Solo Trip Nagoya (August 2023) - Toyota Museum Part 1

So, here is where the education begin. I thought I was visiting a car museum, so why was there a giant loom machine in the entrance of the museum? Ha! Apparently, Toyota started out as making thread, and fabric before they make any cars! So the first part of the museum was showcasing that part of the technology. I like it that they actually change the date daily on that sign. Makes a great photo souvenir!

Before entering the main museum area, there was a small exhibit hall dedicated to Mr Toyoda himself. That's him in the photo above.

Here's more info about him. And yes, his name was Toyoda, not Toyota. And the Toyota Way is actually a very popular book about productivity, improvement and kaizen (continuous improvement).

The very first machine demo was actually of the giant loom at the entrance. And guess what, everything was in Japanese. I think not many tourist visit Nagoya. I couldn't understand 100%, but seeing the demo was pretty impressive it self! After that, I entered the factory warehouse area.....

I thought the display was really well thought out. Starting in chronological order. Remember Sleeping Beauty and the needle? I finally saw the real thing! With a demo too! It still amaze me how thread can be formed from cotton just by weaving it in this wooden machine. I mean, I did learn and see everything about it in this museum, but I am still fascinated by it. There were some Chinese tourist from China that was visiting, and boy were they a bit rough. And interestingly, the staff at the museum was also quite rough in handling them, probably from experience. 

I thought it would be boring, me just walking around looking at machines but with not much understanding of them. But then I saw there were staff explaining how things works, ah but in Japanese, to some of the visitors. So I decided to follow them. It was kinda like a tour, but in Japanese. But at least I saw the demo, and how the machine works as the staff would usually demo it after explanation. I did rough understand what was being said maybe 40% of the time. So it was good enough. I decided to follow the Japanese tour all the way, even at the 2nd segment of the museum. 

It was amazing when technology slowly evolved into mechanical. The speed of the thread being weaved was amazing!

This was how big the museum was! You could hardly see the other end! And it was filled with all these machines that made thread and fabric. The tour did helped me understand the evolution and how thread was make. Ha! I was already learning something new!

After the thread was made, next came the machine that made fabric. From the wooden hand operated machine, to the high tech mechanical giant! Progress was amazing!

Here is the modern machine that can even make patterns on the fabric, and in different colours! 

Ending here with a special gift fro VW Germany to Toyota found inside the Toyoda Exhibit. I wonder why there wasn't anything from Daimler? Lol. Were they not friendly competitor?