor" observation deck. There are 3 floors at the bottom of the tower, a long elevator to reach the observation areas, and 5 more floors there. The view was phenomenal, but, disappointingly, it was hard to take decent pictures, because the binocular posts, vending machines, and the lattice-work structure of the tower itself were always in the way. Don't let that discourage you from going, if you'd like to, though. The obstacles above won't interfere as long as you're not trying to take pictures of a small pony princess.

Clockwise from top left: north, westerLY, east, and southerLY.

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This is a shot of Mosaic, as the shopping/amusement area is known. See that corner in the sea wall? The one furthest right and also closest to us? That's special, we'll tell you why soon.

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We left the tower and walked over to the museums. You can see the tops of them in the observation deck's "east" photo; it's the white lattice-work structure in the foreground. There were some things on display in the courtyard, so before we went in, we wandered around a bit.

This boat, is called the Yamato 1. Not the battleship, of course, but remarkable nonetheless. It's propulsion system is unique; instead of using screws to push itself along, it used superconducting magnets. You can see in the bottom pic, that there are indeed, no propellers, just nozzles. In the top pic, the two silvery objects in the foreground are components of that system. The bigger one, is a magnet's coolant case, and the smaller one to its right is a coil of the magnets. It was cut-away on the other side, but the sun prevented us from photographing it. That's also why we only have a shot of the boat's stern.

Copied from the placard: Yamato 1 Superconducting Electromagnetic Propulsion Boat. Length: 30m, Width: 10.4m, Depth: 2.5m; Maximum speed: 8kt.

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Another craft on display: the Hayate Super Liner.

Length: 17.1m, Breadth: 6.2m, Depth: 1.5m
Draft: hullborne - 3.1m, foilborne - 1.6m
Speed: 41kt
Engine: 3,800 hp gas turbine. Water jet pump, no screws.

This one's placard had a lot more information. When I read it to her, Twilight asked what was meant by horsepower. I had to explain how we came to use it as a measurement. She thought it was a funny story.

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There was more to see in the courtyard, but the air was hot, and sun was roasting, so we went inside. Right when you walk in the door, there is the most incredible model ship. It's called the Rodney, and at 1/8 scale, is still 12m long! It's a model of a British ship from the 1860's and is absolutely breathtaking! Unfortunately, it, and the whole Maritime Museum was plastered in "no photography" signs, so that was that.

There were a lot of other interesting exhibits too, and some very nice smaller models of container ships, barges, cruise liners, etc. There were also cutaway models, 3D maps of Japan and the surrounding ocean, and artifacts left from, primarily, the Meiji era. If you have any interest in the sea or models, I would highly recommend you pay this museum a visit.

Fortunately, in the neighboring "Kawasaki Good Times World," photography was permitted, so Twi and I did our best to make up for the restrictions in the other one. These, are 19th century riveting tools. The exhibit said riveting was considered the hardest labor in shipbuilding, and looking at these , I can believe it. Look how fat those heads are, and how short those handles. Imagine swinging that again and again for 12 hours a day in the burning sun. A sledgehammer is nothing compared to these.

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Eventually, we arrive at a larger display area. Here's a helicopter. I bet Twilight could fly circles around this thing!

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We could go inside! Here's Twilight in the cockpit.

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And here she is all buckled-up in the passenger compartment.

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You may have noticed the helicopter - that's what it is, by the way, an actual one set out for display, not a mock-up - had its rotors removed. Well, we found one, anyway, Conveniently stuck on the wall to the right of the aircraft.

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After the helicopter, we found a bullet train. Part of one, anyway, and according to it's placard, it's a real one, too. It's an example of the first kind of bullet train in Japan, built in 1963. As you can see, the inside is very much like an airliner. I'm happy to say, that modern bullet trains are much nicer.

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This is a train's wheel set. You can see the motors mounted by the axles, the brakes, and the attachment points for the car's body.

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Unlike the helicopter, the cockpit of the bullet train was open-access. Here's my princess looking even more adorable than usual in the driver's seat.

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She wanted a better look out the front windows, so she climbed on to the dashboard.

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Then she wanted to sit back down. I couldn't decide which of these pics looked more adorable, so here they both are. Bullet Train Pilot Twilight.

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Here's what it looks like on the display floor.

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After the large exhibit room, we passed through a hall of very beautiful, and very old motorcycles. But, there was nowhere for Twi to pose. The exit was immediately after that, but we decided instead, to loop back the way we had come. Here's a turbine engine. This was the only piece which had a placard entirely in English. It didn't have much data on the model in question, just a basic overview of how turbines work, still that's pretty neat.

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This is a model of a TBM, or Tunnel Boring Machine. This particular one is of one of the TBMs used to dig the chunnel. They're custom designed and built for the intended job, so extremely expensive, but in my opinion, and Twilight's too - you should have seen her when she learned what it was - one of the most impressive machines we humans make.

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Another helicopter. Flying machines have been around since way before I have, but despite growing up in a world where they're absolutely essential to modern life, when you stop to ponder them, they're amazing. Especially helicopters.

They still have nothing on Alicorns, though!

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Ah, automation: the way of the future. Or so they say. Equestria doesn't really have a use for anything like this, thank goodness, but that didn't stop her from enjoying it for its own sake.

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A model of Japan's first aircraft carrier. Apparently, it was built by Kawasaki.

Oh yes, those airplanes aren't zeroes. They're a fighter which was also built by Kawasaki, notable because it was the only one Japan had at the time which wasn't air-cooled.

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After that model, we returned to the museum, and its "no photography" rule, so no more photos of the inside. It was also closing time, so at a staff member's request, we filled out a survey, oogled the Rodney some more while doing so - seriously, "museum quality" doesn't do it justice - got a free pen for our efforts, and left. Oh, she asked about Twilight, and said how cute she was too.

This thing is right by the doors, but because of the sun and heat earlier in the day, we walked right by it. On leaving the museum, the sun had sunk behind most of the buildings, and the air had cooled enough, that we took another walk around the courtyard, and visited a few more things.

This is a Stock Anchor, so called because of the crossbar running perpendicular to the main hooks. It was the main anchor type used up until the beginning of the 20th century. They were eventually replaced because that crossbar makes them very difficult to store properly while underway, but it also makes them so good at anchoring they're still used in shipbuilding today, where storage is less of a concern.

This one, at 4 tons not including the crossbar, is of a size typical for a large Meiji-era vessel, and was used at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Kobe Shipyard, until it was donated to the museum in 1987.

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This is the Kobe Port Tower, from which the first photos were taken. The museums are on one side, and the shopping/amusement areas on the other, so after crossing to it's west side, on our way to Mosaic, we could finally take a picture of it without the sun blacking everything out. Here Twilight is standing on the electrical box behind the western edge of the memorial to the 1995 earthquake. The white lattice-work of the museums' roof is still visible, too.

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Walking through Mosaic, we found a dress store. I asked her to pose in front of it. She blushed, and kept looking back at it. She'd look incredible in that.

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So, remember back in photo number 2, I mentioned a most particular corner? This is it, from the other side. In the middleground, by the street light - also visible in photo 2 - if you look at the railing, you can see where it changes from bright to shady. That's caused by the angle of the corner. If you recall from the pic, the Mosaic buildings are behind us here. They're mostly VERY crowded restaurants, and the walkways, cafe's and window-seats are just dripping with humanity. The harbor views deservingly bring in the customers, I guess.

Anyway, we attracted quite a bit of attention taking this photo. Not that we cared, I'm just setting the stage for what came next. You see, we went and stood in that corner, leaning against the railing and watching the gentle motion of the waves. Then it happened: we kissed!

We've kissed before, of course, but this was the first time we'd done it in public. When I leaned in, looked in to her eyes, and our lips met, somebody behind us actually started clapping. So we kissed a few more times. Then as we walked to the second shopping center, and eventually back to the train station, we kissed some more.

So that's why that corner is special; it's the site of our first public kiss!

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So, after a great day spent in "wonderland" we decided to get something to eat. We found a neat place called "Salad Bar" which sold a set menu consisting of a plate of your choice of pasta - it was wonderful! - and the run of the salad and drink bars. The drink bar didn't have juice, or soda, or even tea or coffee. No, what it had was water. Plain water, apple water, lemon water, lime water, orange water, etc.

Here we are, the pasta had just arrived, so I set it next to our first salad and plate of hors d'oeuvre. I'd give the place 3+/5, not quite 4, but worth a visit.

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Here are the souvenirs we bought. Strawberry wine, blueberry wine, wine made from something called a shiikuwaasaa. I don't even know what that is. Wikipedia says it's some kind of citrus, hopefully it'll be good. Also, one bottle of craft ale. It'll take us a while to get through these, especially if it turns out Twilight doesn't like wine any more than beer.

But the best part is, we got another photo together! It was taken in the tower, and we chose to buy it when we left to have another one of us together to add to our collection. The dark spot on my shirt is sweat, and is the reason Twilight's vessel spent most of the trip being carried around in the bag - with her head poking out, of course - instead of in my arms, or in my shirt like she is in cool weather.

Anyway, that's it for now. We hope you enjoyed this look at our life together!