An Escapade in Japan - Part 12

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Odaiba, Tokyo

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My notes for 1 March 2009 consist of the following :
1) Take the subway to Asakusa.
2) Visit Sensoji Temple, shop for kimonos.
3) Take a river-cruise on Sumida River to Hama Rikyu, a landscaped garden and then walk to Shiodome.
4) Take Yurikamome monorail to Odaiba, a futuristic entertainment and shopping district on a man-made island in the Tokyo Bay.
5) From Odaiba, take the Yurikamome to Shimbashi and then the subway to Ningyocho station and walk to the hotel.

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The First of March did not dawn any better than 28th Feb. The sky was still overcast and rain was predicted.

After the previous day’s disappointment of NOT seeing Mount Fuji, we were a bit wary about chalking out full-day excursions in this weather. We had seen enough shrines and the thought of seeing the gardens, landscaped or otherwise, in their winter bareness, did not appeal to us.

The river cruise on Sumida also did not look promising because the main charm of a cruise is in sitting on the sunny decks in the deck-chairs, sipping pina colada or some similar drink, and watching the sights on the shore as the boat glides by.

We did not think the decks would be bathed in sunlight in this weather and we did not want to cluster around the heaters in the lounges and watch the shore through tinted glass.

We had discussed today’s plans the previous night and Avi had told me that he had either read or heard about or seen on You-Tube, a football-playing robot somewhere in Tokyo and he was keen to see it.

I surfed the Internet in the room (Yes, Toyoko Inn provides free Internet in the room.) while he was taking bath and found out all about it. We decided that we would go to Odaiba and to the Miraikan, Japan’s National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation.

The shortest route was to take the subway to Shimbashi station and then take the Yurikamome monorail to Odaiba.

Oh, Gosh, now there was no avoiding the subways.

For the past three days in Tokyo, we had walked to and from the Tokyo station and once we had taken the ‘free’ shuttle. The distance was not exactly short, but I preferred walking rather than taking the subway.

This is because I had been terrified of Tokyo’s subway-map, where 12 different, private railways crisscrossed their multi-colored lines in a gay abandon of three-dimensional snake-orgy.

So far, I had avoided dipping my spoon, so to say, in this spaghetti-bowl of Tokyo subways, which are sometimes, four levels deep.

Instead, we had walked to and from the Tokyo station and lost our way around our hotel every single time and blamed each other for the extra walking that involved.

Kyoto’s subway system was much simpler by comparison. It was just in the shape of a cross, one horizontal line going east-west and one vertical line going north-south.

The thought of the ordeal of putting your hard-earned money in the ticket machine only to see it disappear, with nothing happening at all, till you catch hold of a passerby and then he shows you how to punch the buttons to get your tickets and change; was daunting enough.

So, womanfully, I put the onus of subway-journey and the responsibility of getting us up to Odaiba, on Avi.

Manfully he shouldered the burden.

At the subway Ningyacho station, we inquired about Tokyo Metro one-day pass (600 Yen) which gives unlimited travel on Tokyo Metro for one day. However, we were told that we will need a 1200 yen pass because Asakusa Line belonged to Toei Subways.

I calculated fast and came to the conclusion that buying point-to-point ticket to Shimbashi would be cheaper. It was.

Tokyo subways are fast.

We were at Miraikan in no time at all, except that we missed a turn and walked from Shimbashi to Shiodome and boarded the Yurikamome from there.

The journey on the Yurakamome is a different experience altogether. It is an ‘unmanned’ train and runs over the Rainbow Bridge to Odaiba. (I had said ‘manless’, and Avi immediate corrected me.)

It is difficult to describe Odaiba. Our photos will show how ‘futuristic’ it looked even to our eyes. (Here I will mention that both of us had worked for BARC, which itself looks like a futuristic city in India.)

The Miraikan museum of Emerging Science looks like it itself is emerging from the ground. The imagery is perfect.

I have only one grouse against Miraikan. Nowhere on their website do they mention that the 10-minute demo of ‘ASIMO, the Robot’ is only twice a day (at 11:00 AM and at 2:00 PM). Had they mentioned it, we would not have missed the 11:00 AM demo, but we had missed it and now we had to wait till 2:00 PM.
We utilized the time in going through the museum exhibits. The exhibits are so good that we did not feel our time was wasted.

The demo of ASIMO, the robot, was well worth the wait. I will be loading a video of it for your enjoyment, (when I know how to do it) and yes, it DID kick a football.

I kept on thinking that they should have named the robot as ‘Asimov’ because Isaac Asimov has formulated the ‘Three Laws of Robotics’ in his science-fiction. However, this was no science-fiction but real Robotics.

The progress that the Japanese have made in all kinds of ‘cutting-edge’ technologies is unbelievable.

Apart from Miraikan, Odaiba has a lot to offer, so we took the free ‘Bay-shuttle’ and had a ‘dekko’ at all the attraction from the outside.

We noticed that the giant, red-and-white Ferris wheel was not moving.

Coming back to our hotel by subways was not such a terrifying experience after the day’s successful journeys.

I was highly impressed by the ‘advanced’ technologies displayed at Miraikan, including the ASIMO demo. However, I am aware that Robotics as a science is still in infancy. The robot ASIMO can kick a football (Under controlled environment) but he is still far from the talking, reasoning, sleuthing robot depicted by Isaac Asimov.

Who can teach the robots to do all these things? Perhaps Miraikan can.

Before going to bed, I composed a sort of jingle or slogan as a tribute to Miraikan.

“Who can? Miarikan.”

BTW, “robots” is such a favorite subject of mine that I have written 9 ‘robot’ short stories on Sulekha, which were inspired by Asimov’s ‘robot’ stories.

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