Tokyo 2019, Day 2
For our first full day in Tokyo, we planned a trip to Odaiba. The only thing we knew about this area was in an anime we watched many years ago called Super Gals, and in it, they referenced a made-up show called Odaiba Cop numerous times. And then in the anime, they went there and from that episode, we gathered that Odaiba was full of various entertainment centers and amusement parks.
Personally, I love going to arcades, so I was excited to see Odaiba in person, but we were really going there because one of my tennis friends suggested that we visit the TeamLab art exhibit that’s located in Odaiba. We had to reserve our tickets in advance, so we chose a time in the afternoon, so that we could explore Odaiba before then.
But before we headed off, we needed to eat, and since our hotel reservation included breakfast, we took advantage of that. I enjoyed the traditional Japanese breakfast, which usually includes a grilled fish, soup, and rice of some sort:
Nick’s not a fan of this much food in the morning, so he opted for a traditional Western style breakfast, which is too boring to take a photo of.
We then walked to the train station to go to Odaiba. It felt like an older train, mainly because it squeaked a lot, and seemed slower than the underground one. But it did offer some great views of the area. Unfortunately, the train was packed, so it wouldn’t have been easy for us to take a photo on the train.
When we arrived, we walked to the beach for a bit, which had some nice views of Tokyo:
The weather was still hot and humid, so at this point, I wanted to go inside somewhere to cool down a bit. We walked into one of the many malls in Odaiba, and to our surprise, we came across a retro-Japan floor. I think it was meant to be from the 50s, but then they had this:
Definitely not the 50s, but still fits the retro/vintage style of the place. They also had some cool vintage vending machines:
I thought we took more photos here, but I can’t find any, but we enjoyed our short time wandering around. Later, we saw a sign saying ‘Takoyaki Museum’ and I got excited, so we walked over there. And then I realized that what they meant by ‘museum’ is really just a food court with various takoyaki vendors:
After cooling down in the mall, I was ready to head outside again and then we saw this:
This was not what we were expecting to see in Japan. It’s much smaller than the one in New York, but it’s a replica of the Statue of Liberty. Apparently, it’s meant to celebrate the relations between Japan and France, but you’d think they’d use something else that wasn’t so iconic to another country.
We then walked into another mall, but this time there was no vintage Japan section. However, Nick encountered a Japanese robot assistant:
Nick tried talking to her, but found her to be non-sensical. He compares her responses to a bad version of Alexa.
Next, we made our way to the Fuji TV observation sphere, which stands above Odaiba:
I’m sure on a clear day, the views are spectacular, but on our visit, it was a bit hazy. Nevertheless, we could still see quite a distance:
Continuing on our journey through Odaiba, we walked to another nearby mall, but this one had an enormous moving Gundam in front of it:
I think at the top of the hour, it does a short transformation sequence between its two forms (I don’t know what those two forms are). When we arrived, the sequence had just started, so we couldn’t get a recording of it, but it was cool to see the face and some body parts change a little. There was accompanying music and dialogue, but it was hard to make out, and in Japanese, so it’s not like I could have understood much of it to begin with.
We didn’t spend much time in the mall, but we did stop to take a photo at the Hello Kitty store. They had a small Hello Kitty statue paying homage to the Gundam outside:
Continuing our day of random, unexpected exhibits, we walked into another building nearby. Inside, we were greeted with a hall of vintage cars. As it turns out, this is one area of a Toyota based theme park. Even the decor of the exhibit was like walking back into time:
There were actually many different vintage cars to see, and given that it’s free, I was pleasantly surprised by how expansive it was.
We then walked through a hallway that connected us to a different part of the building, and by a different part, I mean that we apparently travelled to a different continent:
We’re in Rome now, I guess? This part of the mall was designed to be like a Roman forum, much like what you’d expect if you went to the Caesar’s Palace or the Venetian in Vegas. There were many arched doorways and, of course, a fountain:
Even the fake, permanent night-time lighting made it feel like we were in a Vegas casino. It was all so very strange…
After having a quick lunch, we headed off to the TeamLab exhibit. However, between us and the exhibit was a large Toyota exhibit, which, unlike the vintage exhibit we saw earlier, was more focused on the future of Toyota. There were models and information about various concept cars that they developed, or are currently developing. We didn’t have much time to spend here because our appointment for the TeamLab exhibit was coming up, so the only photo we have is of this interesting concept car:
It was now about time for us to go to the TeamLab exhibit. Once we got there, even with a time reservation, we needed to wait in a long line:
The staircase at the very front of the line was where we needed to be. I think it took about 30 minutes for us to eventually make it inside to the holding room before entering the actual exhibit.
So the exhibit spans a large area of a warehouse, and it’s dark inside, except for the light of the art being projected on every surface imaginable. There’s no map, and very little signage. The intent is for people to go in and just be immersed in the exhibit and explore all the parts of the show organically. This would probably never be allowed in the US, because in the event of a fire, none of us knew where any of the exits were, and we’d probably all die inside, so yeah…
We weren’t sure what to expect, but after the first minute of being inside, I was amazed. It’s hard to take photos, but here are a few, but they don’t really do it any justice:
All of the art is dynamic, so it all moved and changed seamlessly, with some elements actually moving in and out of rooms. There was a bird that would fly around, and sometimes it would stop in an area, and a scene would start. None of this was set to an actual schedule; it just happened when it happened.
The first actual room we entered was full of hanging led lights, but they were set to different, moving exhibits:
You could control what to play using their app, and opening it in the room. I was able to actually connect to the app, but so did man other people in the room, so I was competing with them to actually control the show. Also, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect because, if I remember correctly, all I saw was various symbols, and I think an element like ‘water’ or ‘fire'. I’m not sure about the specifics, but basically, I just kept choosing random things and hoping that what I saw in the room matched what I chose. But even if it was someone else’s show, it was still fantastic to be in. Here are a couple that we were able to film, one is rain and the other is butterflies:
It was extremely mesmerizing to stand in the corner and just watch everything unfold.
Another room we encountered seemed strange at first, because it was just a bunch of studio lights mounted high on the ceiling, and shining different lights:
But as we stood in the room, music started to play and then the lights started moving in unison to music, and it was captivating. Unfortunately, we didn’t capture any video of this…
There were many other rooms with various interactive media and themes, and the hallways all had different pieces of projected, moving art. There was even an upstairs area that was mostly open, and had small hills with projections on it:
The projection of the water was interactive, in that it would flow around me when I stood in the center, so that was cool. There were a bunch of activities for kids in this area, so that was fun to see.
We actually spent at least 3 hours just taking in all aspects of the exhibit, and I’m happy that it was suggested to us, because I don’t think we would have gone on our own. At this point in the early evening, we needed to head back to the hotel because that night, we had a reservation at the Tapas Molecular Bar for our anniversary dinner!
I’ll save that for my next post though…