Odaiba

The Rainbow Bridge to Odaiba

Odaiba is a huge amusement zone with shopping, food, entertainment, and a view of Tokyo Bay. We had planned to go there on Elliot's birthday but there was no way we could see all of the myriad of entertainment options that were there. Hence we decided to give the children a treat for being adventurous with their food and for taking an interest in all the cultural attractions by making an additional visit.

From Shinagawa Station we took the rainbow bus which took us to Odaiba. If you are interested, the price of the bus, map of the bus stops and timetable are all available online. The complex we were headed for today was Decks. We arrived there before the opening time of 10 am and there was already a line for the Sega Joypolis. It was an indoor complex of rides (including an indoor rollercoaster!) , simulators, games and various other oddities like a collection of photo booths?!? It was almost like Disney Quest in Walt Disney World with more souped up rides combined with Japanese kitsch. The children had a ball. Before we knew it, it was WAY past lunch time.

Decks

Just follow the crowds!

Quite interesting rides within. This one moved up and down a giant ramp like a giant skateboard and spun as it swung

Transformer ride. You sit inside and shoot while the pods spins and swerves...

That is a roller coaster inside the centre

The trip to the urinal at the Joypolis proved unexpectedly entertaining.. or so I'm told. Jonah had a full report upon his return. Apparently, above the urinal, there is a screen which invited one to "Begin game". A small target on the urinal activated the game when struck by warm fluid. The longer the stream was held on the target, the more points one acquired. Unbelievably, Jonah outscored Elliot with 285 mL on target. He was very proud of this result which was verified by Malcolm. Elliot wanted a rematch, but unfortunately there were no more coins in the machine. I asked Malcolm to take a photo, but he chickened out so I had to google this one from a braver photographer. It was probably posted by Eu Han Chin who is also somewhere in Japan at the moment.

Photo courtesy of a person brave enough to take a photo unlike Malcolm!

A quick bite and it was onto the Tokyo Trick Art Museum, also within Decks. The museum is a walk through museum with a series of paintings using optic illusions to create 3D effects. Half the fun was being creative with our poses to get the best photos. It was good fun for all! It was a shame that it was so busy as we were rushed to move on and a little squashed. This meant some shots were not quite at the right angle or perspective. Between the 2 attractions and lunch, most of our daylight hours were up and we headed back towards our apartment. We boarded the Yurikamonme Line unmanned monorail for JR Shimbashi Station as a change. The monorail gave a better sense of crossing the 918m span Rainbow Bridge compared to riding on the bus which traveled on the lower deck of the bridge. From Shimbashi Station there there were multiple JR lines available to take us back to Shinagawa Station.

The ones that didn't quite go so well!

The angle wasn't quite right. If I moved a little to the left. It would have looked like a wheel was rolling towards Lara

Woops what was your hand doing there Elliot?!?!

Dinner was a catch up with two previous colleagues at a "Japanese Western" restaurant. One had been kindly responding to my emails during the planning stage as well as helping us with recommendations and reservations. He even kindly brought each one of us a gift.

Colleagues from a former company

Gifts for the children

Some for me. One needs more than 1 Disney calendar per year of course!

And...last but not least. Something for Mal as well!