TokyoTomo Travel Guide

A Japanese astronaut, Soichi Noguchi, is up in space aiming to stay for a long period of 5 months in the Japanese Experiment Module KIBO. KIBO is a Japanese space station docked with International Space Station (ISS) that became familiar to TV viewers last year through the report by the astronaut, Koichi Wakata, on his activities on the experiment module.

This KIBO is controlled from the ground from Tsukuba Space Center of The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), located in Tsukuba Academic City in Ibaraki Prefecture.

JAXA is an independent administrative organization consistently involved in aerospace from basic research to development and utilization where Mr. Noguchi and Mr. Wakata were originally hired and trained as astronauts.

With Kanto region’s famous Mount Tsukuba in the North and Lake Kasumigaura, the second largest lake in Japan in the East, Tsukuba Academic City is an area with abundant nature where it is 60 km northeast from the center of Tokyo, an hour-ride by Tsukuba Express and 40 km northwest from Narita International Airport. There are over 300 companies and research institutions including universities in this area with more than 10 thousand researchers living in the community.

Located within the science city, Tsukuba Space Center is the field of front-line research and development like NASA in America, which also has an amusement facility for tourists. What makes this different from amusement part is that all the exhibits are real. Visitors are overwhelmed by the 50 m long domestically developed H-II launched vehicle exhibited in the area right in front of the main gate. The facility shows the rockets and space satellite that have been developed in the past, and gives you a real-life experience of the full-scale model of the Japanese experiment module KIBO in ISS where you can actually go and take a look inside. The exhibits are intriguing as most of them are totally new for us.

Various activities on space development are shown and information and books on KIBO and internet device are installed in the Space Library in the PR area, creating an atmosphere that makes you feel space more closer. The exhibition is in a visual-style attracting both children and adults.

(To be continued)

Source: Travel Vision

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