Today I travelled to Tokyo, the country's capital and the final leg of my trip. I've been to Tokyo twice before and have visited quite a lot of the city already and so again the aim was to visit some different places. However I still had some rollercoasters to rides so there would be some revisit to parks.
The final bullet train of the day took me to Tokyo nice and quickly. I did ask for a Mt Fuji view when getting my seat reservation which the staff was able to do but I failed to see it on the journey, I think I got distracted by the Stranger Things game on my iPad. The express runs closely to the South coast of the country.
For my final hotel I thought I'd treat myself and splurge a little more than I'd paid at the other two hotels. Space is a premium in the cities, more so in Tokyo, so a lot of hotels have small rooms, which is what I'd had in both Osaka and Nagoya. In researching the trip I'd read that a number of Love Hotels were opening up their rooms to tourists for longer stays rather than the couples coming in for a couple of hours at a time. I'd picked one that had exceptional reviews and it was located in the Shinjuku district close to the nightlife area. Now my usual views on hotels is that they should just be a place to crash at the end of the day but this was one of my longest holidays and I thought it would be a nice way to end it.
My first afternoon and evening would be spent exploring the Odaiba area, an entertainment area on a man made island in Tokyo harbour. In previous trips the club brought us to Sega Joypolis, a huge video game and ride emporium. The centre was home to an unusual rollercoaster called Spin Bullet that moved the riders sideways through a small circuit. That closed in 2011 and was replaced in 2012 with a ride called Veil of Darkness a spinning coaster with a launch half-way around and kitted with a shooting game. It was unusual in that it was the first spinning coaster to feature an inversion. In 2016 the guns were removed and a bemani game installed instead. The ride was now called Gekion Live Coaster and for the first half of the ride you're hitting buttons connected to your restraints in times to screens, both fixed and moving ahead of the train. Once the game part is over you hit the launch, flip upside down and spin around a concert stage before coming back into the station and realising just how bad you are at bemani games. It was a peculiar ride, not a surprise in Japan which does have some odd one, but it was special to me as at the time of riding it, it was my 1900th. That changed when I came back when it was discovered two different travelling coasters were the same one knocking me back to 1899 :( . It also became the last rollercoaster of the trip. I had planned to revisit some more parks: Fuji Q, Yomiuriland and Disney but just chose to stop and do other things around Tokyo instead.
The rest of the evening was spent exploring some of the other attractions in the complex. Our group did terrible at a Resident Evil haunted walkthrough and I won my race at Initial-D, a racing game featuring real cars that you drive in. I then explored some of the other buildings in the area and sought out the new Gundam statue that was being built here and I had planned to finish with a ride on the MegaWeb big wheel. A wheel that everyone see coming into Japan and that was the first big Japanese wheel I remembered seeing on my first trip. Unfortunately it wasn't running on the day I chose to hit Odaiba so I'd have to come back.
Another train journey and another bento box. I also picked up one of those cute halloween duck things for the journey.
Shinjuku Station has an odd lion popping out of a pyramid statue which I think is one of the meeting points just outside. It was put there by Shinjuku Lions Club, a service organisation with groups all over the world and that I'd never heard of. It's a cool statue though.
This was my rather excellent room with spacious bedroom, jacuzzi, steam room and it even included Karaoke. My host Suzuki-san (no first names) showed me around and set up all the tech to work in English before chastising me for entering with my shoes on (oops!). Each day I would hand my room key into reception on the way out and I'd be handed a card which I'd hand back on my return to get the key back. We weren't allowed to leave with the key. Given the discrete nature of the hotel the receptionist is hidden behind by a darkly tinted window and I didn't get to see her but she had a lovely pitch in her voice when she spoke. Another difference is that there's no breakfast offering but you do get to order food from a whole load of local places through the television.
There's an automated train, similar to our Docklands Light Railway line that runs form Shimbashi station to the Odaiba island. It goes over the famous Rainbow Bridge and passes the Ghibli clock, a huge wooden cuckoo style clock that has things move like a Swiss Cuckook Clock on acid a few times a day.
The coaster was surprisingly alright, despite the boy band theming. Most of it is hidden away so it's not an easy one to photograph. The launch does shoot the train out around the main complex but the light is too low and the ride too fast to photograph well.
4 player PacMan
They have a number of clever augmented displays around the complex. In this one for example you touch the screen and the black balls run up your arms.
In this one you take your photo and it is merged into a seal which swims amongst other sealpeople who have done it previously and you end up being not unlike the fish scene in Monty Python's meaning of Life.
There are numerous simulator rides.
Divercity is a huge mall with some attractions within it, and a decent food court where I grabbed some dinner.
There's a Gundam musem in the mall which is really cool despite me not being that much of a Gundam fan. The models on display are very detailed, look very good and probably cost a bomb.
A minor translation issue here. They weren't offering timepieces but you could watch models being made by experts for free.
Just outside the south-west corner of the mall complex, they've almost finished construction of a new "unicorn" series Gundam robot. The original robot which looked much older was at the Joypolis complex. I'd have to come back to get better photos.
and that's the Megaweb wheel which wasn't running it's light show, a sign that it was closed. Another reason to return.
Back at Shinjuku. This area of Tokyo is lovely at night with an excess amount of neon. It's why I chose to stay here - I love this!
No comments:
Post a Comment