(Day 9) Oh! Daiba

This morning we headed into the southern-most part of central Tokyo, out to the sea. The humidity had reached a fever pitch today and one generally concludes that weather is usually cooler by the water. So we headed out to Shimbashi to catch the always-fun Yurikamome monorail line out to the island of Odaiba. Yes, we DID end up singing the monorail song from the Simpsons. I always do.



Once we arrived on the island, the heat was overwhelming. Whaaaat? Even with a parasol, the heat was relentless. But we hardly noticed the dripping of sweat down our backs, etc because it would be like noticing breathing already – something that just automatically happens while living. My poor sisters got dragged with me on my wanderings over to see where NEWS had filmed their Sakura Girl music video earlier this year…I’m sure it’s around here somewhere…


OH HERE IT IS!!!

INSERT PICTURE OF RYO GETTING SLAPPED HERE

INSERT PICTURE OF ERIN SLAPPING RYO HERE







Yeah! That’s for not telling me you were going to Lex tonight!!

Then the Shige benches:



Then the walking in slow-motion pathway:















Okay, so after absorbing all the music video scenes into memory, we headed up to Fuji TV to grab some desperate respite from the scorching heat and see if there’s any cool crap in the gift shop. I was heartily rewarded with a frackin’ huge Ryo poster. I think I drooled for real.


Ohyeshprz. If I was 16 again, I’d likely try to pry this off the wall and make my escape.








Cute little buck-toothed Gacchapin.

After Fuji TV and staring at the skyline, we headed over Aqua City to find some grub.







We ended up dining at this appropriately-titled place, the American Buffet. I wonder what kind of restaurant it will be like. Not.



Well, truthfully, it looked a hell of a lot classier than most American buffet places I’ve been to, what with their worn blue and cream carpets, torn-upholstery booths, ladies with those non-electric sweep vacuum things, etc…you get the idea. This place had hardwood floors and sweeping city views.



We did have an English-speaking waiter, but I think he was from Africa or something. And…WTF is up with their decidedly non-American-style desserts. I mean…do they really think THIS constitutes dessert:

”Oh my gosh, these jello cubes have me so stuffed, I don’t think I can eat it all!” Truthfully, I didn’t. Green isn’t my favourite.

We did some mall wandering and then wandered outside to another mall. Do you see a pattern? Tokyo is all about shopping, no matter where you go. It’s unavoidable.




Oh, it’s good to see Climate Change Bear still alive and crying. I was afraid he would be melted in this Tokyo heat, but he just keeps crying on.

And of course we had to head over to Decks to take in the Hong Kong-ness. I do the same crap every time I’m here. Sheesh.







Okay…do you want to see something really wild? Check out my ‘ceps. They are out of control!!


I would be proud…if I was a football player. I’m going to blame it on the lighting because…I hope to the good Lord above that my arms don’t really look like that.




Sister picture! Oh Sis…your pose is kracie.



We headed back out on to the boardwalk to take some night pictures. I was mildly successful since I don’t’ know how to use my camera. I’m ashamed.










Okay, this one’s not bad. The shutter took a full 20 seconds to close though.

We started the lengthy walk over to Palette Town on the south side of the island. If we had known the place was shut for renovations, you know, that would have been helpful. At least the Toyota showroom was open.




Here’s Sis and B driving by me on their self-driving car. I feel like a mom watching kids go on a ride.

While they were riding, I checked out some of the tres sweet Buicks they had up. My favourite had this total 1980’s interior.



They also had decked out a whole bunch of ist (I think?) cars with different themes – you know, like if you are a Lolita-goth, there’s a car for you too! Or if you like paper cranes and looking through Mt. Fuji decals, like this one:






A car with a bow!

After dorking-out over cars, we headed back into the sauna to ride the ferris wheel and create 16-minute memories. And Janelle wrote some terrible song to go along with that ridiculous slogan. Worst!



My pictures turned out awful, so I’ll post only two here.







Fully Daiba-ed out, we headed back into the city and over to Akihabara. Why? I don’t remember. Maybe we wanted to see some nerds.





I ran into the cutest little maid who was passing out flyers for a maid café. She started squawking at me in English that the café was “right there”, but, bless her heart, I had no intention of going. She was just so ridiculously pocket-sized and cute.



For our final feat of the day, we headed into the stadium-sized Yodobashi Akiba – an electronics store not recommended for the seizure-prone.



We stared at everything from Gucci bags to postcards to curling irons to bedroom fans. This store is ridiculous. After that, we headed home to recoup from the exhausting heat (but we should really have headed to Lex T.T)

Oh yeah! And we took some more purikura while in decks on the island…




Tomorrow we do a whole lot of nothing wandering around and doing…guess what? Shopping. We’ll spend an inordinate numbers of dollars. INORDINATE.