Permanent Exhibition: Reports from the Poles

Eight sections tracing what Japanese researchers have found at both poles. There are dioramas and live footage from Syowa Station, opened in 1957, alongside a wintering team's private room and cold-weather gear, and the KD604 snow vehicle actually driven a round trip to the South Pole. Ice-core drill and automatic weather station are shown as working machines. The TACHIHI Aurora Theatre screens aurora footage on a four-metre dome, and rocks collected in Antarctica — along with lunar and Martian meteorites — can be examined under a microscope and touched. Further sections cover mosses and lichens that survive the cold, and the Southern Ocean ecosystem built around Antarctic krill. Admission free.