A Bus Ride to Tokai

The official visit associated with my meeting involved a bus trip to see research facilities at Tokai, the Japanese national laboratory for research into all things nuclear. I was impressed with the bus, and cropped this photo to show its interior lights only for the sake of the privacy of those on board.

The weather was rainy of an on all the way up to Tokai, and on the way home it rained constantly. But there were a few moments of partial sunshine that allowed some photos to be taken that show the Japanese countryside north of Tokyo, a largely agricultural region with a few rivers and hills, and mountains as we approached Tokai.

As soon as we left the hotel we began by crossing a river (or canal) coming into the city from the harbor:

Once on the (slow moving) expressway through the city heading north, I recognized a few signs:

Some landmark buildings and bridges flew by our window as we passed through the city:

But soon enough we were at the outskirts of the city driving across a bridge that would lead us into the open country to the north and northeast:

Both traditional and futuristic boats were on the river:

Rivers, canals, and farms with homes close by were the rule for many, many miles of very pleasant and peaceful looking country. Photos that show mountains in the background are further north along the journey to Tokai:

Note the location of a golf course in the river's flood-plain in the next photo:

Other places showed farms are not entering the flood plains, the flood plains are strictly wild or recreational areas:

Some of the above photos already showed mountains, but as we approached Tokai, we saw these mountains from a bit less distance:

As we pass into the built-up area around Tokai, I could not pass up this advertisement on the road into Tokai:

We did not go through much of the local city but I did manage to catch a few homes in passing (hence the blurring):

The Tokai research facilities are on an island so another river, with waves coming into it from the ocean outside, had to be crossed:

This was our destination:

No cameras allowed, as is also true of similar facilities in the US, so it was no big deal to me. Our tour of facilities and overviews of programs were both impressive. Japan is a leader in the development and deployment of nuclear technology, as is France. The US is not far behind either, however (these are all my personal opinions, of course). And a large number of other nations are also seeing the enormous potential benefits to their economies and environments from deriving energy from the atom. So the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA-- a Paris-based agency which sponsored the meeting here in Tokyo) works at fostering cooperation in research and sharing of useful technologies among highly developed and less developed member nations. A worthwhile effort.

[The NEA meeting was expertly hosted by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency--JAEA-- that runs the Tokai research facilities, and the Nuclear Waste Management Organization of Japan --NUMO. The US Department of Energy also hosted an NEA-sponsored meeting in this same series, it was held in Las Vegas in 2004.]