Odaiba, Japan - Trip #1

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We had heard that Odaiba was a very fun place to visit with lots of things to do, and so one day we decided to venture out and see for ourselves what this area had to offer us. The first place we decided to go see was "Tokyo Big Sight," which from reading my Japan travel books sounded like a large outdoor art exhibit with many oversized pop art sculptures...we have included the 'Big Saw' in our pictures. However, once there, we were disappointed to see that "Tokyo Big Sight" was just a cool name for a convention center here in Tokyo....nothing too exciting about it...except for the architecture of the building which Larry greatly admired.

So, after visiting "Tokyo Big Sight" we decided to make our way over to "Palette Town," an area that we were told had malls, restaurants, a giant ferris wheel and the world's largest automobile showroom. On the way to "Palette Town," we found a huge mall called "Fashion Town" and a quaint little area called "Tokyo Bay Wedding Village". Finally at our destination, we decided to go on the ferris wheel first. This ferris wheel, known as "the Stream of Starlight," was the tallest ferris wheel in the world in 1999. It totally freaked me out (I'm a little scared of heights!) and I kept yelling at Larry to sit down and stop standing to take pictures because he was rocking our car! Per ride you only get to go around the entire wheel ONCE, but it moves so slow that just once around takes 16 minutes...enough for me!!

After a ride on the ferris wheel, we headed over to "MegaWeb," which has the world's largest automobile showroom - the "Toyota City Showcase". Here we were able to walk around and check out Japan's latest models, watch demonstrations, and even go for a test drive around an indoor/outdoor track in a very small electromagnetic car. It was pretty cool because we didn't even have to steer the wheel of this car...it drove itself around the track!

Last but not least, we headed over to a giant shopping complex called "Venus Fort". This mall was pretty unique because of its architecture - an artificial sky that changed throughout our visit from bright blue to sunsets, reminded us of Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas which has a similar 'sky' ceiling. After we did a little shopping, we found a nice little Italian place to have dinner called "Fish Dance". Here we ate possibly some of the best mahi-mahi I've ever had, followed by a delicious tiramisu parfait. Yummy! Before heading home after dinner, we walked over to the shoreline to get some night photos of Rainbow Bridge and the ferris wheel all lit up. Aren't they beautiful?!!?

Take care and keep in touch!

Love,
Larry & Melanie

Japanese for the Day: masaka ("Fat chance!")

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Comments

[dan]

i love legos too!
that lego picture is sweet.

[Debby Stanton]

YEA....Mel...I found you
Melanie...(and Larry too...who I never met).....keep the pictures and journals alive...they are wonderful. Mel..congrats on the engagement and all your dancing...I ALWAYS knew that you would be succesful, you were a favorite of mine and Jenns...she is also enjoying hearing about you....Michigan State is treating her well...she crews for the Big Ten Title end of April...very exciting...Mel...keep dancing...keep smiling..thanks..debby

[cousin ronnie]

hey there
Larry (and Melanie..who I've never met) it looks like you two are having a ball over there. Keep it up!