Odaiba

There is an island in Tokyo, Odaiba, that began as a set of small islands and was built up into one large island by landfills.  It has become a popular tourist attraction and is home to more shopping complexes than I could ever visit in one day.  Drew and I traveled to this island on one of the beautiful days he had off.  Here are the highlights:

Statue of Liberty Replica

The significance of this replica is attributed to the relationship between Japan and France, rather than Japan and America, but it was nice to see something familiar.



Gundam Statue

I am unfamiliar with this character, but there was apparently a TV show about Gundam.  This is the size he was supposed to be in real life.  It sounded to me like it was similar to Transformers.  He is supposed to move and light up every now and then, but we never did catch him in the act.



National Museum of Emerging Science

My favorite part of the trip was probably this museum.  We were able to see Asimo, a robot created by Honda, that we had previously seen in news stories.  He is pretty impressive.  Drew got a video of him running and one of him dancing.

Almost just as exciting for me was an infrared sensor that you could stand in front of.  It finally justifies to me that I am not just a baby about the cold.  Look at Drew's hands and nose on the right.  They're nice and red/orange hot.  Now look at mine.  My fingers are blue!  And my nose is that green dot of coolness!  He literally is warmer than I am all the time.  Thank you for the scientific proof that allows me to have a legitimate reason to complain about being cold.

Venus Fort

Venus Fort was the coolest shopping mall I've ever seen.  It is designed as an 18th century European town.  The ceiling of the place looked like a night sky.  It was fantastic.

Rainbow Bridge

This is the bridge that we traveled over by train to get to the island.  It is always lit up at night like a rainbow and is an iconic symbol of Odaiba.