This may seem random, but I'm interested in railroads recently.
Especially Keio Line.
This is a picture of it.
The typical of Keio Line is the gauge of the track is set to 1,372 millimeters.
Which is known as, " The Horse Tramway Gauge."
Actually, in Japan, this gauge is only used in
Toei Shinjuku Line, that runs direct operation with Keio Line,
the street car, Toden Arakawa Line, the Setagaya Line,
and the Sapporo Streetcar only.
So we don't see it very often.
It was mentioned in the news this year,
this is the picture of Choufu Station under construction,
where Keio Line and Sagamihara Line intersect.
The service was suspended till 10 o'clock
in the morning for the construction.
Choufu Station has suspended the services,
but by causing the inconvenience,
the trains operated shuttle services at Tobitakyuu Station,
one station before Choufu Station.
This train is known as the 7000-Series,
the oldest type of the Keio Line.
This is a pretty old one among the series.
In 7000-Series recently
The rails are reinforced with steel plates,
in this case, thin iron plates.
The body of the car was made
with metal sheets called 'Collagen."
It will soon become the news,
that because Choufu Station becomes underground station,
Keio Line will revise the whole timetable
February 22nd, 2013.
I live in Hashimoto of Sagamihara City in Kanagawa Prefecture,
that's where Keio Sagamihara Line pass by.
It's the first time in 10 years that Keio Sagamihara Line
plans to restore the limited express train.
However, compared to the past, the stops will increase.
and the number of stops will be same
as that of the express train in Sagamihara Line.
In addition, they will have Semi-Express train,
which is now known as the Commuter Express
and will expand service to all days of the week.
However,
Railroads are not the only interest I 've had ever in my life.
When I was in kindergarten, an English-speaking kindergarten,
I learned about the solar system in class,
and became really interested in it.
I borrowed books about it from the library,
and did research on what planets are made of
and how they were made.
I also went to the Sagamihara Campus
of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
from time to time.
I still go every year when it's open to the public.
This is a photo of the actual 2nd M-V rocket
at the JAXA's Sagamihara Campus.
Rockets generally
end up in outerspace
and don't return to the atmosphere.
So what is this rocket here for?
Actually, a lunar probe called "LUNAR-A"
was supposed to have been launched with this rocket,
but JAXA ended up with not developing LUNAR-A,
and the rocket was instead used in a combustion test
and brought to the Sagamihara Campus,
where there are also older models of rockets.
After the Earth was formed, an important thing that happened was
that life came into being.
I became curious about life,
and was particularly fascinated by ammonites.
Here's a photo of an ammonite fossil.
Ammonites have spiral shells
like conches,
which are a type of mollusk.
But conches are of pelecypod familiy,
whereas ammonites are not.
Ammonites, like squid and octopi, are of cephalopod familiy.
An animal today that resembles ammonites is nautilus.
Fossils are not made from living organism's bone, flesh, or shell,
but from the minerals that soaked into those.
When I was in third grade,
I became interested in minerals.
There are actually many kinds of minerals.
There are different crystal systems: tetragonal, hexagonal, and etc.
There are silicate and sulphate,
which constitute minerals.
By analyzing systems and constituents,
we can divide crystals into separate types:
quartz, topaz, amazonite, crocidolite, and so on.
When I looked up what makes minerals,
something caught my eye:
the compositional formula, which shows what minerals are made of.
While I was figuring out the letters in the formula
in third grade, I became interested in chemistry.
Although minerals are inorganic substances,
for some reason, I became interested in organic chemistry.
Every morning, I turned on my computer,
and played with an organic molecules software.
For my birthday, my parents bought me science lab equipment.
When I did well on exams,
they bought me science magazines including Newton,
and so on and so forth.
Next, I gained interests in atoms.
I was fascinated by elementary particles.
[Laughter]
First of all, I was surprised
that everything in this world is made out of just three particles.
I was further intrigued by the fact that they couldn't be seen.
But there is an instrument that allows you to see them;
particle accelerator.
This is a photo of a public viewing of a high energy accelerator.
Particles have either positive or negative charge mostly,
so if you accelerate them,
they collide and break down.
It helps us determine the structure of the subatomic world.
In fifth grade - by the way, I apologize for my randomness -
I became interested in Hayabusa (an unmanned spacecraft).
I was riveted by its technology.
Hayabusa had a lot of technical problems, for example.
Two of three reaction wheels,
which controlled its position, broke.
These reactions wheels were powered by an ion engine
which was fueled by solar energy, harvested by solar panels.
The engine worked by ionizing and accelerating xenon.
I did quite a bit of research on Hayabusa
for my fifth grade summer research project.
At that time, I was the only one researching Hayabusa,
but when Hayabusa returned the year after,
it became a hot topic,
and about 10 people from my school did research projects on it.
At the time, I had moved on to something else.
[Laughter]
Suppose there are a lot of mugs lined up,
and you are in one of those mugs.
Then, imagine that you pour the water of interest into your mug.
While pouring the water, you can't see around your mug,
but you focus on pouring the water.
When the water overflows,
you can move to another mug,
and you will pour the water again.
If you row a boat by yourself,
you would be lonely and you wouldn't get very far.
I've always been searching for company,
who can help me achieve more and broaden my perspective.
If you also use a previous mug, it'll help you achieve more,
but the water in previous one will evaporate.
So whenever new information comes my way,
I make sure to research it.
When I was in third grade,
I couldn't really make friends talking about chemistry,
but I really wanted to have friends understand
my interest in chemistry.
In second grade, in order to share my interest in ammonites,
I made a picture book about them.
In third grade, I was inspired by a friend
to make some sort of card game,
which I could play with friends.
I didn't want a competitive game,
but a game that would help me make friends.
The rules were rather easy to decide,
and I based the characters on chemistry,
which I was interested in that time.
I realized if I made a chemistry-related card game,
I could share my interest of chemistry with my friends.
What I came up with was
Chemistry Quest.
So I played Chemistry Quest with my friends.
They had a lot of fun,
and even asked me questions about the molecules they got.
Seeing as my friends enjoyed the game,
I decided to exhibit my work
at the Tokyo International Science Festival.
When I tried to get children to play the game,
adults asked me "Isn't it too difficult for kids?"
At this point,
I answered them "It's easy, easy!" and convinced them to play.
Children played it like a normal card game,
and they had a lot of fun.
Now I'm pretty sure if someone saw small children
saying things like "formaldehyde" and "hydrogen cyanide,"
they might get a bit freaked out.
But the important thing is
that the game exposes children to chemistry in an enjoyable way.
Incidentally, the Tokyo International Science Festival
was also affiliated
with the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan,
so a lot of professors came and actually liked my game,
which encouraged me to expand my enterprise,
in hopes of drawing more people to chemistry.
Last year, I founded a company and commercialized my card game.
[Applause]
However, I'm not satisfied with just commercializing it.
I've had a dream since I created the game.
Chemistry is a universal language, after all.
Water, for example has different names in different languages:
"Mizu" in Japanese, "Water" in English,
"Shui" in Chinese.
Only H2O, however, is universal.
Because chemistry is universal language,
and I can speak English,
I aim to branch out around the world.
This summer, I went to Singapore,
and taught this card game to children in English.
Surprisingly, people responded just as they did in Japan.
In the beginning, they asked me "isn't it too difficult?"
However, after I repeated to them "It's easy.",
and make them to have a try.
They enjoyed a lot and gained interest in molecules.
So, I surely believe that Chemistry is an international language.
However, if I go to each country
and teach the game by myself every time,
It would take too much time.
So,
I designed an application for iphone,
to spread my game around the world.
[Laughter] [Applause]
As of now, it's been downloaded about 2,000 times
- [Applause] -
with about one-fourth of downloads occurring outside Japan.
I made the buttons in English
so people anywhere can play with it.
There's one thing I want to do.
That is to host an Chemistry Quest world championship.
By having a world championship,
I hope to bring together
people who share the same interests.
Although now I'm interested in railroads,
I have no clue what I'll be doing 10, and 20 years down the line.
[Laughter]
But the one thing I know for sure is that
I'll be pursuing something I'm passionate about,
I'll be enjoying it,
and I'll be figuring out a way to share my passion with others.
Thank you very much.