Tokyo II

Day 256 – Robot seals, miniature cars and a big bang

This morning we had a sleep in and didn’t meet at the Parco Factory until 11am. The guide book made the Parco Factory sound like a free exhibition showing all kinds of design work. It turned out to be just one room, with the current exhibition being a collection of Rip Slyme, a Japanese pop band’s advertising, CD covers, tickets and merchandise. A TV station was there and asked to interview me (via Shouko) but I had to politely admit I knew nothing about Rip Slyme!!

There was a really cool bookshop in the same building though, so we managed entertain ourselves for a little while in there and Matt bought some more Murakami books.

The crossing outside Shibuya station – rivals Times Square!

On the way to Miraikan we had yummy stand up noodles at the station, something Shouko herself had never experienced as it was something generally only men did. We’re foreigners! What would we know?

Shouko’s part time job when she was at university was as a demonstrator at Miraikan and so as we purchased our tickets (from a vending machine of course!), she just needed to show her lifetime membership.

The Miraikan Building. Miraikan roughly translates to “future world”.

Miraikan is the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation and is broken into four main exhibition sections: Innovation and the Future, Information Science and Technology for Society, Life Science and the Earth Environment and Frontiers with hands on things and bilingual explanations for everything. We spent a long time in the ‘Frontiers’ bit as it was a lot of stuff we’d never seen before and there was probably a lot more in it given the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency offices were in the top floor of the building. It was a lot more ‘adult’ than Science World in Vancouver or Science Works at home too – I was struggling to understand parts of it!

Space toilet! There was an International Space Station Living Quarters replica you could go inside and see how an astronaut lives.

The inventor of the Post-It note got a guernsey!

And the guy who invented Velcro. The story goes that he was studying the burs stuck in his dogs fur and based the idea on that.

A representation about how the internet works…. I still think it’s freaky.

Me playing with Paro the baby robot seal. He responds to you petting him and calling his name and if you pinch him! After I had been playing with him a few minutes a little Japanese kid came up and punched him in the face! Paro didn’t like that!

Three hours later it was time for some ice cream, so we visited a nearby shopping mall and found us some cold stone. Across from the mall was a display with Toyota’s latest toys so we went in for a quick look. The future cars were quite disappointing, but if we ever get a second car, maybe we’ll get this:

We jumped back on the monorail and headed into Shimbashi which was on the way to where the fireworks would be showing later that night. We stopped in at one of those tiny restaurant/bars we had wanted to try and what seemed like an ancient husband and wife team served us up some delicious tapas style snacks to go with our beers. Matt and I just picked random characters on the wall and Shouko explained what they were and if she thought we would like them, ordered! We finally had some yakitori (skewered chicken), tai (sashimi), harumaki (light a toasted cheese spring roll), yakinasu (a marinated vegie), kiayako tofu (tofu blocks in a sauce), gindara tenaki (dried fish crackers??) and zousui (rice and fish broth – apparently the Japanese answer to chicken soup to cure a cold). Even Shouko was impressed with her “intuition” and announced she would be taking her friends back there.

The point of being back in Tokyo was to watch the Hanabi Taikai festival. A festival of fireworks held in the last weekend in July, just because Japanese people like fireworks. Many of the streets within view were closed off on one half where people had bought picnic blankets and eskies and were set up from around midday ready for the 7.30pm fireworks. The other half of the road was still blocked off from traffic, but open to walk and so you could walk a loop around the city and watch the fireworks as you go. As we didn’t want to sit and wait all day, we took the walk option which was a nice way to see the fireworks from different angels.

At the end of the fireworks we had to part ways with Shouko. We were off to Osaka in the morning and she needed a much deserved day off to prepare for her week ahead. Thanks again Shouko for spending time with us!!!

As our hotel was on the same line as Tokyo Disney we had been watching many people coming back on the train with Mickey ears and show bags. We could help but notice the vast majority were adults and not kids! Maybe next time.

Day 257 – Kids come in handy sometimes

This morning we headed over to Harajuku and very trendy area to visit the Design Festa Gallery and experience the last of the Japanese shopping crowds. It was amazing how many people were trying to fit down one little laneway, but given many of the shops were empty, I think it was more about being seen in that street rather than actually shopping there!

Apart from the gallery, (which was interesting, but quite small and probably not worth the hassle of getting over there), nearby was an organic all you can eat restaurant and we were dying for some vegetables. We had to wait in line with the hoards of others also recognising that Y1,260 is a good deal when one apple on a pedestal costs Y7,500 in the supermarket. The wait was made longer by the fact that a children’s centre was attached and so if you rocked up with a kid, you jumped to the front of the queue!

Our last Skinkansen ride over to Osaka was uneventful and we checked into our business hotel which was in the funky suburb of Shinsaibashi. We decided to try something different for dinner…. not! We had okonomiaki, the only thing different was it was a fancier one.