now that our European vacation is over and we have regular internet access again, i can do a little better on blogging. i'll get around to all those England and France pictures, but first something a little closer to home. Nagoya, as i may have mentioned, is pretty much home to what will soon be the largest car manufacturing company in the world, Toyota. there is even an eponymous city a few Kilometers Southeast of town where many of their operations center. Toyota is widely believed to have been the force that virtually recession-proofed Nagoya during Japan's turbulent 90s, and its presence seems to be felt quite strongly, so we decided to find out a little more about it.
the pleasant grounds and glorious weather we experienced on our recent trip to Noritake Gardens in central Nagoya.
close to our place near the center of Nagoya, both Toyota and Noritake China have museums showcasing their various wares. though the Noritake place boasts beautiful grounds and a pretty decent lineup of sandwiches in the cafe, the museum subject matter wasn't all that appealing to me, so we spent the bulk of our afternoon at the nearby Toyota place. i suppose most folks don't know that Toyota started out as a manufacturer of weaving looms in the early twentieth century, nor yet that it was actually called Toyoda. the inventor of all those looms and the founder of the company was named Sakichi Toyoda, whose family name consists of two characters--豊田--the last of which can be read da or ta (if your browser doesn't support Chinese characters, the one we're talking about looks like a box divided horizontally and vertically into four equal quadrants).
the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology is divided into a large section of working looms of all ages and another large sections for cars. i went having the cars in mind but was fascinated by all the demonstrations they had about textile manufacture. Mr Toyoda was quite the inventor, and developed numerous nifty devices for improving quality of production in weaving, many of which were demonstrated by the helpful uniformed hostesses that seemed to be everywhere. there were all kinds of machines there including fully automated entire production lines that are still being manufactured and sold by Toyota Industries.
just one of the many helpful hostesses who demonstrated the great variety of machinery in the textile area. below, the original badge of Toyoda's first passenger automobile, the AA, which cleverly incorporates the Toyoda characters into its design.
despite all of my Economics lectures being brought so vividly to life in this part of the museum, we did eventually make our way on to the vehicle section. this area, like its textile counterpart, had examples of all ages spread around the place, and even more hands-on demonstrations. there were numerous cutaways that showed how clutches, transmissions and four-wheel steering work; there working examples of the huge machines that stamp out body panels; there were production timeline presentations and prototypes and all kinds of things to keep a car person very busy. i could have spent much more than the three or four hours we did in there.
one of the cool demos in the kid's area that tells you your weight (unfortunately not in pounds) by balancing you on a lever against an engine.
but you can't spend your whole life in a museum, even one as good as this; it was really one of the most interesting i've ever been to. we did have to leave, but we made time to check out the area they have for kids, which they let us do i guess because they weren't sure how to tell us to leave in English. it was very cool and even more interactive than the rest of the museum, with a wind tunnel you could go in to get a feel for the principles of aerodynamics, a virtual-reality maze that you navigated by way of a computerized helmet and a huge treadwheel that made you feel just like a hamster. so for a good time in Nagoya i recommend a trip to the TCMIT; after all, this is Toyota's town.
the pleasant grounds and glorious weather we experienced on our recent trip to Noritake Gardens in central Nagoya.
close to our place near the center of Nagoya, both Toyota and Noritake China have museums showcasing their various wares. though the Noritake place boasts beautiful grounds and a pretty decent lineup of sandwiches in the cafe, the museum subject matter wasn't all that appealing to me, so we spent the bulk of our afternoon at the nearby Toyota place. i suppose most folks don't know that Toyota started out as a manufacturer of weaving looms in the early twentieth century, nor yet that it was actually called Toyoda. the inventor of all those looms and the founder of the company was named Sakichi Toyoda, whose family name consists of two characters--豊田--the last of which can be read da or ta (if your browser doesn't support Chinese characters, the one we're talking about looks like a box divided horizontally and vertically into four equal quadrants).
the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology is divided into a large section of working looms of all ages and another large sections for cars. i went having the cars in mind but was fascinated by all the demonstrations they had about textile manufacture. Mr Toyoda was quite the inventor, and developed numerous nifty devices for improving quality of production in weaving, many of which were demonstrated by the helpful uniformed hostesses that seemed to be everywhere. there were all kinds of machines there including fully automated entire production lines that are still being manufactured and sold by Toyota Industries.
just one of the many helpful hostesses who demonstrated the great variety of machinery in the textile area. below, the original badge of Toyoda's first passenger automobile, the AA, which cleverly incorporates the Toyoda characters into its design.
despite all of my Economics lectures being brought so vividly to life in this part of the museum, we did eventually make our way on to the vehicle section. this area, like its textile counterpart, had examples of all ages spread around the place, and even more hands-on demonstrations. there were numerous cutaways that showed how clutches, transmissions and four-wheel steering work; there working examples of the huge machines that stamp out body panels; there were production timeline presentations and prototypes and all kinds of things to keep a car person very busy. i could have spent much more than the three or four hours we did in there.
one of the cool demos in the kid's area that tells you your weight (unfortunately not in pounds) by balancing you on a lever against an engine.
but you can't spend your whole life in a museum, even one as good as this; it was really one of the most interesting i've ever been to. we did have to leave, but we made time to check out the area they have for kids, which they let us do i guess because they weren't sure how to tell us to leave in English. it was very cool and even more interactive than the rest of the museum, with a wind tunnel you could go in to get a feel for the principles of aerodynamics, a virtual-reality maze that you navigated by way of a computerized helmet and a huge treadwheel that made you feel just like a hamster. so for a good time in Nagoya i recommend a trip to the TCMIT; after all, this is Toyota's town.
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