This afternoon, just after leaving our visit to meet students at Sophia University, I went to the Panasonic Center in Tokyo. As a mechanical engineering student, I was especially excited to see the site! When I got there, I was greeted by the large building with green bushes on the outside and a wide welcoming reception area. I thought it was cool to see the company being an Olympic partner as they had that on their wall in the reception area, so naturally, I asked for a photo that is shown here with my friend and fellow scholar Exodus.
Once we were brought in we had some time to browse before the tour actually began. It was also interesting to see the details and benefits of aquaponics that they had posted. While we were waiting, me and a couple friends sat around the aquaponics area, chatting and watching the little tadpoles and tiny shrimp go about their day and fertilizing the soil helping the plants grow. Not a bad place to take a rest.
When it was time, we were brought back towards the front doors and the tour started. Our guide showed us a hydrogen fuel generator, which she explained used clean energy. The best part was, it was actually used to power the building showing they could walk the walk instead of just talking the talk. What’s great about hydrogen is it is a naturally occurring substance that only produces water and some heat after it is used for energy, not harmful carbon dioxide or methane. The excess water is used for watering nearby plants and the heat could be used for heating buildings or the more fun option of heating a foot bath.
From there, we were shown a demonstration of their scanner products being used for health and fitness purposes. One read how tense versus relaxed a person's body was while doing some simple yoga exercises on the screen in front of us. I had a go at it and the results, much to my liking, were shown to be calm and cool, albeit a little fatigued. Between you and me, it’s just from the long travel days. At least I hope so.
Moving on, we went upstairs to a meditation room. The motivation behind it was seeing an alarming decline in mental health due to quarantine during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The room had calm music, soothing colored light that changed and mist that had water particles finer than steam all to promote zen and relaxation. Just across from the meditation room was an aura scanner. After sitting down and scanning your face it determined your emotion, condition (from energetic to tired) and personality. It was pretty interesting to see the differences between people’s auras as well as seeing the combination between STEM and wellness industries.
Lastly, we went to an area where we had some free time to explore different interactive exhibits all around sustainability and renewable energy. While there were a few exhibits, I will admit I spent most of my time on one game in particular. The goal of the game was to gain as much energy in a short amount of time without using too much carbon. To do that, you had to switch these tubes hanging from the ceiling to different types of power sources. The catch was you had to switch to the best energy source as the weather changed, indicated by lit up symbols. For example when it was sunny you had to move the tube from hydroelectric to solar energy and when it was windy you had to switch from solar to wind turbines. It was fun playing with friends; rushing, scrambling and yelling at each other to change the power sources as the weather changed. All in good fun and learning. Then we had to part ways and get back on the bus. Although the time at Panasonic felt brief, I was impressed by all the technology, displays, and their real world applications and I am proud of them for using clean energy in day-to-day work.
The future is bright.
Take care,
-Daniel Pedler
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