Tokyo - Odaiba...

We went for a two day trip to Tokyo on April 7,Saturday by bus. We were five people and  reserved seats for the journey two weeks before. Me, my husband, his colleague and our only Malayali friend of Tajimi , Mr. Saji , his wife Mrs. Sanitha and their three year old son. There was about 4.30 hours of travel from Tajimi to the Shinjuku station.  On the way, we saw the Mount Fuji, with a white cap of snow, just as I have seen in pictures earlier. It looks so nice.  It was very cold outside, but we saw a lot of bloomed sakura trees here. After walking through the streets of Tokyo for an hour we decided to go to Odaiba. 

In Tokyo city.

 We took a one day pass worth 800 yen from Shimbashi station and reached the Daiba Station of Odaiba in 15 minutes by Yurikamome which is an automated, elevated train with rubber tires. It carry us to all the attractions of the Odaiba island. We can use the one day pass for bus, train and boats in this island.

We had our lunch with us from home. We ate it sitting on a rock in the  park near the beach, where we saw people enjoying their food beneath the sakura trees - it is called hanami. It is a Japanese culture of picnicking under bloomed cherry trees. It seems so interesting for me as I  am seeing this for the first time.After finishing our meal we walked forward to the attractions of Odaiba. There is a replica of the statue of Liberty on the beachside. I didn't understand the relevance of the statue here, may be just an attraction.

The Statue of Liberty replica.

 Opposite to the statue, we could see the Fuji TV building - the headquarters of Fuji Television, one of Japan's private, nationwide TV stations. There are some exhibits on popular programs conducted here at certain times, also people could buy Fuji TV goods at a shop and access the futuristic looking building's observatory deck housed in the sphere shaped part of the building. We didn't enter inside as it seems very rush and it is getting late for we have to enjoy the other attractions of this island.

Fuji TV building.

Then we entered the Aquacity ,  a shopping mall with various stores, boutiques, restaurants, cafes and a 13 screen cinema complex.  There are nice views of the Rainbow Bridge from the wooden deck in front of Aquacity and neighboring Decks. Walking through the park around the building was so interesting - there were different colors of tulips and other flowers which all have just started blooming.

There we saw a giant Gundam statue in front of the building which is under construction. It is some shopping complex that will be opening in April only. So many people including us took the photos of the statue eventhough it was difficult to click the shot through the fence ahead.

The Gundam statue

After that we decided to have a small ride in the boat of the island . During our ride, we went the the upper deck of the ship, but it as so cold and we couldn't tolerate it for more than 10 minutes. The boat crossed the rainbow bridge during it's ride. And we could see all the attractions of the island around us during that ride. 

Again we crossed the Rainbow Bridge by the Yurikamome and reached the Toyota Mega Web which is a giant Toyota showroom that shows off all of Toyota's latest models, car accessories and technologies.

 Then we reached near the Ferris wheel. This 115 meter tall ferris wheel is one of the world's largest and offers nice views of Tokyo Bay and Odaiba below. Each cabin seats six and the complete revolution takes about 15 minutes.  Me and my husband were not interested in a wheel ride as we have a 30 minutes long ride in the giant wheel of Singapore some days back. Our friend and family entered the wheel while both of us spend our time in the entertainment center at the foot of the wheel. 

It turned dark and we left Odaiba enjoying the beauty of the island lit with colorful lamps all around. The Ferris wheel , the rainbow bridge and every bit of places of the island glowed in different colors. It was quite a nice experience to see the island during the time. Everything seems more beautiful than we saw during the daytime.

We reached the Kamata station and walked towards the Toyoko Inn where we have reserved our rooms for today's stay.