Partytown

Just an advance warning - there are going to be a lot of pictures in this post. So let's start with where we were. Thursday, we decided to hop across Tokyo Bay to Odaiba because it sounded like the thing to do at the time.

Everybody wants to go to a manmade island, right?

We got there around 3-ish, so obviously this picture is from much later in the day. However, it illustrates where we were, so that's why it's first.

Yep, we were at a place called Palette Town! We went to a big shopping area called Venusfort, which is designed to look like an Italian village or something. Very interesting.

You can't see from this picture, but the building's ceiling is designed to look like the sky and the lighting on it changes colors so that every hour, on the hour, it looks like the sun is setting. There were a lot of tourists here, mostly Chinese it seemed. Lots of families.

So after shopping for a while, we went across the way toward Mega Web so we could ride the world's 8th tallest ferris wheel, the Odaiba Great Sky Wheel. It cost about $9 to ride, but one rotation takes nearly 20 minutes, and the view is fantastic, so it was worth it. (And just so you can get a feel for how tall this thing was, you board it from the 3rd floor). Here's some pictures of it from the ground.

This is actually from outside of the Palette Town area - basically one of the first things you see when you exit the Tokyo Teleport station.

This picture (one of my favorites, actually) is from right by the ticket gates for the ferris wheel. Very tall (115 meters, to be exact)!

Now on to the pictures from inside~

This lovely picture accurately depicts our reactions to being on the ferris wheel, heading to the top. It was a little scary at first, since neither of us had been on a ferris wheel in at least 5 years.

Here's a view looking back across the bay toward Tokyo proper. Everything's starting to look teeny tiny.

Here you can see Tokyo Tower (again). It's unfortunate it looks so hazy, but that's what happens when it's hot out.

Random shot of me (looking awful) with the Fuji TV building just to my left.

Jugochi Wharf - very exciting, yes? But all the big boats look pretty small from this high.

Now a shot of Cinnamon with the wharf behind her. She looks pretty happy!

The building that looks like a cluster of upside down pyramids is Tokyo Big Site which is a big exhibition center. It is also where I'd be going to Comiket if it didn't start two days after we leave. Bummer.

And that concludes the view from the ferris wheel. We actually took a ton more pictures, but most of them are essentially the same things - various buildings in and around Tokyo.

On the way back, we wandered through the Toyota Mega Web to check out all the crazy cars they make over here.

Of course, they've got the Prius here, too, only their steering wheels are all on the right. It feels weird when you're sitting in it.

Here's the Toyota Crown. I think it's the biggest sedan Toyota makes here. Most all of the taxis around Tokyo are older models of this car. What do you think, mom? Big enough for you?

Here's a picture of the interior of the Crown. I think all Japanese cars come with a navigation system or else no one would ever figure out where they're supposed to be going. It is seriously extremely confusing. And this fancy little package will only set you back about $55,000. Luxury (and hybrids) don't come cheap!

Next to their little corral of hybrid cars, they had a bunch of displays on being "green" and eco-friendly, so we wandered through there for a while.

This guy wants you to reduce your CO2 emissions. I just thought the picture was funny.

So after that thrilling experience, we decided to go catch a bite to eat and ended up back in Venusfort at a quaint little establishment called Fish Dance. Naturally, it's an Italian restaurant. (You didn't see that one coming?) Cinnamon and I both had pizza and salad and dessert (otherwise known as the "Fish Dance set")

Cinnamon helping herself to our delicious Caesar salad.

My pizza, the "margherita", and Cinnamon's 4 cheese pizza. The thing she's holding (if you can't tell) is honey, which the waitress told us was the "best match" for cheese pizza. Cinnamon agreed it was very good.

Here's my (slightly blurry) dessert - the square choco cake (that's what the menu read). The presentation was very pretty and the cake was delicious.

Cinnamon's dessert, the Oreo cheesecake. She said it could've used more Oreo flavor, but she liked the treble clef of chocolate syrup.

Looks like we're sitting outside, doesn't it? We're not. That's the beauty of Venusfort. We even felt like we were outside, sometimes.

When we left, it was dark out, so you know what that means - lights! And they were very cool.

I highly recommend you look at this picture full size, because the colors look a lot better.

We walked across the highway and over to Aqua City, which seemed to be another smaller shopping complex (not of the Italian variety), but most of the places were closing up. So we walked through and came out to a spectacular view of the Tokyo skyline. And you better believe I took plenty of pictures (though most of them could've used the aid of a tripod).

Oh, did I forget to mention Tokyo has its very own (miniature) Statue of Liberty? Because it does. You an also see the Rainbow Bridge and Tokyo Tower. You can never have too many pictures of Tokyo Tower, apparently.

Here's a closer up picture without Lady Liberty. You can even see some of the boats on the bay all lit up. I'm pretty sure they were dinner cruises or some sort of tour boats. One of them sounded like a bunch of people having a good time, listening to music and cheering.

Tokyo as taken with the actual "night mode" of my camera. What a difference that makes! I had to set the camera down on the step, so you end up getting the underside of the walkway above us and part of the step it was sitting on, but I think it really frames the skyline nicely. Definitely one of my favorite pictures.

Since it was getting late and everything was closing up, we just walked down by Decks Tokyo Beach (which is actually a "beach" of sorts, but you can't swim there), passed the Fuji TV building, though all my pictures of it came out pretty blurry, and then headed back home. All in all, a very full day! We plan on going back one more time so we can ride the ferris wheel at night and get an even more spectacular view of Tokyo from the air.

Friday, we headed to Kameido to go to a little place called Sun Street. It turned out to be mostly geared toward kids, but had a few shops and quite a few little eateries - including a Sizzler!

We never did figure out just what a "rambling market" was. (For those curious, Tsutaya is a store that sells DVDs, CDs and books).

Here's the inside of Sun Street (and the Sizzler). As you can see, quite a few kids around. The place had a Toys R Us, two arcades and a variety of stores selling children's clothing. However, Cinnamon and I both walked away with some new shirts from a store called Honeys. Surprisingly affordable, too!

Next up, you'll get to see all the pictures (together, we took a total of 200) we snapped at Koishikawa Korakuen Garden. I'm sure you're all excited.