Yokkaichi, Mie

We went to Yokkaichi which is the largest city in Mie and has a free museum. Our daughter (we’ll use the abbreviation ‘M’) really likes planetariums, so we decided to check out the museum/planetarium.

Yokkaichi Municipal Museum and Planetarium

The free museum (Japanese site only) has a lot of interesting history about the city. The best part were the life size scenes from a few historic periods, which the volunteers enthusiastically explained and even helped us take pictures. The first was a grass-roof hut and a family from 2000 years ago.

The next was a market/store from 500 years ago, where they were selling seafood and rice. “A little sushi for dinner?”

The last was a traditional inn and sweets store from about 300 years ago. The life size dolls were pretty real looking, we wanted to touch them and tug on their stuff. M enjoyed the historical scenes so much, she went through it a second time after watching the show at the planetarium.

Planetarium

Prior to the movie being shown, there was a 15 minute explanation of the current constellations and stars that can be seen locally. The movie featured anime characters and an explanation of how Galileo used his telescope to watch the moons of Jupiter and ultimately was convinced that the planets revolved around the sun, rather than a geocentric view of the cosmos. M didn’t understand all the Japanese, but she liked the movie anyways. She’s a big fan of the planets and astronomy and the 45 minutes experience was well worth the 500 yen ($4 USD).

Pollution Exhibit

Yokkaichi is also well known for having a period of nasty air pollution during the 60s/70s. This caused a high number of asthma cases, and the petrochemical company/refineries were sued, resulting in a landmark case and changing environmental law. The exhibit had pictures of young children wearing masks outside and pictures of the dirty air from that period. The air quality returned to normal since the case, but the incident has remained a dark reminder and a big part of the identity for the city. In fact, they named the air pollution-induced lung disease, ‘Yokkaichi Asthma’. Ouch! Mie and the surrounding prefectures is home to a lot of Toyota factories and parts manufacturing, so let’s hope they embrace and transition to electric vehicles soon.

Summary

We spent about 2-3 hours at the museum and the planetarium, and was a nice distraction from the very rainy day. For lunch/food, there is the Kintetsu Department Store nearby at the train station. We ate some ramen on the restaurant floor, which had a lighter soy sauce broth (Takayama style). I don’t think Yokkaichi has too much else to offer for tourists though, so probably won’t be high on any list for travel. However, if you’re passing through and have an afternoon to kill…