This is the sixth in a series of posts retro-blogging my trip to Japan in January 2007.
I don’t know if this is normal or not, but when I plan long trips, I tend to put most of my pre-departure effort into planning the start, with the level of detail gradually decreasing towards the end. The way I rationalize this behavior is that it lets me be flexible, since I usually have more ideas in mind than I actually have time for and priorities are likely to change during the duration. Such was this case this time, as by this point my schedule of activities had degraded to a laundry list of places that I wanted to see but did not know the logistics involved in actually visiting. So that’s the reason we got a late start today, and it was probably 11 AM by the time we had actually fleshed out Odaiba.
Odaiba is a man-made island that serves primarily as an entertainment district, with parks, shopping, museums, and other attractions, including a giant ferris wheel. It also hosts a few corporate headquarters, but some of these double as pseudo-attractions, such as the Fuji Television building.
To get there, we took the unmanned Yurikamome train across the Rainbow Bridge, which is a pretty cool trip by itself. The first thing we did on the island was to walk around a little bit near the station and acquaint ourselves with a map. And of course we took the obligatory pictures with the miniature Statue of Liberty and the bridge in the background. Then we were off to the Miraikan.
The Miraikan is basically a big science museum. And like many science-related things in Japan, it blows away anything remotely similar in the US. One of the more impressive exhibits included a giant globe covered with LCD screens that was continuously animated. At one point there was a brief lecture about global warming, and they used it to display the condition of the atmosphere through history, scrolling back and forth in real time.
They had an Asimo on display, which Mark and I found pretty amusing only because it had recently been on the news falling down some stairs during a demonstration. They also had an area set up to demonstrate how the internet works, which used balls rolling around on rails to represent data. It looked really interesting, but unfortunately it was a guided demonstration, and I couldn’t really understand what was going on well enough to try it.
One of the more popular displays was a stuffed toy seal that had tactile sensors in its fur and photic sensors in its eyes, and would move and react to being petted or having its eyes covered. I believe it was designed as a sort of fake pet for the elderly, who might not be able to care for a living creature but would still appreciate the companionship of a sufficient emulation. Regardless, the high school girls there were downright enamored with the thing. Mark and I had to wait our turn just to find out what all the fuss was about.
After filling our minds up on delicious science, our stomachs were feeling a bit empty, so we stopped at the Wendy’s next to the Miraikan to eat before moving on. It was there that I saw the “an burger” advertised. An is a sweet red bean paste. I actually like the stuff, but I can’t imagine how it would make a suitable substitute for a hamburger patty.
I also saw zerii-flavored Frosties on the menu, and my curiosity got the better of me on that one. It wasn’t until after I’d tried it that I recalled exactly what “zerii” is: gelatin. The top half of the cup was standard Frosty ice cream, but bottom half was filled with chocolate Jell-O. Gross.
From Wendy’s we walked back to the main plaza and checked the map for Joypolis, the giant Sega arcade. It wasn’t labeled, so we deliberated for a while and then set off in the direction of our best guess. About halfway there we saw it looming in a direction perpendicular to our route.
We decided to continue anyhow, see what we could see, and then come around the long way. And that is how we discovered Venusfort, the world’s gayest mall. I am not even kidding. I had heard during my time at Senshu that this mall had a cool false sky painted on the ceiling that actually cycled between day and night every half hour or so. Well, the ceiling is indeed exactly like that, but it turned out not to be all that impressive relative to the mall in general. Venusfort had a huge assortment of trendy and name-brand clothing stores, expensive cafes, a casino, a massive fountain, and my personal favorite attraction: the Happy Flower Chair.
The mall was actually pretty fun to walk around, but after leaving I think we were both in the mood to do something a little more masculine. Beyond Venusfort, we passed by a Toyota showroom and auto museum (closed), the massive ferris wheel (not appropriate for two dudes), and Zepp Tokyo (a concert venue with no concert that night). Eventually we located Joypolis.
Joypolis is really more of an amusement park than it is an arcade, with large rides that require waiting in line and cost at least $5 a pop. For this reason we didn’t try many of the larger attractions, such as the giant swinging halfpipe simulator. However, we did take on a full-room Jurassic Park game (despite the clerk’s apparent wariness in letting a pair of gaijin on) and an extremely cramped but surprisingly fast indoor roller coaster.
Today we walked from Harajuku to Shibuya. I had originally intended on going to Harajuku on Sunday to see all the gothic lolitas and such out and about, but it didn’t work out. Tuesday afternoon found the bridge desolate, just as I’d feared.
I’m not sure why, having seen much better in Kyoto, but we walked back into Meiji Shrine first. Yup, still a big shrine. Unlike my visit in 2004, there was no wedding going on this time.
We started on Takeshita-dori, which is apparently where all the trend-setters hang out. We saw all kinds of little goth shops, costume shops, tiny niche markets, etc. And plenty of these shops’ patrons were out and about, so it turned out my hopes weren’t dashed after all. From there we meandered over to Omotesando, a street with a somewhat classier, adult atmosphere. Somewhere along there that we stopped at the Oriental Bazaar to buy some souvenirs. It’s a rather large store that actually houses several smaller retailers, each with a wide variety of Asian merchandise—you can get everything from chopsticks (my souvenir of choice) to furniture there.
We eventually made it to Shibuya and just wandered around for a while, eventually meeting up with Adam at Hachiko. He took us to a crazy dungeon-themed izakaya called The Lockup. The Lockup was surprisingly thorough in their execution of the theme: just to get there we had to descend a flight of dark and foreboding stairs, rigged with motion-activated haunted-house-style effects.
The Lockup staff were dressed as prison guards, and the booths were partitioned with concrete and jail bars. Shortly after our arrival they staged a “prison break.” This entailed cutting the lights (cue screaming Japanese women), announcing that some prisoners had escaped, and then letting the escaped killer run around between the booths and pretend to attack the patrons. It was all very theatrical, as you might expect from what is essentially a year-round haunted house. I had some trouble taking it seriously, but it was clear from the screaming that many of the other patrons were scared out of their wits.
The menu was of course appropriately themed as well; many of the drinks came in test tubes and beakers. I chose—somewhat randomly—a drink called the “Denki Shock.” It came with a lemon so I was sort of expecting it to just be a glamorized lemon sour. I was so very wrong. Mark managed to capture my reaction to this vile concoction, and I think it summarizes the experience well. The Denki Shock, as it turns out, is composed of something along the lines of Everclear with a dash of lemon. Upon further inspection, I saw that the menu had tried to warn me:
あThe Lockup’s strongest cocktail. Not recommended for anyone with weak health!
I would perhaps extend that anti-recommendation to anyone at all, or at least anyone with functioning taste buds.
Our second izakaya of the evening was a more traditional establishment, which served such bar staples as the two-foot frankfurter on geta with mayonnaise. We had a pretty good time there, and that was pretty much it for the evening.
