BigHairyGeek: Orbi: a New Multi-Media Theme Park

OK, I wouldn't call it a theme "park." It's really more of a theme theater, but that sounds odd; and Orbi in Yokohama is hard to describe.

It's equal parts movie theater, museum exhibition, and theme park.

BBC and SEGA have teamed up to create a space full of innovative, high definition video displays that showcase the magnificence of the natural world, the animals in particular.

What you have is a large, indoor area with a main cinema and nine surrounding exhibits. The main cinema is a semi-circular, curved panoramic screen where you watch a 30 minute montage of environments. It's visually stunning. Anyone should enjoy the outstanding nature shots, and small kids will be captivated by the animals. This time it was the four seasons of the arctic. The show was supposed to include aromas and while the entire theater had an odd, musky smell to it I couldn't make out any distinctive odors in the course of it. As far as I could make tell, it was just a high-def panoramic documentary which isn't to say it wasn't excellent. But they're promising perhaps more than they can deliver.

Why go?
This exhibition draws on the BBC's vast wealth of wildlife media and with SEGA's multi-media excellence, they present it so well that it transcends conventional natural history museums to stand as fine art. Honestly, the way the animals and environments were presented was nothing short of art. While the photos themselves were gorgeous, the presentations were themselves beautiful.

This is well-balanced for all ages. Toddlers and infants will be just as engaged as teens and adults, which is quite an achievement. It's a great place to take visitors. It was clear to see that this is also a first-rate date spot; I saw a good deal of hand-holding and shoulder-rubbing in the crowds.

It should be as interesting to environmental enthusiasts as to people who don't know a newt from a skink.

The ambiance is outstanding. We all agreed, when we get super-rich we want this to be our living room.

My favorite "room" was a presentation of jellyfish at various depths. I may despise jellies more than anything else in the sea, but some of these were dazzling! And anything less than HD just wouldn't work for these. I went through it several times. They tried to give the illusion of featured jellies suspended in mid-air by projecting them onto vapor cascades (you know, like in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride), but it didn't really work. But it didn't detract from the overall exhibition. Ultimately, it tries to impress on you how far down the lowest point in the ocean is, but it was the jellyfish that we all remembered.

We all loved the "cold room" where you can experience -20C degree blasts of arctic-cold winds. You don't hesitate to pack into a tight huddle with complete strangers as your survival instinct kicks in.

The weakest exhibit may have been the Animalpedia where you stand before a towering video wall and use hand gestures to select among silhouettes of animals and get pop-up displays of basic information about them. But the information was fairly bland; nothing we don't see on the internet all the time. And the controls were frustratingly difficult. So what it's essentially the novelty of a giant screen and an iterative system that while cool-looking will simply frustrate anyone who has grown up using mouses and touch screens.

There's a room that features the colors of nature and surrounds you with brilliant wildlife photos that match the color of whatever you place under a camera in the center of the room. If you love wildlife photography, you'll probably spend a good deal of time in this one.

Next to that there's a dark and winding corridor that features insects. I skipped through pretty hastily, expecting more of a haunted-house with simulated bee and spider attacks. In fact, it's just sights, sounds, and an occasional air jet. Mostly harmless.I may have been a little jumpy because we'd just come from the Komodo Dragon room where, after watching a short documentary on why Komodo Dragons should scare the hell outta us, they put us in total darkness and simulate a throng of Dragons stalking all about us, with synchronized audio, air jets in our seats, and a rumbling base.. Fun and interesting, great for a tepid date, but not for easily frightened children.

Another exhibition sought to put us in the midst of a wildebeest heard and give us a real understanding of what 1,300,000 of them really looked like. I'm grateful they didn't try and simulate smells on this one.

Finally a flying video takes you on a breathtaking 40,000 km landscape tour. If you're in the center of the theater, it's very realistic. If not, you'll have to try and ignore alot of concave distortion.

Why not go to Orbi? The reasons are few and slim:

I felt 2,600 yen / person (half price for minors) was a bit steep. But my wife contends that we spent over three hours in there and as theme parks go, the price was reasonable.

While the staff are eager to speak English and the most critical words are co-presented in English, the entire presentation is limited to Japanese. But it's largely visual and you need not understand a word of Japanese to understand most of it. English language brochures are also available. But this is Japan and English just isn't as globally important as it used to be.

And although they do regulate the crowds inside keep the numbers within limits, we still had to wait 20-45 minutes for most of the attractions. But the lines were close enough to the "base camp" that the little ones could run and play until their group's turn had come. The Base Camp isn't quite a playground, but it is a good space for little ones to run around and burn off steam.

Know this:
Small kids should absolutely avoid room C, the Komodo dragon room. It's not just scary, but the documetary is shocking and gory. It should be rated PG.
Wear good walking shoes because you're going to be doing alot of standing.
Drinks aren't allowed, and not provided, so be sure to smuggle in a bottle of water and maybe some snacks.
Also be aware that once you exit, there's no re-entry.
There's also a large gift shop at the end that carries quite a large array of natural history merch, mostof it direct from England. Alot of this stuff I've never seen in Japan, so this can be a great opportunity to buy novel gifts.

Verdict
A fun, informative afternoon for any kind of group or person. You won't be sorry. And after you're done, you'll be in Minatomirai which is one of the most awesome urban destinations in Japan, and a short walk from Chinatown, Yokohama station, and Kanae.