Today, we traveled about 45 minutes by train from our hostel in Asakusabashi to Odaiba. One thing about Tokyo that I find completely different from Hong Kong is how quiet the trains are. In Japan, it’s generally considered rude to be speak loudly or take phone calls while riding the line and, when stopping at each station, it’s completely quiet. The silence in unnerving to me, as I had become comfortable with the usual bustle of Hong Kong MTR stations. I’ve also noticed that the doors stay open for longer in Japan than at most Hong Kong stops. Overall, I prefer the cleanliness and hubbub of the Hong Kong MTRs. Both Japan and Hong Kong stations can, however, be unbearably crowded. It’s amazing how many people can push themselves to fit in one car at a time.
Odaiba is a large artificial island in Tokyo Bay originally built in the 1850s for defensive purposes. Upon our arrival, we immediately headed to see the 72-feet tall life-sized Unicorn Gundam Statue parked in front of DiverCity Tokyo Plaza. It reminded me of Appleseed, a sci-fi action anime I watched when I was child involving cyborgs and a female warrior. While that was really the only way I could relate to the Gundam franchise, it was still a cool robot and we later found out that it lights up red in the evening. Covering the grounds of DiverCity Tokyo Plaza were fields of tulips, one of my favorite flowers. We had missed the Tokyo Waterfront City Tulip Festival by a few days, but it was perhaps all for the better. The tulips were still out and the plaza was nearly deserted. More for us!
Once we had enough of the pretty tulips, we stopped by Kawasaki Robostage, where we observed a robot pipetting. Joey got to experience a VR roboride, through which he explored the virtual Kawasaki Heavy Industries Robot Showroom. While he was doing that, I duAro robot draw my portrait. After we were satisfied with the Kawasaki robots, we went off to explore Megaweb, a Toyota exhibition hall. Our first stop inside the building was the historical second floor. Here, we walked through a 30-meter long corridor filled with shelves of toy cars. We then passed through to the history garage, in which there were a handful of handsome classic cars from the 50s through 70s. Following that, we toured an exhibit designed to look like the streets of 1960s Tokyo. Later, we found dinner in the nearby shopping mall and grabbed some curry and huge pieces of naan. For dessert, I got some matcha ice cream and Joey got mango.
ABC in HK 