Key #38: Odaiba - Part II, Back to the Future

The floor plan marks it as a "restaurant" but, in fact, the area is more canteen-like. A bright room, its wall-to-wall windows providing a great view of the whole Odaiba island. Spacious, too: it never looks or feels crowded - notwithstanding the number of visitors (at the tables or still waiting for their order to come through). Other than that, it's more or less a commonplace eatery that can likely be found in schools, factories and such. And it's exactly its commonness that makes it so utterly unique - simply because the eatery is the only part of the building that belongs to our shared space (planet Earth) and time (the 21st century). The rest of it hails from far in the future - starting with its name.

Formally known as "The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation", the seven-storey building is routinely referred to as "Miraikan", best translated as "Museum of the Future". A more than fitting name, considering that, even from outside, it somewhat resembles a space station - and much more so from inside, due to its atrium-based design. The central part of the imposing structure is practically empty - but for an escalator

while all the action happens on the sides. Or inaction, when it comes to the lounge on the first floor

While museum visitors might choose to use the recliners to relax, that's not the main reason for the arrangement. Staying supine helps one to focus on the lounge's main attraction that is suspiciously reminiscent of a certain Blue Planet

The lounge being essentially the first stop on Miraikan's established root, observing the Earth from what is supposed to be far beyond serves to reinforce the above-mentioned feel of a space station - and to anticipate subsequent experiences that get curiouser and curiouser. One such experience is the Dome Theatre where the movies run not just in front of the audience but all around it. Unsurprisingly, while the seats there aren't exactly recliners, there is a distinct similarity between the two...

It might be impossible to explain Japanese technological wonder in a nutshell, but if such an attempt were made, the word would not be "exclusivity" (that might apply to some breakthroughs achieved by, say, China or UAE) . Whatever Japan has, some other countries have, at least, some of it, too. For instance, the USA boasts even more 4D movie theatres than Japan: 50 to 45 (of course, there are almost three times as many Americans as there are Japanese, as well). While "exclusivity" and "quantity" fail to shed the light on that in-heaven-made-marriage between Japan and technology, two other words might be more successful in doing so. One of them is "intensity". Smart seats moving in sync with actions on the screen, or subtle scents diffused throughout the auditorium at the right time, serve to provide the viewers with full physical sensations but they stop short of letting them experience total immersion. As opposed, one of Miraikan's movie theaters goes all the way by putting the audience right in the middle of the developing story on the screen. For instance, when a tsunami strikes, one instinctively starts moving backwards because the wave comes ever closer in real time. Less extreme situations, including quiet conversations, produce the exact same effect: literally every movement on screen seems to be happening in the viewers' personal space.

The second potentially helpful word is "ubiquity". The most unimaginable things, like a meaningful conversation with a robot, somehow become almost common when in Japan. The following video is but an introduction to "practical robotics"

Upon meeting talking robots in Miraikan, running into silent ones in restaurants, shops and households must feel rather routine. The talking part is also important as being indicative of Japanese overall hands-on approach to dissemination of information, in general (and education, in particular). Every bit of new knowledge and every piece of information is made as interactive and visual as possible, even when it's as straightforward as comparing Chinese and American population

Even if the future has already arrived in a number of most developed countries on Earth, Japan must have been its initial entrance point.