Odaiba
So Ba's labmate Hiroshi had told her about a good train ride to Odaiba and some nice restaurants overlooking the water. The first thing we did there was happen upon this kitty store, where we bought Christmas presents for Tigger - consisting of several exciting varieties of seafood.
We then headed toward the water and ended up on a boardwalk-type-thing running alongside rather large shopping complexes. It was quite nice, though also quite cold. The view was really very pretty - with Rainbow Bridge all lit up and pleasure boats on the water, and especially with the additional festive, seasonal lights. However, it seemed a much deader area of the city than anyplace else we'd been. Perhaps sprucing up Odaiba is the city's attempt to redistribute some of the pleasure-seeking public. Doesn't seem to be working too well though, as most everyone else we saw there were old or couple-y (felt very weird for me, as you rarely see people behaving couple-y in Tokyo). But as Decks (one of the huge department store complexes there) was having a tenth anniversary or something, at least it made for some good photo ops.
We mostly just enjoyed the view and atmosphere, had dinner of soba and tempura in a restaurant in Aquacity (another of the deparment stores) where we also had our first Ramune (*very* enjoyable; if all soft drinks were as fun to drink, I might start drinking soda again) and amused ourselves with our surroundings. (Yes, that is a replica of the Statue of Liberty behind the pink Christmas tree in the picture below.) My sister astutely observed that "Tokyo is so weird in the ways it is weird."
The Fuji Television headquarters are also right there in a very cool-looking building with a great, metal sphere at the top. We wanted very much to get in and see the view from there, but it seemed closed until January (a recurring theme for Ba's visit). We did at least get to ride the Meiji Chocolate Escalator, which was bright and shiney and played Meiji Chocolate commercials on flat-screen tvs during our trip down. Ba said it reminded her of some weird part of Chicago's O'Hare Airport; I thought it was reminiscent of amusement parks a la Disneyland, which is maybe the point.
*I didn't have my proper camera with me, and Ba was running out of space on hers, so these cell phone photos are the only ones of Odaiba I have. Sorry.
We then headed toward the water and ended up on a boardwalk-type-thing running alongside rather large shopping complexes. It was quite nice, though also quite cold. The view was really very pretty - with Rainbow Bridge all lit up and pleasure boats on the water, and especially with the additional festive, seasonal lights. However, it seemed a much deader area of the city than anyplace else we'd been. Perhaps sprucing up Odaiba is the city's attempt to redistribute some of the pleasure-seeking public. Doesn't seem to be working too well though, as most everyone else we saw there were old or couple-y (felt very weird for me, as you rarely see people behaving couple-y in Tokyo). But as Decks (one of the huge department store complexes there) was having a tenth anniversary or something, at least it made for some good photo ops.
We mostly just enjoyed the view and atmosphere, had dinner of soba and tempura in a restaurant in Aquacity (another of the deparment stores) where we also had our first Ramune (*very* enjoyable; if all soft drinks were as fun to drink, I might start drinking soda again) and amused ourselves with our surroundings. (Yes, that is a replica of the Statue of Liberty behind the pink Christmas tree in the picture below.) My sister astutely observed that "Tokyo is so weird in the ways it is weird."
The Fuji Television headquarters are also right there in a very cool-looking building with a great, metal sphere at the top. We wanted very much to get in and see the view from there, but it seemed closed until January (a recurring theme for Ba's visit). We did at least get to ride the Meiji Chocolate Escalator, which was bright and shiney and played Meiji Chocolate commercials on flat-screen tvs during our trip down. Ba said it reminded her of some weird part of Chicago's O'Hare Airport; I thought it was reminiscent of amusement parks a la Disneyland, which is maybe the point.
*I didn't have my proper camera with me, and Ba was running out of space on hers, so these cell phone photos are the only ones of Odaiba I have. Sorry.
posted by Bibhatsu at 20:06
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