Odaiba: A Weird American Trip in Tokyo

The best way to describe Odaiba is that it is not Japanese. Or rather that it pays a very impressive homage to all things non-Japanese.

The second best way to explain it is to say that it feels very American. The Statue of Liberty replica notwithstanding, you will find a multitude of stores, restaurants and events which are so totally foreign to this country as to alienate (or perhaps soothe the homesickness of some unfortunate travelers).

Mat and I decided to go to Odaiba because the Ghibli Museum was closed on Tuesdays and holidays. Our plan was to see what this ASIMO thing was all about and perhaps look at a couple strange cars at MEGA WEB, reputably the biggest car showroom in the world. What we got from the trip is much, much more.

If Tokyo sometimes feels fake, Odaiba feels a hundred percent manufactured. However, unlike Tokyo who is hellbent on denying the whole thing, Odaiba embraces it. The result is impressive and eerie; it feels like the entire place is a North American worship sanctuary. We chose a Hawaiian restaurant (Mat will have a couple pics and videos to show for it) and had good Hawaiian food with nice ukulele music in the background. With my first ever Hawaiian beer! I know that going to Japan and eating non-Japanese food seems a tad bizarre but trust me; sometimes you just want to cleanse your palate with something different.

Following this, we went to a typical rockabilly Malt Shop, which looked right but didn't sound at all authentic, what with Never Gonna Give You Up playing in the background. They played 80s music, which just didn't feel right.

After having enough of North American clothing stores and US food (Pringles, Cherry Cola... even Maple Cookies!), we went to the Miraikan, the National Museum of Science and Innovation, just in time to witness ASIMO acting out for the crowd. It was a pretty surreal experience. See, while it is still a robot and does certain things in a robotic way, some of ASIMO's movements are creepily human at best. See for yourself!




We walked around the curved paths but the place ended up being pretty close to our own Centre des Sciences, so we left for MEGA WEB, the big car showroom.

So many cars! I'm not a car person (far from it) but even I was impressed by the amount of vehicles, most of which we'd never seen home. Some were strange designs, mostly concepts:












Finally, we met the Toyota Partner Robot. Okay, not really met, as it was inactive. And boring. This thing is no ASIMO!

Still, it can play the trumpet, so I have to like it a little bit.



The rest of the day isn't worth mentioning, other than we met Mat's friend Tetsuya and went to a real Japanese pub (unlike fake tourist traps). We had wasabi octopus, chicken hearts and asses (not even kidding) and other weird things but that were mostly good (some I personally didn't like, like the chicken skin souvlaki. I mean... Chicken Skin!).

We're leaving for Hiroshima tomorrow morning, pretty early. And later tomorrow, Miyajima! So until then, seeing as we're spending the evening packing and chilling, I might do some small updates.

-Pat