Shopping, cars & views
Trip Start
Jun 15, 2011
1
15
18
Trip End
Jun 26, 2011
Odaiba, Kanto, Japan
Friday, June 24, 2011
On our last full day in Tokyo we took the train to Odaiba, which reminded me of a cross between Darling Island and Circular Quay in Sydney. The train took us over the Rainbow Bridge to a quieter area with modern apartments, hotels & entertainment centres.
As we got there mid-afternoon, we didn't have time to explore everything (I'll need to go back). The shopping at Palette Town was great. They had two levels of outlet shopping, including Zara where we picked up a few bargains. The ground floor of Palette Town is oddly mostly about pets. They have the biggets range of pet accessories I've ever seen, including quite a range of dog strollers.
Next door is MEGAWEB which is a Toyota showcase centre "theme park". Apart from the latest cars, they have the Universal Design Centre all about next gen technology and the design process. I'm wishing we had international drivers licenses because you can actually test drive the latest in personal mobility machines like the i-unit. They even had these things that looked like mechwarriers. A lot of the development was about making things easier for people ie easier to get in and out of your car etc & designing things that would suit the widest range of people (universal).
We headed back over to Shiodome on the train and watched sunset sitting by the water.
Afterwards we walked up a couple of blocks to the World Trade Centre. They have a fantastic observatory from their top floor. You could see 360 views including Tokyo tower. This was one of my favourite parts of the holiday. Unlike the Tokyo Government observatory we went to earlier in the week, the WTC observatory was quiet with dim mood lighting (which also helped you get better photos with less reflection) and nice jazzy background music. We went just before closing and there were only a few other people there. We had some great private time just sitting and looking out over the city.
The architecture of the area seemed so futuristic looking to me for some reason. From the train earlier that day we glimpsed into clean modern buildings with garden courtyards or mezzanines. Looking from the observatory at night across the sky scrapers it was easy to imagine the futuristic landscapes of science fiction. I've been told that Tokyo was the inspiration for Blade Runner. Even though I live in Sydney CBD, it was still a world away from anything I've seen.
