10 May 2010
Odaiba, Shopping in Shibuya
Just a small update today, despite being out from 10am until 8pm, I spent a lot of this time sort of working and on the phone to work, which was frustrating.
My plans changed a few times, it being Monday a lot of things are shut, but I decided to go to Odaiba which is an island made from reclaimed land in Tokyo bay which has a lot of weird buildings (none of which I managed to take photos of).
Also on the island are a number of shopping malls, mainly with international brands, a large Toyota showroom which was also shut on mondays, Joypolis (Sega World) and a mini statue of liberty.
I didnt do much at Odaiba except wander around and have a nice lunch.
In the late afternoon I went to Shibuya and did some gift shopping. Tokyu Hands and Loft are similar stores that are both good, specialising in 'active life goods', which means homewares. The cooking products are especially good.
As I had a big lunch, I had dinner in my hotel room which I purchased from the food hall in a department store, it was very good! Read on for details.
Also since I didnt come home during the day, and this evening I am staying home to watch the grand prix, there will be only one update today. Sorry!
Here I am sitting on the monorail that goes to Odaiba.
The monorail goes over the rainbow bridge, which is only rainbow colored at night. Its nothing special at all during the day time.
Im rinding on a monorail, going over the rainbow bridge, and watching a blimp fly past. Yes I was quite excited.
A challenger appears. Theres more than 1 giant ferris wheel in the general area of Tokyo. Closed. Monday.
This island is actually an industrial shipping port, they have tried hard to disguise the fact.
This mall is multi storey, but each one has a blue sky. They painted it on the ceiling and lit it up. Its quite effective.
This is the food court where I had lunch. It looks pretty upmarket but all the prices were very reasonable.
My lunch is actually a fairly decent steak, with some rice and miso soup. It was delicious and unexpected in a foodcourt for $8.
I have noted that when they have pictures of food to choose from in Japan, you really get whats in the picture, unlike the burger joints in other plcaes where it looks delicious on the sign but you get a bag full of slop with melted cheese covering everything.
The sphinx was damn excited to see me, I do think he was cheering after I took the photo.
In the back streets of Shibuya is Japanese hip hop world. With mainly shoe shops, vinyl shops, track suit shops and gold chain bling shops. Also a bunch of posters everywhere advertising 'dj set, with robotic cat' and similar sort of things.
Heres my dinner. It mostly came from the food hall of a fancy departments store, but was pretty cheap really. The sushi was the best sushi I have ever eaten, despite coming in a plastic box. It was put in their just as I bought it and they wrap it in ice for you to take home, so it was fresh.
The pastry is without a doubt, the nicest I have ever eaten. I want to go back now for another (but they are shut, seriously I considered it). It has cranberries in it.
Note the banana comes wrapped in plastic, not just cheap plastic you can tear off, thick plastic you could insulate your house with. Try as I might I coudnt tear it, I had to carefully peel the tape off to get to my banana.