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It is a truth universally acknowledged (or at least it should be) that small museums are staffed by people who are just dying to tell you all about the niche thing they know way too much about. (And I mean that as a honest compliment, I have been that person!)
SO! How did I find myself in said small museum? Jesse and I decided to go our separate ways today. He went on the trains, while I wanted to venture on foot. So I wandered near the share house for a bit (saw a rail yard, driver licensing centre, and a community center among other things) before finding a garden to sit and plan where I wanted to go next. My downloaded map told me that there was a Wood & Plywood Museum which was probably walking distance away, and since the walk would be through some parks, I figured I may as well head that direction and see!
Now, I had no idea what a Wood & Plywood Museum would entail, but it was something and I was bound to see things on the way so here is a quick list of a few of those things.
As I passed over a pedestrian bridge Jesse and I had taken yesterday evening, I realized there were so many fish jumping from the water that it sounded like it was raining. In the photo on the right all the white splashes near the bottom are fish jumping. And it was like that everywhere, the camera just didn't pick it up. It sure explains the fishing poles and nets outside a number of the houses nearby. At one point a bird flew over, maybe 10 meters above the water, and I thought it was dragging something through the water because there was a splashy patch of water that seemed to be following it. Turns out it was just all the fish jumping after the bird’s shadow!
I passed the ginormous Tokyo Aquatics Centre, and walked through Tatsumi-no-Mori Seaside park with their BBQ field filling with families setting up for lunch, and teams of kids playing soccer, even in this intense heat. According to a sign they have rental equipment and terrain to play Ground Golf, Disc Golf, Putter Golf, Garden Golf, and Mallet Golf, among other games. They even have instruction booklets available for loan! Then I continued through Tatsumi-no-Mori Ryokodu Park with its green cherry trees, and cicadas that are impressively loud, and past a community garden. (I have returned to this park many times since to do my homework and relax away from the share house.)
The aquatic center is up these stairs to the right, while to the left extends a large multi-use green area.
Soon I was walking under the highway you can see in the previous picture, and then once I was past the Shin-Kiba train station, there was no one really around and I seemed to be walking by lumber yards. Which makes sense for a wood and plywood museum, but I felt a tad out of place. Following Google’s pin I found an office building with a glass front, and inside I could see a wooden boat and a sign on an upper balcony that said “Wood and Plywood Museum” so in I went.
It was an interesting spot with absolutely no one there so I felt a little like I was trespassing but I figured maybe it was like the old Bank of Canada Museum? Where a small section of the main floor is open to the public to look at a couple things? There was the boat, which was a replica of “The Mermaid”, a plywood boat used to cross the Pacific Ocean in a solo voyage in 1962 by Kenichi Horie at the age of 23. And on the upper balcony there was an exhibit of the company’s various technological innovations and accomplishments (I think, that part was all in Japanese). At this point I decided to get a cold drink from one of the vending machines in the corner before continuing to find some lunch. But as I happened to be leaving I noticed some pamphlets on a side counter. With English!
Wait a minute… 3F? 4F? I had seen the elevators but it seemed odd to wander into an elevator of an office building and just start pressing buttons. But that is what I eventually did. I figured since there was no one around, I could make an awkward retreat if I was wrong.
Upon stepping out of the elevators on the 3rd floor, lo and behold there was the main museum! I connected to their Wifi, scanned the QR code to get some English information and started reading. I was only on number 4 (so yes, like… 10 minutes later) when a man came up and asked where I was from. I replied Canada, and with the help of Google translate we talked a little bit, until an older gentleman joined us. His English was better, so he took over the conversation. He had visited Vancouver, and we started walking through the exhibit slowly with me asking questions or clarifying something, when the first man came back and chatted with the older gentleman. They then motioned me to follow them. The older gentleman explained that because it was Sunday, they don’t usually run the veneer lathe, but the younger gentleman could run it for me!
I was told I was welcome to take a photo. The older gentleman is in front and the younger is behind the glass operating the machine. You can’t see the cutting blade unfortunately, but you can see part of the back of the machine where the log is thanks to the mirror above.
So now I have a piece of veneer made from Japanese Spruce! It was very important that I appreciate the smell of the fresh wood, and I can readily admit it is lovely (much better than the insane amount of essential oils in the share house). Now that it has dried it is much less pliable and warped, but it was very bendy and flat when it first came off the machine.
I also took a photo of this diorama. It was fun having the logging history of Ottawa to help me understand and connect to the diorama. At the front right are individuals sawing logs by standing on the log they are sawing, as it is laid over another log almost like a seesaw. The front left features log driver cut-outs balancing on their logs with the their hooks. There was a selection of tools on display nearby and they are the same ones as feature in the Log Driver’s Waltz. By the grace of free internet I showed my tour guide the beginning of the Log Driver’s Waltz. He was very impressed, and we both enjoyed the shared equipment across history and across the world.
We also discussed joinery, and there was a fun spot where you could take apart and reassemble a selection of traditional joinery that has been used for the past 100 years. And one more fact I learned was that while plywood generally comes in 4x8 sheets in North America, it comes in 3x6 sheets here in Japan. And the full sized cutting blade they had on display next to the mini-lathe was 6 feet across.
And that was my main excitement for the day! Lots of walking (about 15 km in total), lots of people watching, and a magnificent time at a Wood and Plywood Museum!
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