Location: Mitsubishi Minato-Mirai Industrial Museum, Yokohama

Do you have children that like science and technology? Are you in Yokohama? I have just the place for you!

 The Mitsubishi Minato-Mirai Industrial Museum (wow, what a mouthful) is located right next to the Minato Mirai shopping complex, Cosmoworld, and provides a fun (if simple) look at the industrial technology behind the future.

 It's full of interactive exhibits and fun big stuff to look at and climb on. You can look at this giant rocket, for example.

 You can see a lot of transportation exhibits - LRVs, trucking, traffic flow.

 Watch an entire model city at work! Does this remind anyone of a simplistic reintepretation of Walt Disney's planned communities?

 There are a lot of aerospace exhibits, too. Look inside a ship.

 Look at big rocket boosters.

 Climb inside a space suit (sort-of) for photos.

 There are exhibits on the ocean, environment and energy, daily life, emerging technology, and daily life. There are also several applied physics exhibits like you see here. This one shows you how a forklift works.

And here you can operate a crane.

There isn't much actual science explained, but this museum is a great way for kids to interact with scientific principles, especially in industrial situations. Most of the visitors seem to be younger children, though the adults there were having fun too. It's a nice diversion from Cosmoworld and the mall nearby, and with young elementary students, families could probably spend a few hours here.

The museum is located right next to the Minato-Mirai station and mall, across the bridge from Cosmoworld. It's open 10-5 Tuesday through Sunday, though there are three weeks (including New Years) where the museum closes entirely, plus a few other days here and there. It's important to check the calendar on their website for details. Admission is 300 yen for adults (less for children and seniors, of course).