Leave your summer vacation homework to us! A museum where you can learn about the Earth and discover Kanagawa

A world of art to visit, see and feel
File.3 Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Natural History

It's been 4.6 billion years since the birth of Earth, the planet of life. This museum lets you learn about its history and the diversity of life in an easy-to-understand way, following the flow of time. There are around 10,000 life-size specimens, from giant dinosaurs to meteorites and pea-sized insects. The exhibits, each with a story, are fun to look at, but be warned, if you take your time to look around, it's so packed with so much to see that it could easily take a whole day.
Whether you love geology, space, animals, insects, plants, or fish, you have to go. Just go!

The ceiling of the entrance is a vast universe. Below it, visitors are greeted by a row of fossils of life that have carved history in various spaces on Earth, including the sky, land, and sea.

The first theme on the first floor is "Thinking about the Earth."
No one has ever seen the moment the Earth was born, so meteorites from space are used to unravel the mystery. Fragmentary information extracted from various meteorites is pieced together to expand the image of the creation of the heavens and the earth.
The romance of scientists is somehow amazing.

The object placed in the center is the Mandrabilla meteorite, which fell in Australia. It weighs 2.5 tons and is, of course, the real thing. It is composed almost entirely of iron, so if you touch it and smell your hands, you can definitely smell a bit of rust.
You can touch all the exhibits in the museum, except those that are in cases or covered by fences. Use all five senses, including touch and smell, which cannot be conveyed through online images, and think about the history of the Earth and life.
This globe shows earthquake epicenters and volcanoes with white and red light bulbs, respectively. In areas where ancient civilizations flourished, such as Africa and the Middle East, or in areas where Western cities are concentrated, there are hardly any light bulbs lit. In contrast, the Japanese archipelago is so covered in red and white light bulbs that the islands are barely visible. It may be a miracle that cutting-edge cities have developed on such unstable ground.

Whether life was born there or not, the "strata" are full of stories. I don't really understand the complicated details, but it's still very impressive!

The second theme is "Thinking about life."

Bacteria, which can be said to be the origin of life, first appeared on Earth about 2 billion years ago. It took another 1.5 billion years for trilobites and other creatures to appear.
Then, 100 million years ago, the familiar "ammonite" appears. This layer is also real, of course. If you look closely, you will find the ancestors of nautiluses, bivalves, and gastropods hiding there.
The parts within reach have been polished to a shine by everyone's hands, and it could be said to be the remains of a treasure hunt.

The exhibit also shows the process by which aquatic creatures came onto land and evolved into amphibians and reptiles.

But it's the fossils of large animals that really get you excited. Dinosaurs and elephant relatives (such as mammoths) have an overwhelming presence in the main hall.

This is a great collection for insect lovers. I apologize for thinking from a human perspective, but the shapes of insects are truly bizarre, extraordinary, and mysterious.
Of course, they are all valuable natural history materials.

As the dinosaurs became extinct, mammals adapted to various environments began to spread their influence across the Earth. Approximately 6,500 years ago is quite recent in the history of the Earth.
Here, representative creatures from every mammal order are selected and displayed in stuffed specimens. When you think about it, it's a strange sight to see animals that would never normally meet lined up together, seemingly on friendly terms. That's what sets it apart from a zoo, but what's really amazing is that you can get up close and personal with them, almost nose-to-nose. The sharp teeth of carnivores and the size of brown bears really feel real when you see them up close.

A flock of birds is flying over the hall.
If you look closely, you can see the waterfowl flying as well.

Looking down at the hall on the first floor from the escalator going up to the upper floors, you feel like a bird.
There are also points of interest beside the escalator such as "the height of a mammoth's eyes" and "the height of a Tyrannosaurus' eyes," so be sure to check them out.
However, please note that the escalator cannot stop at that position.

The first theme on the third floor is "Thinking about Kanagawa's nature."
Let's take a look at how the land we live on was formed and what kind of flora, fauna, and marine life has been nurtured there from a local perspective. Kanagawa is located on the point where three of the four plates on which the Japanese archipelago sits collide, which is why it has such a diverse range of vegetation. Furthermore, Sagami Bay, famous for its incredible depth, is said to be home to a rich variety of fish species that far surpasses any other region in Japan.
Rather than being interested in natural history, I was excited to imagine the menu at a sushi restaurant.

The final theme was "Considering coexistence with nature - the present and future of humanity."
In nature, a balance has been maintained through the circulation of materials between the atmosphere, water, the earth's surface, and living organisms. In recent years, the activities of humans, who are merely one type of life on Earth, have had a major impact on this balance.
From this point on, the exhibition will focus on data rather than easy-to-understand specimens and models. It may be a little difficult, but I would like to take a moment to stop and think about what the data indicates.

The last one is the "Jumbo Book Exhibition Room."
There are 27 3.2-meter-tall 3D encyclopedias filled with real specimens. The exhibits can be changed one by one, allowing for a high degree of freedom in displaying them according to the season or current events. The world of science is always full of new discoveries, so it's only natural to have such a mobile exhibition corner.

If you go down the stairs to the second floor, you will find a library filled with nature-related books.
During the summer vacation period (until August 19, 2018), a study advisor will be on hand to give children advice on independent research in the field of science. Once a research topic has been decided, the museum's curators will also be on hand to help with searching for and compiling more detailed information, so feel free to ask them for advice.
Once you have compiled an interesting report, try submitting it to the museum's Children's Natural Science Exhibition !