Yokoyama Ryoichi writes manga depicting his experience crafting milk carton cars with his son

In August, a family event related to solar cars was held at Bridgestone Today, a museum operated by Bridgestone Corporation.

A number of creators who are the supporters of the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge (BWSC) has participated in this event. Together with their children, these professionals learned about how solar cars work. Later, we asked them to share their experiences through their chosen mediums.

Today, we are presenting a manga by Ryoichi Yokoyama, who writes a popular series of manga essays about his family. Fans of the series will recognize his 10-year-old son, Yuta, who Yokoyama accompanied to the event. Together, they crafted their very own “solar” cars out of milk cartons.

Will Yuta incorporate what he has learned in his two favorite classes—Science and Crafts—into his milk carton car? Read on to find out!

While Yokoyama crafted his milk carton car, Yuta sat next to him and worked on his own car all by himself. Like friendly rivals at a solar car race, the two brought out the best in each other!

You can find out more about the Owl—the 2015 BWSC Cruiser Class Winner built by the Kogakuin University Solar Team—in this article.

Yokoyama was in full dad mode that day: when interviewed, he mostly talked about his children. He mentioned how he wanted to craft another car with his six-year-old daughter—who also loves crafts, and who had to stay home that day—and how he hoped his science-loving son would grow up to build solar cars just like the members of the Kogakuin University Solar Team who led the event.

Another creative professional in attendance was the illustrator and manga artist Yutanuki Yoshimoto. Check out his report as well! Yoshimoto had some help from arts and crafts enthusiast pika—you can find her instructions for making your very own milk carton car on this site.

A note from Ryoichi Yokoyama

By attending this event, I was able to learn a lot about solar cars with my science-loving son. It was a great learning experience for both of us!

My son is in fourth grade, and he just did some experiments in Science class related to batteries in series and in parallel. He enjoyed learning more about the topic from the students on the Kogakuin University Solar Team. I think he got a lot out of the event.

I only hope the event was as memorable for my son as it was for me.