Tokyo Day 3 (Part 2).

So after Asakusa, I took a ferry ride heading towards Odaiba. The ferry ride was very interesting as the boat (which seats 500+) passed through about 20 bridges that all look something like this:

The ferry actually would take its pessengers to the Odaiba Seaside Park, but because I wanted to see more things (or rather I bought a wrong ticket), I was taken to Hinode instead. Luckily for me, there was the Yurikamome which ran across to Odaiba. The highlight of this train ride (which essentially was like those sky trains that serve the airports) was that it actually crossed the Rainbow Bridge. While the train was actually moving in the lower deck of the Rainbow Bridge, it was actually still quite an experience, and the view leading to the Rainbow Bridge was actually brilliant:

The view from the left side of the bridge.

The view from the right side of the bridge – the great thing about the train ride was that it heads towards the bridge approaching on its left, then does a big 360 degree to go into the bridge, allowing passengers to see the right side. Though I’m pretty sure that wasn’t the purpose of the way that it was constructed.

Basically the area of Odaiba can be separated into 2.2 sides – the Odaiba Seaside Park which has a perfect view of the Rainbow Bridge (and where the Japanese drama Love Generation was shot), the Palette Town side which features the Toyota showroom (which does not just show cars but also their designs and concepts and engineering – almost a museum) and the amusement park, and the 0.2 part which actually is the Oedo Onsen Monogatari which was a hot spring mall (think along the line of those spa and massage centres in Shenzhen, though that’s about the only similarity). I say 0.2 part because the place is kinda isolated at one corner of the island, but I guess in more ways than one that’s a good thing.

The entrance to the Oedo Onsen Monogatari – it’s so authentic Japanese.

Of course being a tourist I’m defintiely going in to try this Japanese style hot spring, though it’s not really just a tourist spot – I see many local Japanese people coming here, some alone, some with their boy/girlfriends, while some come in a whole family. Inside the place, it’s not just a hot spring and that’s it. Apart from the hot spring (which you have to do it the Japanese style, wearing yutakas and all that), the whole place is designed and modelled after the Edo Period in Japanese history:

And they even have periodic performance thrown in for good measure, with the performers dressed in, erm, Edo-style costume.

After the hot spring, I headed over to the Odaiba Seaside Park side with my primary objective being the Fuji Televison Centre. The Fuji TV Centre is not just your normal TV studio, but it is also a museum with a lot of exhibits.

If you feel rich enough, you can fork out 500 yen for the admission ticket to the viewing gallery where you can get a almost perfect view of the Rainbow Bridge (again):

And of course you don’t just pay all that money to see the Rainbow Bridge again. You could fork out an additional 1100 yen and be a TV presenter (they would present you with a DVD of your heroics after that). Seeing how the thing works, it’s almost hilarious:

For a split second, and indeed a split second, I had the urge to join in the queue.

Then after the viewing gallery, there is the studio gallery, where you can actually not just see the exhibits from previous (as well as ongoing) TV programs:

The real sets that were used in some previous editions of SMAP x SMAP – I’m quite sure if you have a little bit of knowledge in the Japanese showbiz you’d know what program this is.

But you can also have a sneak peek of real-time program recordings:

If there is any program on recording going on, there will be a notice pasted in that blank space inside the signage – so as you can see, there was nothing going on when I was there. Though I did manage to see some staffs actually doing the setting up.

After I was done with the Fuji TV Centre, I headed over to the Seaside Park to see the Rainbow Bridge (again) and the Statue of Liberty:

All in all, I think Odaiba was really a very interesting place, and I reckon you could easily spend a day here if you were to do some serious walking around.

In the evening, I headed out to Shibuya to do some walkabout and to try to go to a place and watch Liverpool vs United. The match was best forgotten, but Shibuya was definitely an interesting place.

The JR Shibuya Station – you can almost always see some street performers around the vicinity of the station exit. This particular exit, known as the Hachiko Exit, was named after a loyal dog back in the 1920s which was apparently called Hachi (as in the number 8). If you have watched Nana the movie (or read Nana the comic), the sweet and cute Nana was named Hachi by the cool and wild Nana – with the cute Nana initially having reservations being called that because she didn’t like the fact that she was being associated with a dog. That’s where Hachi the dog actually came about.

I was walking around Shibuya, and I was lucky enough to have come across a traditional Japanese street parade, performed by (as far as I know) some university students:

I’m quite sure this lot would probably have won the best float easily if they’ve gone to the NUS Rag Day.

After watching the football, I actually hung around in Shibuya, looking for a decent club to go to. I read about this club called Atom before I headed out, and I think the place would have been great if it was more packed. The music wasn’t the worst, and if it wasn’t that I didn’t want to take a cab back to my hotel, I probably would have stayed longer. In the end, I left the place at about 12.15 to try to catch the last train. Along the way to the train station I saw this big billboard:

The message of the billboard was quite clear, but the person inside the billboard was actually an AV actress. I thought this was interesting – it seems like AV actresses are on about the same level as your normal actresses.

Anyway I really managed to take the last train (I didn’t realise until I reached Ikebukuro when the station staffs were holding the train back because he was trying to make sure the last few pessengers could get on the train), and the funny thing about the last train was that it was completely packed (like it would be during the peak hours). I don’t think last trains in Hong Kong would ever be packed, but I guess that’s really because it really isn’t that expensive to miss the last train. In Tokyo, if you miss the last train ride, which should at most cost you about 300 yen, it would be straight to the taxi, which charges you 710 yen for the first 2 kilometres!

Tokyo Day 3 (Part 1).

I woke up fairly early this morning again – 7am Tokyo time to be exact. I headed off to the Tsukiji Market after a complimentary breakfast from my hotel (that actually wasn’t too bad):

Tsukiji Market is essentially a fish wholesale market, but it was made famous not just because of the fish that it’s selling, but also the raw fish (aka sashimi) that the eateries sell – I don’t think you can go any fresher than that!

I didn’t really try those sashimi though because the queues to each of the stalls were just ever so long, so I decided that I would try this instead:

I don’t really know what it’s called, but it’s made up of egg and honey – 10 pieces for 200 yen.

Then of course, if you are ever keen on buying some really fresh fish, you would be spoilt for choice:

After Tsukiji, I headed over to the Tokyo Tower.

The feeling of seeing the Tokyo Tower was actually quite amazing. The moment I stepped out from the subway station and saw that orange and white tower, there was still sudden sense of excitement getting into me, and I think it was a good choice to have made the detour (I was supposed to have headed straight to Asakusa). The view from the gallery was quite cool, though I didn’t make it to the top level observatory (I was only at the mid-levels, about 150 metres from the ground):

And they said on a good day you can even see Mount Fuji from the tower. I didn’t see it today, and apparently they told me that the weather for the past couple of days have been so foggy that you may not even be able to see Mount Fuji even if you are fairly close to it. I wonder if that’s true.

After the Tokyo Tower, I went over to Asakusa for the Asakusa Temple. The temple actually did not seem that big, but it was just the stretch of stalls that lead up to the temple that makes the area look huge. I think it must have taken me about 15 minutes to completely walk through that stretch.

From across the road – this is the start of the stretch leading to the temple.

The real thing – the temple is on the right, and the tower on the left is apparently the management office of this temple.

Just like in Wong Tai Sin, many people come to the Asakusa Temple to try to get their fortunes told using the bamboo tin. But unlike in Wong Tai Sin where the bamboo sticks with the numbers are placed in an open-top container of which you shake the container to let the stick drop, the one in Asakusa Temple is in a metal container which is completely wrapped but for a small hole at the top which allows the bamboo stick to drop off. It took me quite a while, but I think it was fun.

The rack on the right hand side is for you to tie your lot should it turn out to be a misfortune lot. I think the idea is to let people not to bring the apparent misfortune home.

I headed over to Odaiba from Asakusa after the visit to the temple, and I think I’ll continue writing later – I’m all shacked out from the profuse amount of walking that I’ve done today.