Chocolate Exhibition: the Story of Chocolate

Japanese Required: Moderate
Cost: 1300 yen for adults, 800 for students (cost of seeing the rest of the science museum is included)
Good for: Single people, couples, small groups

The Chocolate Exhibition was a temporary exhibit at the Nagoya City Science Museum that I managed to visit. I got a warning from one of the staff that let me into the exhibit that I could only walk in once: once I left the exhibit itself, I was out. The exhibit held a lot of different things for people to look at, and I enjoyed the many visual displays that ranged from actual, old items to pictures and text passages explaining what everything was (in Japanese). The history of chocolate was written in the passages, but even if you can't read Japanese, the exhibit an enjoyable trip. There were a few things that were designed to entertain children, but they came near the end of the exhibition.

While I enjoyed the exhibit, there was only one path. Because it was a bit crowded when I got there, I ended up feeling a bit pressured by the people behind me and slowed down by the people in front of me. This made it harder to get pictures, but I still got ones of the more interesting things. The fact that chocolate was mainly used as a drink, and the different cultures drinking it had special cups for them, was surprising. I almost always think of chocolate as a food first and a drink second. Some of the cups were very beautifully designed and reminded me of seto ware.

 

The exhibit didn't just have old cups and tools, though. There were also sculptures made of chocolate! Each of the animals in the sculpture above was made using a different type of chocolate. The vibrant and realistic coloration surprised me. There were other sculptures on displayed as well, and all of them were truly works of art with different styles. The different colors were probably made using different cacao beans. Cacao beans have an impressive range of colors, sizes, and textures. Some of them could fit easily in my palm while others were bigger than my hand.

 

The entire experience of the exhibit was one of the funnest I've had. Despite the fairly large number of people, I got to see everything in the exhibit as well as take pictures of the fascinating stuff. The end of the exhibit actually had a souvenir shop of sorts where they sold a large variety actual chocolate as well as a number of chocolate-based key-chains, pencils, and other paraphernalia. I would definitely recommend seeing this to anyone that has the opportunity. It's mostly suited for couples or people who are alone, and it is too small to fit a group of more than four and still have it be a group experience.

Quality of life: Manaca

In Japan, having a manaca saves time, energy, and money. The manaca card is an electronic charge card that can be used for trains (Jr and Meitetsu), subway, city bus, and the yutorito line. It can also be used at convenience stores, vending machines, and some restaurants. I mostly use mine for transportation.

With a manaca, I can just walk directly through the wicket (turnstile). This makes my travel time very consistent, whereas having to buy a ticket can mean that I end up waiting upwards of twenty minutes in line if I'm at a particularly busy station. In addition to this, using a manaca gathers points based off of distance traveled. The points can then be used to pay for subway travel rather than using actual money. My friend K told me she saves roughly 800-1200 yen a month off of the points she gets from her manaca. Because of the savings on time and money, it's worth it to pay the cost of getting a card (it's 500 to get the card, no other payments necessary).

I, on the other hand, bought an all line subway and city bus pass that does not gather points.  I pay a fee (with the amount varying depending on the duration of the pass) to be able to travel along any subway line or on the bus for free without recharging my card. The duration of the pass can be as short as one month or as long as six. You can choose to have a train pass or a subway and city bus pass.  Because I travel around Nagoya almost every day, this saves me 30% on travel. The student all line pass costs 9,990 yen for one month, including the bus. The regular all line pass costs 15,990, with an additional 2,000 yen for a bus pass.

Another advantage of using the manaca is that it simplifies riding the city bus. When you ride the bus, you always have to pay with exact change. This wouldn't be too much of a problem if not for the fact the automated change machine on the bus only gives change for 1000 yen bills. If you don't have exact change or 1000 yen, then you're stuck having to explain the situation in Japanese to the driver rather than simply getting off the bus. With a manaca, the money is taken directly from whatever you have on it, so you never have to worry about having the amount ready: even if you're out of charge, you can charge it on the bus.

The manaca is truly an all-purpose, convenient card to have. I would definitely recommend getting one to anybody who plans to stay in Japan for a lengthy period of time. It saves money, it saves time, and it streamlines travel.