Japan trip 2014: Day 2, Part 2 (Shinjuku, Odaiba)

Shinjuku

We parted ways with Cristina at the Shinjuku station, which is scary as hell. Not because Cristina was gone, but because there were so many people, just rushing rushing rushing. Maybe I’m not used to it because I’m from California and not NYC, but I felt really anxious about being too slow and holding up traffic. At least in Japan, when it’s crowded, people don’t push and shove. In China, if you don’t shove back, you will get trampled over.

We went up the government building to get some (free!) views of the city. There are two towers, but  I can’t remember which one we went up… just that it was the one with the longer line. It was actually… not as nice or impressive as I expected, though still kind of cool. I think the Umeda Sky Tower in Osaka was much more impressive, which I’ll talk about later. Unfortunately, it was a bit smoggy, so we couldn’t see Mt. Fuji.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building (from japan-guide.com)

Mount Fuji in the distance…?

Apparently the white curved building in the middle is the Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower, which has 3 colleges in it (so Wikipedia tells me)

Inside the observational deck floor – lots of souvenirs

After taking a break on the benches here, we headed out to the streets of Shinjuku. We didn’t walk around much here, partly because we didn’t know where to go, and also partly because we were pretty tired (mostly me, since I was still nursing my cold at this point).

We ended up wandering a department store (can’t remember which  one). My uncle, who used to go to business trips to Tokyo, told me and my boyfriend that Japanese department stores always have food in the basement floors, so every time we went to a depato (the Japanese word for department store), we ended up there. I think the food floors were always the most fun to explore, just simply because there were so many different types of food. From desserts and pastries to snacks and bentos. I only wish we had floors like this in US department stores.

I went to one of the dessert counters and bought a small custard pudding, which I’ve been meaning to try for a while.

It was kind of scary though, because I didn’t really know what the lady was trying to say to me. I just remember that after I pointed to the pudding, she was like, “blah blah blah masu ka? *pause, expectant stare*” and I was like, “… uh, wakarimasen (I don’t understand)”. This went back and forth a few times, but eventually, I think she realized I was a foreigner. So she brought out an  ice pack, but I didn’t need one so I said no. But then she put a small one into the bag with the pudding. I was confused why she still did it even though I said no, but I think it must be common practice in Japan to put an ice pack with pudding, since my friend Yoshiko had the ice pack  in her pudding too.

Anyways, Shinjuku was interesting, but I’d probably revisit it again next time I go to Tokyo since I didn’t have much time to explore it. I’d definitely like to try to find the Animate and Shonen Jump stores in Shinjuku.

 

Odaiba

We headed to Odaiba next, which I thought would be a cool place to see at night. I’ve been wanting to go to Odaiba for a while because a large part of the first season of Digimon takes place there, like their big fight with Myotismon. My friend Melissa got me addicted to the original series back in my fourth year of college, which is soooo much better than the English dub. I highly recommend rewatching the first season of Digimon in Japanese since the plot is really good.

The Digidestined at Fuji TV

Barely visible Fuji TV dome, next to the sakura tree billboard (this was an animation that changed between different images)

By the way, if you are interested in seeing more comparisons between Digimon and Odaiba, see these links.

Anyways, that building also had these cool stairs that change color.

You can also see a Ferris Wheel in the background, which we went on later.

Tokyo Tower and Rainbow Bridge in the background!

Food trucks!

Then, we headed to DiverCity  to see the Giant Gundam!

Ta-da!

I’ve never watched Gundam, but it was still pretty cool to finally see this Gundam in person. It’s right by a Gundam Cafe, which a Gundam fan will probably be much more excited about than me.

Then we headed to the giant Ferris Wheel! It was pretty cool. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures up there because my phone and camera don’t work well at night. For some reason, I thought it went up and then down in the same direction, but really, it just went in one continuous circle like a normal Ferris Wheel. OTZ my sense of direction must be messed up…

Then we went to Palette Town, which is a shopping area with a bunch of things, including a mall and a giant Toyota  showroom. We passed through the showroom to get to the Ferris wheel but didn’t see much there. They also had some cars inside the mall part, including a real DeLorean, just like in Back To the Future (but no flux capacitor though).

The mall looked an awful lot like the shopping area of the Venetian, minus the canals (and the seranaders).

We ate dinner in the food court at an omurice place (omelette with rice inside). It was decent for a food court meal. I just remember that we  were a bit embarrassed about sharing our meal, but we weren’t hungry enough to each buy our own meal. Hm, now I kind of wish I had omurice at a legit restaurant in Japan now. Oh well.

Next up in the trip recap, we round out our stay in Tokyo with sushi at Tsukiji, a theme cafe in Ikebukuro, and a side trip to Kawagoe, an Edo-style village on the outskirts of Tokyo.