Factory and facility tours

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• Where Do Aquarium Animals Come From? Inside Takeshima Aquarium's Deep-Sea Supply ChainWhere do aquarium animals come from?
• "Just a Quick Look, Please": Touring a Model Home When You're Not Ready to BuyCan you tour a model home if you're not planning to buy? Yes. I did it on a whim during a walk, and even a quick visit told me what I needed to know: the price.
• Why Does the Japanese Spider Crab Feel So Unreal in Person?Why does the Japanese spider crab feel unreal?

This week’s archive picks

Each week we rotate in a few older articles from this theme, taking turns through all of them.

• Has Suzuki Changed How It Makes and Sells Things?Suzuki Plaza’s third floor looks peaceful: looms. Yet one loom opens into the entire company.
• Why Test New Cars Until They Break? Inside Suzuki Plaza’s Toughest LessonsFirst, the designers sketch a car.
• Suzuki History Museum: Why One Pencil Line Can Turn Into a Trillion-Yen Factory (and Why Early Design Decisions Matter So Much)An hour into the Suzuki History Museum, and I've barely moved. Most people would go "nice 3D," "cool robots," "big clay model" and keep walking.

All “Factory and facility tours” articles, newest first

Newest first

• Why Is the Moray Eel Drain-Pipe Tank So Fun to Watch?Why the Moray Eel Gang Drain-Pipe Tank Works: Scary Faces and "Apartment Block" Vibes
• Why Are Deep-Sea Creatures So Fascinating?Why Deep-Sea Creatures Feel So Romantic: The Moment "No Idea What That Is" Gets a Meaning
• What Is “Takeshimansion” at Takeshima Aquarium? How a Name Makes a Tank FunWhat Is "Takeshi Mansion"?
• Where Do Aquarium Animals Come From? Inside Takeshima Aquarium's Deep-Sea Supply ChainWhere do aquarium animals come from?
• Why Is the Capybara Show So Fun When You Expect Nothing From It?Why Is the Capybara Show So Fun When You Can't Expect Anything?
• Why Do People Actually Read the Handwritten Signs at Takeshima Aquarium?Why people read Takeshima Aquarium's handwritten signs: the keepers' observation logs make the exhibits stronger
• Yamaha Innovation Road Visit: Real Instruments Beat 108.6 ChannelsI spent about two hours at Yamaha's corporate museum, Innovation Road, taking it very seriously and my own reactions not seriously at all.
• Why Can't We Stop Watching Otters? How Their Busy Movements Grab Your EyesWhy can't we stop watching otters?
• Sea Lions Are Smarter Than Their “Arf Arf” MemeSea lions are more than "arf arf": a fresh look at a marine mammal squashed into a sound meme
• Why Does Takeshima Aquarium's New Wing Push the Giant Spider Crab So Hard?Why does the new wing route push crabs?
• Why Does the Japanese Spider Crab Feel So Unreal in Person?Why does the Japanese spider crab feel unreal?
• Why a “Fish Résumé” Makes Aquarium Exhibits So Much FunWhy do "fish résumés" make exhibits so fun?
• "Just a Quick Look, Please": Touring a Model Home When You're Not Ready to BuyCan you tour a model home if you're not planning to buy? Yes. I did it on a whim during a walk, and even a quick visit told me what I needed to know: the price.
• Is the Renovated Takeshima Aquarium Worth Visiting? Highlights, Prices and a Visit PlanDon't go to the renovated Takeshima Aquarium expecting something big and glitzy like the Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium.
• From "I could live in 1961" to "not the smell": Yokkaichi's 70 yearsYou start with an old Japanese house in a museum.
• Yokkaichi Municipal Museum: Skip the Cat Show, the Free Floors on Air Raids and Yokkaichi Asthma Are the Real DealShort version: at Yokkaichi Municipal Museum, the free permanent floors beat the paid special exhibition by a mile.
• Toyota Kaikan Museum Review: Is It Worth Visiting If You're Not a Car Person?Yes: Toyota Kaikan is free, needs no reservation for individual visitors, and is fun even if you know nothing about cars, because the best parts are the human…
• Are anime manhole covers private? Nagoya's 35 kg cast-iron lidA decorated manhole cover at a sewer museum raises a simple question: if an anime or character company owns the design, is the manhole itself private?
• What happens to sewage sludge? How "poop cake" becomes cement and fertilizer (Nagoya sewer museum)Treated sewage sludge doesn't just get dumped: in Nagoya, 99.8% of the ash from burned sludge is reused, mostly in cement, and dried sludge is sold as a…
• civilization is one long “does a human really need to do this?”The practical rule is simple: remove tools when the purpose is training; use good tools when the purpose is producing a result.
• Indonesia's drinking age, drinks like -196, and a 90-minute night at Nagoya Port AquariumIn Indonesia, you generally have to be 21 or older to buy or be served alcohol. That's 1 year older than Japan's 20.
• Kamomeria in Toyohashi: I Was the Only Visitor at This Makeine Spot, and the Best Exhibit Was the Suzuki Car Yard OutsideI'd just been staring at the Pacific from Shiomizaka, and I was full. Too full for Sawayaka, the hamburger chain everyone in Shizuoka lines up for.
• Kamomeria’s best exhibit was outside: “All Toyotas”—or Suzukis?A model of a historical ship got a “Right… okay” from me.
• Yamaha Innovation Road Review: Real Instruments Beat the 108.6-Channel TheaterI spent about two hours at Innovation Road, Yamaha's company museum. That is almost the whole visiting slot.
• From a Showa block wall to a Roomba-like EV: Suzuki PlazaNear the end of the Suzuki Plaza visit, the car has already gone through pencils, clay, a 5,600-ton press, welding robots, an E-coat bath, heat, cold, crash…
• Suzuki Plaza: Giant Vehicle Yard and a Free Museum That Takes 1.5 HoursThis is part four of the Suzuki Plaza field-report series.
• Has Suzuki Changed How It Makes and Sells Things?Suzuki Plaza’s third floor looks peaceful: looms. Yet one loom opens into the entire company.
• Why Test New Cars Until They Break? Inside Suzuki Plaza’s Toughest LessonsFirst, the designers sketch a car.
• What Do "Mating" and "Marriage" Mean in a Factory? The Day a Car Gets "Married""Did you check the mating on this connector?" "Next up is the marriage of the body and the engine."
• Suzuki History Museum: Why One Pencil Line Can Turn Into a Trillion-Yen Factory (and Why Early Design Decisions Matter So Much)An hour into the Suzuki History Museum, and I've barely moved. Most people would go "nice 3D," "cool robots," "big clay model" and keep walking.
• Why Does Suzuki Still Sculpt Cars in Clay When It Has 3D Software?There is a full-size car at Suzuki Plaza in Hamamatsu.