Monday, March 19, 2012

A Day of Trains, Gundams, & Cat Buses: Odaiba, The Studio Ghibli Museum, & Tokyo Tower

A few things I have forgotten to mention:

When I first arrived and was trying to find the right train in Tokyo Station, I had a moment of utter horror because the train board was all Japanese...until I looked to the right and saw the English train board :-D

Yesterday, on the way home from karaoke, a very drunk man tossed his cookies in our train car...it smelled like booze and hotdogs; we couldn't switch cars because we were in the front car, and were blocked by vomit. We didn't want to risk getting off to move. We were relieved when we had to transfer lines.

So today! We did a lot today. The weather this morning was b-e-a-utiful, which was perfect for a trip to the port area, Odaiba. I had several reasons for going to Odaiba; there were awesome views of Rainbow Bridge, the skyline, a wonderful ferris wheel, and a life-sized Gundam I had to take a few pictures of :-P The gundam area was under construction for a new shopping plaza, but I still got some sweet pictures.

Before I met Pat, I walked past some stores in Ueno Station. One particular store has some One Piece shirts I've been keeping an eye on. The Tokyo branch, however, had different ones. So i bought one :-) A delightful surprise was that it was 300 yen cheaper. In Tokyo. Weird, right? So I went and got the other shirt I wanted as well :-P

To get to Odaiba, we rode the Yurikamome, which is a train-like tram with huge windows-perfect for pictures of the skyline including Tokyo Tower and the new Sky Tree, which is the yet to be open tallest tower in the world. There was also a shopping center called Palette Town: not spelled the same, but still made me giggle.

We then headed towards Shimbashi to head towards Mitaka for he Ghibli Museum, when Pat spotted a curious thing from the window: a clock. "It's the Miyazaki clock!" He exclaimed as we passed, it was this huge special coo-coo clock made by the man from Studio Ghibli himself: Hayao Miyazaki. We got off the tram and sought it out (passing the Excelsior Cafe mind you) and it only chimed its performance at certain times. We had timed museum tickets, so we decided to come back at night. We then got some donburi for lunch, and headed to the Studio Ghibli Museum!

You can't take pictures inside the museum, for good reason-its so crowded, no one would ever leave! We watched a short original film special for the museum, and saw exhibits demonstrating how Ghibli films are drawn and made. There were also crazy staircases, indoor bridges, and a cat bus from one of the films. There was also the most crowded gift shop ever; you could literally not take a step forward. Aside from that, it was awesome.

We then trekked back to Shimbashi to watch the clock toll (waiting in the cafe, of course). It was very musical and cool, I recorded the whole thing. We then walked to Tokyo Tower and rode up to the first landing. We were going to pay to continue, but it was late and there was a 40 minute wait; we hadn't eaten yet. It was a nice clear night, ironically my phone took better pictures inside the tower. I am glad we went up!

We then found an "Italian" place and inhaled food before heading home. What's on tap for tomorrow? TOKYO DISNEYLAND!!!

~Rosie

2 comments:

  1. It seems like no trip is complete without the puking person on the bus or train! Sounds like your trip continues to be an adventure!

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  2. Geez that must have been disgusting. Bleh. Glad you finally had a nice day and got a lot accomplished.

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