Japan Holiday, July 27 (Gotta Catch 'em All)

Today I was doing some more exploring by myself. One thing that is a bit hard to adjust to in Japan is that the shops don't open until 10AM, and some 11AM. If you get up early on holidays (no work fatigue) like me, expecting to get a big day in, you're kind of stuck waiting for everyone else. Anyway, I went down to Minato which features the Tokyo Tower. I didn't go up to the top, in fact I didn't go right up to the tower base, I forget why. Within walking distance of that is the Pokemon Centre! Which is a small store selling only Pokemon stuff. So that was fun, and more Pokemon merchandise than I even knew existed, only problem was they had some annoying music playing the whole time, seemed like an 8-bit Gameboy theme.

Tokyo Tower. It looks great at night I've since discovered.

... the power that's inside ! Pokemon !

One station over and I was able to catch the "Yurikamome" to Odaiba. The Yurikamome is described as a driver-less train and a cross between a train and a bus, but it just seemed kind of like a monorail to me. Odaiba is an artificial island (reclaimed land) off the bay of Tokyo. I got off at the stop near Aqua City which is a shopping centre that mainly focuses on clothing. Right next door is another shopping centre called Tokyo Docks. The focus here seemed a bit more varied, and for some reason there was a heavy USA influence. Lots of USA food being sold too, I even came across a Cherry Coca-Cola! One of the levels is said to be set out to resemble a Hong Kong street, but I forgot to check it out. There was also another Sega Joypolis, this one cost 500 yen just to enter and I grabbed a pamphlet and all of the amusements seemed like they had a younger audience in mind.

Some train at Shimabashi station.

Aqua City at Odaiba.

Stepping outside the malls for a bit, there's a mini Statue Of Liberty to one side and the crazy looking Fuji TV Headquarters to the other. The area out by the bay here is really nice, there's even some artificial beach a bit further along. A Panasonic Centre which features lots of technology and demonstrations was somewhere down the street, but it looked like it wasn't near any of the train stops.

Fuji TV.

Liberty enlightening the world.

Looking back at Odaiba on the Yurikamome.

Took another visit to Akiba to go to their Yodobashi and Don Quixote stores. Inside the Donki there was a maid cafe on one level! From the time I got to see it going up and down the escalator there didn't seem be a lot to it, just the maids serving drinks to the customers. It looked like they assign the maids out one-to-one or close to it, at first I thought that would just be awkward, but then I forgot most of the point of the maid cafe is to be entertained and waited on.