OMG ODB – Oh My God, O-Dai-Ba
Dear readers! Beloved fans! Long time no see!
I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving. I think I ate some curry that night. I tend to eat curry often. In retrospect, I should have at least made some mashed potatoes for nostalgia.
So what has been going on with me? Well, not a whole lot, but last week was great. For starters, I got my laptop on Thursday! I can’t even put into words how relieved I am. Internet, music, movies (my dvd player was broken), Skype, games, studying, work…..yeah, I use it for a lot of stuff. If it wasn’t for my laptop, I wouldn’t be writing this journal entry now!
And the other reason last week was great? I went to Tokyo. Ohhhhhhh, Tokyo is always great…..
But enough of these recent updates. Who cares about the now? I am all about the past. In particular, I’m all about two months in the past. Since things that happened two months ago are all the rage right now, I decided I’m going to write about something that happened two months ago. Coincidentally, this is also when any major updates of my life on this blog stopped appearing. But that’s really just coincidence…..psychologists have done studies to show we can find reason or patterns in anything if we rationalize enough, so stop rationalizing.
Other than a really cool looking guy in that picture above, you might notice a shrine like thing and a weird building. This is our setting of our topic tonight, Odaiba (Oh-die-ba)!
An actual scale "Gundam". An example of the random stuff that comes to Odaiba
What is Odaiba? It’s one of my favorite places in Tokyo. I went there my first time I went to Japan, and I’ve gone twice now since I’ve been here. Odaiba is a man made island in Tokyo. It is home to some fun game centers, an amusement park, and some shopping malls/interesting sight (the building with the weird sphere thing is Japan’s Fuji network TV station and the public is allowed to tour it free, for example). It also always has interesting stuff going on too.
Besides actual scale sized Gundams, why else is Odaiba so awesome? Let me tell you a story children. Please sit down.
So there Chiaki and I were with some time before our trip to Okinawa. We needed something to do for a night. I don’t like to overthink this crap, so I just remembered my first time in Tokyo and how awesome Odaiba was, and got excited and insisted immediately that we go to Odaiba. My friends will know this well, but when I decide to do something and get worked up about it, I get really really excited and any negativity that could pose a threat to my own positivity goes in one ear and out the other.
And so my idea wasn’t met with the same level of excitement as I brought to the table, but I didn’t waver one bit. It had been almost two years since I had been to Odaiba and all I could remember was how awesome this place was. I quickly shot down any reasons that made it seem like Odaiba wasn’t anything but the ideal place to go to that night, we both got ready to head out, and then we jumped on the next train.
The train ride itself was pretty cool (sorry, no pictures of that…I was too mesmerized to remember to take pictures). You actually have to get off the normal train line in Tokyo and take a monorail to Odaiba. The station is really spacious, clean, and futuristic seeming and the train itself is nice. But it also passes through some of the nicer places of Tokyo and has beautiful views of the city landscape. For me, the train ride itself almost proved my point that we should go to Odaiba (but after spending more time in Tokyo and becoming accustomed to the city landscape I think my fascination just proved that I live out in the fucking country).
So after 40 minutes or so, we arrived in Odaiba and get off the monorail.
Hmm??
What’s that sound?
Some kind of acoustic guitar??
Are those horns playing with it??
Also, why are there so many people here tonight? And why are they all going in one direction?
Something was out of place. Chiaki and I went to investigate what was going on. As we get closer and closer, I begin to realize the very unlikely live show taking place. We get to the stage and turn the corner and are greeted by some men in hats……
.
.
.
.
Dorothy, I don’t think we’re in Japan anymore.
Are you kidding me?
Fiesta Mexicana in Japan??
I had never even seen a latino person in Japan before this night. What the fuck.
But no matter how surprised I was (I really couldn’t believe what I was seeing), I was happy.
The music was great, the people were lively, and there was dancing. You can see the atmosphere here!
Ohhhh. That’s right. Now that I have my own laptop I’m making professional quality blog updates that include videos. And that’s not all…..there’s still one video that will appear in this very post. WOW!
Anyway, so there was the main event of fiesta Mexicana.
But there was one more reason I was excited for fiesta Mexicana. Actually, it was pretty much the main reason I was really excited.
Mexican food.
I have seen one Mexican restaurant in Japan thus far. By now, I have also spent quite a bit of time in Tokyo, so I have been around and seen tons of restaurants.
But this was FIESTA MEXICANA. It would be a crime not to have Mexican food! After leaving the main stage, we immediately went to search for some Mexican food.
On our way to find some tacos, we also found out that they were not only celebrating and sharing the great food of Mexico, but also the great drinks.
It even has a lime float, just like every Corona should!
Also what is not photographed are the numerous stands which were selling Tequila shots…..Fortunately, I don’t think I saw any Hose Cuervo.
And so then we finally arrived at Tacos!
Only one of those pictures were taken with my knowledge.
It was great to eat a taco that night, but all it did was remind me how much I wanted to eat some Baja Fresh. And now writing this entry two months later I am again reminded that I NEED TO EAT SOME BAJA FRESH WHOCARESABOUTSUSHIANDRICENOTME.
Ahem.
We went to some of the mall/restaurant areas after finishing up with fiesta Mexicana. Again, we found another event going on! Most of the readers won’t know this, but some will:
It was a display for the manga/anime One Piece! There is a new movie or something coming out (came out?) so they had this up….anyway it was pretty fun to walk through and see : )
We kept going around Odaiba and I was impressed again. Odaiba probably has the best view of Tokyo. It’s not up high and you can’t see all of Tokyo, but you can see the night skyline. 
But pictures suck at capturing the great view from Odaiba. And since I’m really cool, and kind, and nice, and a humble person, I prepared another video for you all!
The bridge in the middle is called Rainbow bridge. If you search it on youtube, I’m sure you can find some more cool videos of the area.
And that ended night one in Odaiba~~~
So what was the point of this story?
(1) Odaiba is awesome
(2) Steven was right about going to Odaiba.
on the way back I noticed a place called SEGA JOYPOLIS.
Hmm, what’s this I thought?????
It was an amusement park!
It was already 9pm, so we had no time to go. So we decided next time we would come to Odaiba.
A month later we set foot in Odaiba again.
Objective, JOYPOLIS the amusement park.
One problem — we got off the train one stop early and forgot the way there. So we wandered around in circles for an hour before we finally got there.
As we got close to Joypolis, there was once again, something going on in Odaiba!
It was a performer and her monkey!
He did lots of cool tricks and it was fun to watch for a few minutes (got there just as it was ending) before we got in Joypolis. But this monkey is also important because since that day I have seen him not one, but -two- times on TV. Myself having seen him in person, I also feel that I am basking in the monkeys fame since “I was there”. He’s also special because he attacked one of the hosts on the TV show. It wasn’t vicious or anything, but he kept jumping on him and pushing him down. And giving him mean looks (I’m serious).
Of course Joypolis was a blast as well. It had some really good rides, and then some mediocre ones. One of the things that stood out for me was that I got to take a picture with Sonic!
Sonic is all dressed up for Halloween
The best part by far was either the snowboard halfpipe or the room of living dolls.
The room of living dolls was this horror-type experience. It had a story about a mother who lost her daughter in the war, and then to bring her back made a doll the same size and put a human heart in it to bring it to life. Basically like Frankenstein. Everybody gets led into the room where the story is told and we all sit down around this large table. The room itself is full of creepy dolls with glowing eyes. And of course in the front-center of the room is the queen doll herself, the living doll.
You are given these headphones to wear and they turn off the lights in the room. The headphones play the story with some kind of 360 degrees sound system. It felt very, very real. As the old lady in the headphones was telling the story she walks around the room in the circle. It was done so well I had to actually check if there was anyone in the room. It was hard to tell if there were noises coming from around the room or from the headphones.
After Joypolis I had a delicious cheeseburger and some onion rings at a restaurant in Odaiba, which I was also very pleased with.
And that brings me to the end of my adventures in Odaiba so far. I want to leave with one more great thing from Odaiba.
This is an environmental awareness……display, statue, quiz-thing. They have some information about rain forests being destroyed. Then there is a quiz also, the question in the display roughly reads “In one year how much area does the destruction of the earth’s rain forests cover?” The correct answer is the largest amount of area that they give in the answers, and if you answer it correctly then the bears will begin to cry. I am trying to look sad in this picture in sympathize along with the bears.
