Day 3: Odaiba

That day, we had plans with Lings and her friend from Tokyo, Motoko. We went to the Hilton in Shinjuku where they were staying to do some company business. However, given that we had drank the night before, we totally miscalculated the amount of time we needed to get there by 11am.

We started the day by getting some walnut cake like things to eat for breakfast. It was already 10, so it wasn't totally packed, but it was still quite full. We could barely eat while standing on the train. We got to Ling's approximately an hour after we were scheduled to arrive. Because of that, we really didn't leave for Odaiba till 12 oclock.

The view from the train to Odaiba was awesome. Nothing like a huge suspension bridge on top of water to look majestic.

After getting there, we didn't do much but walk around. Saw the Toyota Showcase where there were lots of cars. They really have many more models than here. Their cars are stubbier too. There was a autodriving car, but we didn't want to wait in line. Ling got more Flag chains for her Nominations bracelet. They were 4000 yen per piece, but Toronto doesn't have a Nominations store, so this was one of the few places she can get it.

I was allowed to make the choice for lunch, so I decided on a Japanese place. I had omurice, Ling had Donburi with chicken sashimi. Paul had yaki-age (fried chicken) and Motoko had Chicken stew with grated daikon.

We wandered around the second mall after lunch. It's like HK. There's always something to do in Japan and that something is shopping. I even bought a small chain necklace for myself.

Since sunset falls early in Japan (around 5!!!), it was already getting dark. We went outside at dusk and realized just how beautiful the view is from Odaiba. The skyline of Tokyo is clearly visible. Probably the best looking place in Tokyo. All the couples using it as a makeout spot can't be wrong!

Walking along the beach, I took a LOT of pictures of the skyline. Too bad my camera isn't a DSLR, and only a point and shoot.you can see the pictures in my profile on facebook.

After resting and picture taking, we went back to Shinboshi station and walked around Tokyo once more. Looking at a food magazine that's free and highlights restauants around the area (there's different versions for each district), we decided on an Okinawan place for dinner. We still weren't really hungry because our lunch was around 2, so we walked around more (Paul and I did a lot of walking).

Since Ginza is close to Shinbashi, we went there to window shop. And one of the stores had a huge lineup. Guess which brand it was. H&M. I kid you not, the lines for H&M was 3 blocks long. While we may not look at H&M as a hugely popular brand, over there it is considered 'foreign', and therefore, good. Plus, the stuff they have over there seems more along the lines of Zara, rather than Old Navy. It wasn't as highly priced as Zara though.

We went to Uniqlo, a Tapanses brand, and Paul and I saw stuff we want to buy, but we held off. Ling and motoko both bought stuff. I wanted some really nice Merino wool pullovers while Paul wanted jeans. We decided we didn't want to lug around stuff this early in our trip.

We were finally feeling hungry, so we went to the Okinawan place. We had eccentric stuff that I love. Before we even ordered, we had otoshi (some amuse bouche). It was some stirfried root, some hijiki seaweed with kidney beans, and a shot of an aperitif (sake). More restaurants should have amuse bouches.


Okinawan cuisine love pork, so we got a Paijuki salad (some type of seaweed), some spam stirfried with egg and goya (some type of bitter melon thing), some Okinawan thin pancake, sweet potato fries, Okinawan oden (pork instead of seafood) and Okinawan soba (really light, but flavourful broth). The paijuki salad was weird. The seaweed had little balls on it that exploded when you bit into it. It was sort of like tobiko roe (fish eggs), except it was plant based. Pictures of food is on my facebook photos.

Probably couldn't have eaten this well without Motoko-san. Having a friend that knows the language rocks.