From Lego to Gundam at Odaiba

We slept in. It was nice, but it reduced the time available for us to explore. With various options outside of Tokyo now gone we settled on taking Alex to Odaiba.

I really wish that the Tokyo Teleport was real and not just the name of a train station. Yes, I talk about teleporting to Japan.

Previous visits to Odaiba consisted of trips to Venus Fort. This time we turned the other way towards Aqua City. Alex spotted the Legoland Discovery Centre sign and excitedly demanded to go there.

Okay, that was our plan anyway!

Google was correct in noting that it was a quiet time in Legoland. There was no queue to get in and the "crowds" were small. It isn't a full amusement park like Legoland Malaysia; there were just two rides. But Alex had fun building and testing a Lego racer and a train. We all admired the selected sites of Tokyo in Lego, including Godzilla, a colourful Shibuya with television screens and moving Lego sumo wrestlers in a stadium.

Eventually we managed to leave the Lego behind and cross over to Aqua City for a lunch of tsukumen ramen. After losing B in Gap for an hour we headed off to the Sony ExploraScience Centre elsewhere in the building. I had been planning to visit the Miraikan Emerging Science Museum, but there wasn't the time left and the Sony Centre was open longer.

It was the kind of stuff Alex loves. Lots of hands on noisemaking, flashing, touching games. Some useful demonstrations of cellular communication, sound and vision, along with lots of augmented reality. It's incredible to think how much of this is already in our mobile phones right now.

We haven't quite achieved the giant Gundam mech suit that was on display outside the Diver City shopping centre, our next demonstration. Nearby the Fuji Rock Festival was making lots of noise, while the occupants of the stage outside the centre looked like refuges from a children's show, though I susupect they considered themselves heavy rockers.

The food on offer at Diver City was rather disappointing and we ended up ordering pizza and pasta. Then back to Shinjuku on the Yurikamome elevated railway and the Oedo Subway.

No CD's from Tower Records. That must be a record in itself. Collapsed into bed on our return, hence the lateness of this post.

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