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Japan trip
Day 15 - 20th June - Kawaguchiko, Tokyo: Odaiba (Part 2)
I was looking for vending machines that were actually women in disguise, but didn't manage to find any (the lack of flashing lights is a dead giveaway).
Back at Kawaguchiko, I was hungry. At the information centre, I spied something interesting:
"Special UDON
It was better than Seal (and Bear, which I had after returning to Singapore): it was very sweet and had a mild flavour. I wasn't sure if this was mincemeat or the meat fell apart on cooking, but it was a bit like chewed bak gua. A most interesting experience.
Japs slurp their noodles when eating them (for politeness, for ease of eating or to make them taste better), but doesn't it dirty their clothes (especially the guys in suits)? Incidentally there was a couple beside me at the time: the guy slurped but the girl was noiseless (maybe she was not enjoying it because she was thinking about calories).
The same restaurant also had vanilla soft serve ice cream with Fujiyama honey. I didn't know what they did, but it was very fragrant.
Kawaguchiko Map
"Welcome Lake Kawaguchi"
Lake
"People who know that picking up cigarette butts is sweaty work don't litter with cigarette butts"
I then took a lake cruise.
Town
Lake pavillion
Hills obscured by clouds
Mt Fuji obscured by clouds
I was tempted to take the cable car to a Mt Fuji Viewing Platform, but I remembered what had happened to me in Nikko, so I decided not to try my luck.
Woman with huge dog. How does she control him?!
The local line train I took on the first leg of my journey to get back had only 2 cars, yet it had a vending machine on board (but no toilet!) It was also curiously decorated:
Thomasland
Vending machine and interior
Besides Japanese and English, why is this warning against loitering in Arabic? Is it because people might think they were terrorists? Consider that the most common translations apart from English are Chinese and Korean.
There aren't any rules against eating or drinking in Japanese buses/trains (though I later learnt that doing so on the train is considered rude). One possible reason for this is that Japanese are meticulous and neat, but a more important one is surely the strength of the vending machine lobby.
Since I was back in Tokyo early (about 6) I decided to investigate Odaiba, around Tokyo Harbour, and the home of weird themed shopping centres. They also like to film Sentai scenes there, but since it was late I didn't have much time to explore the place and it was dark anyway, so.
Directions from Shimbashi station point to the old station as an attraction. This would be less puzzling if they mentioned that it was a reconstruction and also housed a railway museum.
I took the Yurikamome line 'monorail' (though it's called that it's a misnomer as it runs like the Paris metro - on rubber wheels) to Odaiba. It didn't use fully-fledged trains like the other lines: there was no driver. Yet, it was much more expensive than the other lines (an amazing Y310 for 5 stops - maybe it's to recover the costs from construction, or to pay for the futuristic look and feel. 'New Transit Yurikamome' has new prices also).
From Wikipedia: "The Yurikamome had become an attraction in itself. To raise itself from ground level to the Rainbow Bridge, the Yurikamome makes a 270-degree loop, providing panoramic views of both mainland Tokyo and Odaiba. Easily accessible and comfortable, most island goers opt for the Yurikamome despite its high price, with the fares of 180 to 370 yen being nearly twice that of a normal subway...
Since 2006, all the stations use the recorded voices of different seiyū (voice actors) for their announcements."
I saw one old guy in front of the train taking pictures of the tunnel in front of him. I guess he was getting more value for his fare (damn, I should've done that too - the bridge was really nice, but then again it was very dark).
The Tokyo International Exhibition Center is also known as "Tokyo Big Sight". Gah.
At the metro, I saw an ad for what looked like Iron Noodle Chef: 6 Ramen Masters specialising in Ramen in different geographical styles.
Decks shopping centre
Pussy Portal
"Joypolis, Japan's NO,1 indoor theme park!"
Faux-beach feeling at Decks, with "Sea Side Mall" and "Island Mall" (the latter with a "Little Hong Kong")
"[Toilet:] Women. Here it is! <- Come on! Go! Go!"
Not like they need any encouragement...
"Enjoy! Decks!!! DECKS Tokyo Beach. everyday is special"
I was surprised there was no "Please enjoy"
Frozen Custard Abbott's (it looked and tasted like ice cream to me). IIRC mine was mango.
After a while my eyes were glazing over - it was just a shopping centre, so I went outside to walk.
Sega Joypolis rides
Rainbow Bridge. The last picture is the most accurate.
There was a stall selling many types of takoyaki. On closer inspection, the variation was only in the sauce: they all were "octopus flied ball". I was tempted to try some, but it was a 15-20 minute wait and 8 balls was too much.
(Takopachi website:
"Yohei improvised by introducing two distinctively-localised variants to the traditional octopus-ball. The first variety was the prawn-filled version as, from his careful observation, prawn was an extremely popular type of seafood in Singapore. The other was bacon-&-cheese, which was slightly more westernised and which provided choice outside of seafood to consumers.
If imitation is indeed the most sincere form of flattery, the perfect testimony to the success of his adaptations would be the fact that this exact 3-flavour concept is now widely-imitated throughout Southeast Asia.")
Aqua City
Origin of the alien craft I saw
"Cafe gigi (Creative European food & cafe)"
My money is on this being yet more ruining with "creative" Japanese touches
Turning my gaze back towards the harbour, I saw:
Statue of Liberty replica and Rainbow Bridge. At first I thought it was one of their "bring the world to Japan" stunts, but a French replica stood here for a year and was so popular they built a replica (of the replica). They should put it next to their Eiffel Tower (Tokyo Tower).
This also made an appearance in Go-onger:
BanKiJyu Pipe Banki ("Jobber")
Rainbow Bridge
"Hawaiian Delicious Burger. The world's best!! Kua'aina"
They're the world's most expensive also
There was a place with "steak and roasted curry" and "france-tei". ???
"Service for Overseas Travelers. Please show your passport to the staff"
Maybe the service is that they speak something other than Japanese here
Ghey Shit
I was hungry, so I went looking for dinner, and stumbled across a special part of one of the shopping centres ("food theme park") which housed the Iron Noodle Chef competition:
Contestants
Everything looked the same to me, so I picked a stall at random (the difference was probably light vs dark soya sauce, or something along those lines):
One waitress there started speaking to me in Chinese. She was one of the PRCs who studied in Japan and had stayed on to work for the last 5 years (perhaps Japan is one of the few developed countries which doesn't close off its labour market to foreign workers who are not highly skilled). She claimed my Chinese was good (har. har. har.)
(Menu entry: left column in the middle)
The alkali taste wasn't that strong, so it was like a better version of my Hiroshima meal
I was hungry so I also added on gyoza
Later a big group came and all the store touts started talking at the same time, making it very noisy. After that a Cantonese-speaking couple came in, and another guy came in and sat next to them. The guy asked me "are you Japanese?" and then asked me to take a picture of him. Wth.
There was a high proportion of tourists in the shopping centres, so I heard a lot of Chinese and Cantonese (presumably the latter weren't here for "Little Hong Kong")
?
R-15 movies. They start young here (figures)
"Noodle drops" - Instant soup for ramen
They have fake eggs in China. They have fake eggs here too. They expired in 8 days so they were on sale, but still!
A snack I got at a convenience store. Naturally, there was adzuki inside.
Shinbashi street
Gravure. The former: "半熟 OR 完熟？"
Someone: "half matured or fully matured
then below is her name
Height 145cm Microbody 88cm D cup
very "mature" body for her age
tt's what it means
very developed in some areas
[her age] wasnt stated in the pic
high sch gal
so i guess 15-17"
I saw a calling card vending machine.
I checked out the 2007 Lonely Planet Japan and the Nikko Cable Car error was STILL there.
Someone at the hostel was saying he went to a whale speciality shop and it was the perfect combination of meat and fish.
Map to the capsule hotel I stayed in the next night