20 June 2009

I got up a little bit earlier this morning since I wanted to spend most of the day exploring the Odaiba area in Tokyo. I awoke around 10:30am, so I was able to leave by 11:30am. I took the subway to Shimbashi, then from there, I caught the Yurikamome Monorail Line. The interesting thing about the Yurikamome Monorail was that it was completely computer-driven; in other words, there was not person driving or operating the vehicle. It is pretty amazing how technologically advanced many of Japan’s gadgets are. I had to take the Yurikamome Line for twelve minutes, and at no point could I tell it was not driven by a person. Pretty neat!
Once arriving in Odaiba, there were tons of buildings and sites that I wanted to visit. The area itself was very interesting, and it was very similar to the atmosphere of a boardwalk. Odaiba additionally had the first habitable beach I have encountered while in Japan. There was even a surf shop where you could rent surfboards, though the waves did not seem very favorable for surfing. To my surprise, there were many people laying out on the beach with their towels either tanning or reading a book, while young children played in the sand or at the shoreline. It was a really nice experience with the Tokyo skyscrapers within sight across the bay.
The first landmark I visited was Tokyo’s Statue of Liberty. I’ve never actually visited the one in the United States, so visiting this one was pretty cool. Supposedly, it was a gift to Japan from France, but it was much smaller than the United States’. Next, I visited the Fuji Television Building which was designed by Kenzo Tange & Associates. It was built in 1996, but it was still a very modern and intriguing building. It was a bit too touristy for my liking, but I really enjoyed the 270 degree view from the observatory at the top. It cost me 500 yen, but it was worth it. The ceiling in the observatory was also very architecturally interesting since it exposed the gridded structure of the space. The observatory was actually a complete sphere constructed of titanium on the exterior. The sphere was suspended between a three-dimensional grid of column shafts and suspended walkways. It is something you have to see to completely understand. My next destination was the Odaiba’s Telecom Center by HOK. I was really interested to visit a project done abroad by HOK since that was the company I worked for last fall. It was a beautiful walk meandering my way to the Telecom Center which was the opposite direction from mainland Tokyo. Along the way, there were some other architecturally engaging structures which were either museums or Fuji Television secondary buildings. Once arriving at the Telecom Center, I was completely amazed. The building was a simple square with a large square void cut out of the center. Since the Haneda Airport runway was located directly behind the building, airplanes that were arriving or departing the airport were perfectly framed in-flight through the square void in the building. It was a perfect picture spot! I wonder if that’s why HOK originally made that design decision…
After the Telecom Center, there weren’t any outstanding buildings that I had to visit before leaving. Since I had plenty of time to kill however, I decided to finish walking the loop around Odaiba. I walked by the Odaiba rainbow ferris wheel and was able to walk across the Teleport Pedestrian Bridge. Both of these were very iconic in Tokyo. Lastly, I walked across the Nozomi Bridge to Ariake to quickly photograph the Ariake Clean Center Tower and Ariake Sports Center/Water Reclamation Building. These had both stood out as I had walked across the Teleport Bridge. This completed my visit to Odaiba since I had pretty much visited everything that was there. I caught the Yurikamome Line back to Shimbashi and took the subway back to Tokyo Station.
I did a bit more packing until my dinner plans at 5:00pm with Masaru and his two daughters, Tomoko and Hiroko. I had met them once before in the U.S., so I was very excited to see them again. I think the last time I saw them was when I was still in elementary school, but I still clearly remembered them. We met in my hotel lobby and walked a couple blocks to a restaurant that the girls had picked out. The restaurant was somewhat a tapas bar restaurant, so we ordered many small plates of food. We ordered a wide range from sushi, to shumei, to fried cartilage, to salad. Tomoko and Hiroko both spoke a little bit of English too, so we had a great time talking and laughing. We sat and talked and ate for a couple of hours, then left by 8:00pm so Tomoko could make the one and a half hour trip home to the Saitama Prefecture. They all talked about visiting the U.S. within the next year, so I’m hoping that becomes a reality.