Today we went to Odaiba which is a very new business and entertainment development in Tokyo. It is one of a few islands that were built in the mid 1800’s to protect the city of Tokyo from naval attacks. When the economy was booming in the late 80’s development of office building occurred and the area started to grow. When the recession hit the area was desolate until the late 90’s when construction started again. The island is known for the futuristic architecture of the buildings. Fuji TV has their headquarters on the island and has a pretty modern looking building. Our first stop on the island was to the National Museum of Emerging Science which was like the Boston Museum of Science but way cooler. They had an area on robotics, where they had a show with the Honda robot Asimo; however we didn’t get to see it. They also have areas about space flight and have a space capsule, the human body, and communications and exploration. The museum was in a very modern looking building. After the museum we were free to explore so we went to a shopping center called Decks Tokyo Beach which has a huge boardwalk overlooking the harbor. They also have the top two floors modeled after the street of Hong Kong. We ate at a Chinese restaurant inside this area. After this mall we went to another mall where the inside is modeled after an 18th century Italian town. They had a huge fountain and the ceiling of the mall would change colors from dawn to dusk. Walking through was like walking through a small village. They also had the façade of a church where you could eat at a restaurant in the “courtyard”. The island was pretty cool and I was amazed at effort that went into developing this area and each of the buildings.
That night we went to a club in Ropponggi. We got there by 11:00 so it was not too busy. I don’t like the fact that people can smoke in the club because it gets to be a lot of smoke after awhile. It was a pretty good club but I left early so I would not be up all night.
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