Sunday, May 16, 2010

April 27

On Tuesday, we spent the day on Odaiba, which is a man-made island in Tokyo Bay. We had been there before, but there were still some things we wanted to do there. Lexi wasn't feeling too well in the morning, so we got a bit of a late start. We had lunch in Venus Fort again, and while we were there we discovered the awesome arcade that they have there. This arcade in particular had a number of interesting games that we just had to try out.

The arcade had a bunch of these slow-moving animals you can ride:



This was our favorite game. The basic idea is that you bang on a table and then flip it, sending food items, etc. to cause mayhem and upset the people around you:





This one was pretty fun. You throw plastic balls at the screen and it detects when you hit your target. I mostly like the way the guy says "Ready... Go!".



In this game, you drive a bus and have to reach each bus stop according to schedule:


In this game, I think you make cookies?


Yet another test-your-strength game:


This one was an interesting concept: a rhythm shooter.



Of course they have an array of dart boards.


And exercise equipment.


And foot massage machines.


And automated popcorn makers.


And a fortune box. They have these at temples too. If you get a good fortune, you keep it, but it it's bad, you tie it to the thing.


Next we went to the Fuji TV observation deck, which is the ball in the picture below.



It offers a nice view of this part of the bay, including the rainbow bridge, although it was a bit rainy:


To help us get in a patriotic mood, we had to visit the fake statue of liberty:


But the thing that Lexi wanted to do most was to visit the Cat Cafe again. The first time we visited it, the cat/cafe portion of it was closed, and only the store was open. So this is how the Cat Cafe works: You pay to get into the cat/cafe part of the store for some duration of time (we went in for half an hour). You choose your drink, and then you go into a cat's paradise and socialize with a bunch of cats.


There are plenty of places to climb:






And nap:



This TV is always showing cat shows:


Gotta have water straight from the tap:


Getting ready for lunch:


Lunch time:


We had planned to end the day at the Tokyo Dome, where they have a few fun rides, including a roller coaster that passes through the middle of an open-center ferris wheel. Unfortunately, almost all the rides were closed due to rain (though it wasn't raining very hard). One ride that was open was a log ride, which we rode. The ride staff were very happy to practice their English with us. The Tokyo Dome also has several shops and restaurants, so we decided to finish off our trip with some nice Japanese seafood:

April 26

On Monday morning, we visited Osaka Castle. In contrast with Matsumoto Castle, which had been well preserved, the main tower of Osaka Castle has been reconstructed multiple times, and now has a modern museum inside, with elevators and all. The museum taught me about Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who was born as a peasant and ended up conquering all of Japan. One of his conquests was accomplished by diverting a river to flood a castle that was in a plain below sea level.












After having lunch at the castle, we got our bags and took the bullet train back to Tokyo. Going back to Tokyo felt a little like coming home, especially since we spent our last two nights at the same hotel we started at.

April 24

So we're obviously way behind on this blog, having been home for a while now. Lexi has decided that I should finish the last few days since she wasn't feeling well at the time, and doesn't remember them too well. And we have to finish it because we have a special treat for anyone who follows it all the way to the end.

Anyway, we started off Saturday by going to the Osaka Human Rights Museum. The train that my iPod told us to take was a bit off the beaten path. In fact, the train station we got off at was the only station we saw that was entirely unmanned:


But of course it turned out that there was a much better, and less scary-looking way to get there.

The museum deals with issues of discrimination against various groups of people in Japan. These included Koreans, Okinawans (indigenous people of the islands south of mainland Japan), the Ainu (indigenous people living in Hokkaido), the Burakumin, victims of Minamata disease, women, and the disabled. Probably the most interesting of these groups to us was the Burakumin, who were outcasts at the bottom of the caste system of the Edo period. They were considered contaminated by death in their professions, being butchers, leather workers, grave diggers, etc. Even today, their descendants face some degree of discrimination and stigma.

After the museum, we went to Amerikamura, which is an area full of hip used clothing stores and hip youngsters sporting interesting fashions. It supposedly got its name from shops selling goods imported from America.

Friday, May 7, 2010

April 23

The next morning, we went out to Hirakata Park, which is a local amusement park just outside of Osaka. The good thing was that it was a little sprinkly outside, so we were pretty much the only people in the park. The downside was that the roller coasters weren't too exciting... fortunately there was a bunch of other really random stuff there too.


There were these funny guys all over the park... we couldn't figure out who they were supposed to be, but they were pretty rad:



Strangely enough, they had 3 different zoo animals there kind of intermixed with the rides. These lesser pandas were really cute!


They also had this super cute rip off of Disneyland's teacups.


True to most places in Japan that we'd been, they had at least 2 different arcades with quite unique video games. This one was an arm wrestling game:


This was a very... um... interesting ride. It never seemed to have anyone on it, and the guy operating the ride would stand atop is ride tower looking forlornedly out across the park, hoping someone would come and ride his ride. Seeing that there was no line, Erik and I tried it out... we found out the reason that no one was riding it. You have to PEDAL. That's right, YOU propel the coaster. It was low on the thrill scale, and high on the discomfort scale, but it was certainly unique... this little girl seemed to be getting a kick out of it, but I think that little boy is doing all the pedaling for her


They had a ferris wheel there as well, and although I don't like ferris wheels (especially after my previous experience), Erik convinced me to go so that he could get some good pictures. I was rewarded with this guy:


And Erik was rewarded with a pretty nice view:


Finally, the had a little section called "Hug Hug Town" where you could go in and pet all sorts of different animals, including dogs and cats! Now, I was on serious Selphie withdrawl by this point, and desperately wanted to cuddle some animals. Sadly, Erik didn't want to go in because it was stinky. I told him it was just the smell of farm (they had llamas and ducks and stuff like that in there too), but he still wouldn't let me go in *sob*.

We spent the evening at a place called "Spa World." It is basically an onsen turned amusment park. It's about 7 floors filled with different spas, relaxation and beauty services, and restauarants. The onsens were themed: the womens baths were Asian themed and had baths decorated in the style of "Islam", Japan, Persia, Bali, as well as several onsen with special additives with medicinal effects. The mens onsen were European: Roman, Mediterranean, Greek, Finnish, Italian, Spanish and "Atlantis." I obviously couldn't take any pictures within the onsen itself, but the website has some pretty cool pictures of the onsen:

Let me tell you, they need NEED to have something like this in the US. A few hours of soaking and I felt like I could do ANYTHING. After a nap.