While traveling throughout Japan, it was hard not to notice the beautiful architecture and design featured throughout all of the cities we visited. Even the simplest suburban homes had intricate front doors, and traditional Japanese design was integrated into various aspects of most restaurants and shops. Here I want to highlight the ways Japanese museums, architecture, history, and even trash incineration plants, came to life through brilliant attention to detail.
Japan is known for its buildings and religious sites that date back hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Castles are some of the most notable of these old buildings, and they can be visited throughout the country. One of the castles we visited on our trip through Japan was Kumamoto Castle, which is located in the Kumamoto Prefecture and features a large landscape of walls and buildings. Pictured below is a photo taken by me of the castle as of May 2023.
The original castle was built in the early 1600s, but it has since suffered damages due to major earthquakes surrounding the region where it is located. In 2016, a large earthquake damaged much of the castle, causing the surrounding walls to crumble and many buildings to collapse. In the picture above, you can see the partial walls covered by cement blankets. In order to maintain the original beauty and engineering of the castle structure and walls, each of the boulders that make up the destroyed walls have been numbered. Overtime, workers have been placing these numbered boulders back exactly as they were before the earthquake. Though time consuming, this process has allowed the castle to be restored to its original state, with all of its history and ingenuity intact. We were able to go inside of the main building pictured above, and on one of the floors was a scale model of one of the smaller castle buildings. The picture below is of the detail on the roof of the model, showing how even the smallest features are decorated with patterns and writing.
You would hardly be able to make out such small details from a distance, but up close, these thoughtful additions make castles like Kumamoto stand out amongst the millions of structures across the globe.
Another aspect of many of the tours and places we saw that stood out to me was the extremely detailed 3D models that illustrated building layouts and machine functions. Pictured below is a model that was featured in a storm water drainage and flood prevention facility.
The model was used to show how the large tunnels under the city deal with water accumulation in an urban area. The tunnels filled with real water once the model was activated and played through a scenario with a large amount of water accumulation. The model could have just featured the clear pipes you see at the bottom of the image, as that was the system that was being highlighted. However, in order to give a better idea of the scale and location of the system, the company built the actual city around the tunnels, complete with recognizable buildings and small cars. Another model that was similar to this one was featured in the waste incineration plant we visited in Hiroshima. Pictured below is that model, and it showed the entire plant, complete with lights that would highlight specific parts when buttons were pushed.
As you can see by the picture, no details were left out when creating the small plant, and this made it more exciting to learn about the flow of an incineration facility. Details like these engage a wider audience that may otherwise pass by important facilities like this, helping the public learn more about where there trash ends up.