When I was a kid, there were few things I
liked more than trips to the museum. For me,
it was not learning. Learning was something
that I did since your teacher would not let me
sleep after recess. Rather, it was a trip to
another world . . . a world of color and
excitement. A world that totally new, but in
which I could feel comfortable because there
were guides to help me understand how it all
worked. From the dioramas that let me take
part in a mammoth-hunt over the frozen tundra,
to movies that showed me how I could make
diamonds, given a couple billion years, to
trips to other galaxies, museums were places
full, not of teachers, but of big brothers and
sisters who wanted to help us figure out the
world.

But of all the museums, the ones that most caught my imagination
were those that focused on science and technology. They let you do
fun things like compete with your friends in measuring the size of
your lungs, touch machines that made your hair stand on end and
take tours of real World War II German Submarines. In these places,
you could run and shout. In fact you were supposed to run and
shout. They were playgrounds full of futuristic equipment. At the
end of the day, we had learned more than we did in months of
science class. The lucky ones could then stop by the gift shop and
pick up a miniature combination telescope and microscope, or a
crystal-growing kit, or even a kite.

For the most part, on these days, we were free to run wild. The
hunger for knowledge that resulted from these wild days was a
testament to children's natural desire to understand their world.
It was a testament to a group of people who understand this desire
and how to tap it. More than anything, I think the key was the
ability to touch the things we were studying and to play with them
until we instinctively understood.

This is where these museums were different from the rest. And this
is where they are different from most museums in Japan today.
Recently, I was talking with a curator at one of Japan's museums,
and he said, "There's not enough hands-on experience in Japanese
museums." In my own experience, there are many places here that
excel at showing the facts in easily understandable and attractive
formats. However, most of them come across as being geared toward
adults who just want to know the facts, rather than toward kids who
want to live the knowledge. By being kept just out of reach, the
displays become little more than three-dimensional textbooks.