My brain is officially tapped -- not good for a Monday. This past weekend, in my newest Space Map update, I tackled the entire Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), much the same way I did with NASA last month.
I'll say up front that as good as I am with picking up languages, what I know about Japanese you could put on the head of a pin and still have room for the Ten Commandments. But hey, if we never traveled to the event horizon of our abilities and attempted to stretch beyond it, we'd never know what we can do, right?
Conclusion: This was fun, but my brain is definitely not cut out for Japonic language families. I'm still glad I made the attempt to find every site of the Japanese Space Agency in the native tongue -- and I put them on the Pillownaut Space Map in both English and 日本語.
I encountered a few interesting surprises. Japan possesses the one and only world space agency that is accessible only by ship. Ironic, eh? No driving there for a casual visit, so you'd have to be a pretty hardcore space enthusiast to find the Ogasawara Station. No airports on this island, the idea was too controversial! One must travel to the Takeshiba Pier in Tokyo, and take the Ogasawara Maru ship to the Hutami port of Chichijima Island to see the JAXA site. Ah, someday.
Also, JAXA has four international offices across the Earth that act as liaisons to NASA HQ, NASA Mission Control, the European Space Agency and also science industries in the Asia-Pacific.
本社・調布航空宇宙センター or JAXA Chofu Headquarters (Tokyo)
名古屋駐在員事務所 or Nagoya JAXA Office (Aichi)
能代多目的実験場 or Noshiro Testing Center (Akita)
勝浦宇宙通信所 or Katsuura Tracking & Communication Station (Chiba)
小笠原追跡所 or Ogasawara Downrange Station (Chichijima Island - Ships Only)
大樹航空宇宙実験場 or Taiki Aerospace Research Field (Hokkaido)
筑波宇宙センター or Tsukuba Space Center (Ibaraki)
種子島宇宙センター or Tanegashima Space Center (Kagoshima)
内之浦宇宙空間観測所 or Uchinoura Space Center (Kimotsuki)
相模原キャンバス or Sagamihara JAXA Campus (Kanagawa)
角田宇宙センター or Kakuda Space Center (Miyagi)
臼田宇宙空間観測所 or Usuda Deep Space Center (Nagano)
沖縄宇宙通信所 or Okinawa Tracking & Communication Station (Kunigami, Okinawa [island])
関西サテライトオフィス or Kansai Satellite Office (Osaka)
地球観測センター or the JAXA Earth Observation Center (Saitama)
増田宇宙通信所 or Masuda Tracking & Communication Station (Tanegashima)
INTL - FRANCE: JAXA Paris Office
INTL - THAILAND: JAXA Bangkok Office
INTL - UNITED STATES: JAXA Houston, TX Office
INTL - UNITED STATES: JAXA Washington DC Office
If you have the time on your hands, definitely read some of the descriptions of JAXA's projects among the many sites; their space agency has truly grown into a huge, complex, varied and amazing entity!
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