Exploring Odaiba

Back in 2007, I hosted a girl from Tokyo named Araragi Arisako (pictured center). We got along really well and she was incredibly smart and was actually the person who convinced me to start taking Japanese. Today was the first time in 3 years I got to see her! It was very exciting!


She met us at our hotel in Shinagawa at 9:30 with her sister Harue (on the right) and from there we made our way to Odaiba where the Tokyo Big Sight Building is located. Tokyo Big Sight is a MASSIVE convention center that can hold multiple conferences at a time and that I could easily get lost in. We were going there because from the 25th-28th the Tokyo International Anime Fair is going on. Araragi's father works for Toei Animation, which, if you don't know much about the industry, is one of the big power houses in Japanese animation. They're responsible for Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z and One Piece. He was able to get us free tickets!

Today was a business day, so it was far more calm than I'm sure tomorrow and Sunday will be because they're general admission days. Overall, it was very different from what I've come to expect at anime conventions in America. It was still a cool experience, even if we only stayed for a little while.

It was a lot more like a trade fair or exhibition than an Anime convention.

There was only one room, so there were no side rooms for panels or main stages for concerts, contests or cosplay competitions and as far as I'm aware, there were no voice actors coming to talk. Once again, I wonder how much of this was because of the fact that is was a business day and how much of this was because that's just what Japanese expect from their anime conventions.

I will say this though...walking into the room was sheer sensory overload and they make booths back at our anime conventions look down right pathetic. Booths came in every size, shape and color, played music, sounds, videos, some had balloons that look like they came out of the Macy's Parade, all usually had something interactive and something to take your picture with, usually an info kiosk of some sort, a person usually in a school girl, nurse or other type of costume handing out flyers and some even had stages where announcers would speak about their company or product.


I collected a lot of flyers and some of the typical clear plastic notebooks that are very typical in Japan that way. I also got a boat load of pictures that way too!

I also popped into see the 3-D trailer for the Garo 3-D movie and played a children's new arcade game based of an anime in which I had to score friendship points and ended up best buddies with the flower creature who was the star of the game. Apparently there is also a new series of Gundam coming out, so I'm pretty happy about that.

I was also way excited about the Studio Ghibil Booth. Aside from the very exciting Giant Totoro, apparently there is a new Studio Ghibli movie coming out in the near future, which looked like Thumbalina meets Japanese folk tale that I'm sure somehow involves nature and tree hugging. :) I love Ghibli!

I took a bunch of Flip Phone videos while I was out and about, but for the sake of space, if you want to see them, you can view them here. (There are also videos of the science museum we ended up going to as well!)


After we left there, we moved onto the Japanese Museum for the Emerging Sciences which was a very cool and earned my seal of approval, which is rare considering I generally am not a museum or science person. There was every type of science imaginable there - biology, physics, robotics, genetics, anatomy, astronomy, environmental and ocean. It was all hands on and very kid friendly, which meant it was enough to entertain me!


After that we sadly had to part ways with Araragi. :( But my Mom and I made our way to the highly recognizable Fuji TV building to go up to the 25th floor of their huge 1200 ton ball in order to get a panoramic view of Odaiba and the Sumida River. Unfortunately it was raining, so the views weren't as good as we had hoped, but it was definitely worth doing and a much cheaper alternative to paying to go into Joyopolis and riding the Ferris wheel. They also had this cool little thing where you could collect stamps from around the building and then collect a prize on the 1st floor. As a heads up though, if you do decided to go, please note that while some guide books say its open until 8, it actually closes at 6. We were very confused when people started to usher us out of there around 5:50 or so...

From there we headed over to the Tokyo Beach Decks shopping complex which was right across the street and down one block from the Fuji Television building. We originally were planning to go to the Daiba Hong Kong Eatery/Food Amusement Park on the 6th and 7th floors, but I got derailed when I saw the delicious looking Mexican food on the 5th floor at La Salsa. We ended up eating at La Salsa and I loved it! The food was delicious and wasn't too expensive (something like 1,600 yen for my meal of tacos, enchiladas and toquitos) and we were at a table right along the window with an amazing view of the Sumida River, Tokyo Tower and Rainbow Bridge. The staff doesn't speak very good English, if at all, so be fully prepared to be the dinner translator. They're very friendly though :)

Today was an awesome day...and I'm excited to see Becky tomorrow and do a walking tour of Asakusa!