January 26, 2011
2:49 AM
22 Jan 2010, Japan Day 15
Last stretch of Japan, spent back in Tokyo. The first day's morning was spent travelling all the way from Kobe back to Tokyo. A close to 3 hour shinkansen ride if I'm not wrong, but I slept the whole way there, so I wouldn't know.
Afternoon was spent at Odaiba. They have a freaking Statue of Liberty there! What the heck. They thought that by renaming it the Goddess of Liberty, we wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Anyway, we took a walk along the coastal line of the island, which I hadn't been to during the last trip. I daresay its size might rival Sentosa. They even have high schools here.
We made our way to Palette Town to get our starter Pokémon. Unfortunately, they ran out. We took a look around the place instead. The arcade, which contained the seemingly endless row of gashapon machines a few years back, seemed to have been revamped. Gone are the machines, only to be replaced by the UFO machines and other typical arcade games. They had a ball lottery for all visitors. Prizes ranged from a free UFO machine play, a few free medals to use at the medal games, to a free bowling game! Furthermore, japanese people can't seem to recognise faces to save themselves. I'd imagine given enough time, we'd be able to amass enough free plays on the UFO machines to win a prize.
Dinner was at a certain ramen shop in Shibuya. Osaka's famous for their okonomiyaki and yakisoba, Tokyo's famous for their ramen. Or so I've heard. Thanks to the blocked nose I acquired some days ago, I couldn't really tell the taste. What a waste. Imagine if I ate Kobe beef: feeling the beef melt in my mouth, yet without a clue of its taste. That'd be really sinful. Walked around Shibuya for a while after that. Toured the area of Dogenzaka, the famous love hotel district. A 3-hour rest in that place would set us back further than a full night at our accomodation.
Finished off with an short hour-long walk at Shinjuku, where we accidentally wandered into the haven for many a salaryman after a long day's work. A perfectly decent-looking old gentleman came by and touted: "strip show, strip show".