We woke up to a cloudy day which looked like it could rain at any moment. There are a lot of indoor activities on Odaiba, so the bad weather didn't bother us. We went down the street to McDonalds for breakfast. We didn't feel bad at all about going to McDonalds for breakfast as the Japanese version of breakfast is not at all what any of us would ever want for breakfast. Fish, rice, and miso soup just doesn't interest us for breakfast.
After breakfast, we walked to our first stop of the day, Miraikan, the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation. We got there just a few minutes after they opened, and there were already a lot of people there getting their tickets. We used a vending machine to buy our tickets (¥600 per adult, ¥200 per child) and went inside. We got a schedule of events and found out there were a couple of movies to see as well as a demonstration of Asimo, the world's most advanced humanoid robot. We went up to the top floor to get tickets to the big Imax dome type movie and found that the first show was already gone, but we ended up with tickets for a showing right after lunch. We were also able to get tickets to a 3D movie about space.
After we got our movie tickets, we went through some of the exhibits and explored the museum waiting for the Asimo demonstration. We got to the demonstration about 15 minutes before it was supposed to start and people were already lining up. They let the kids sit in the front row and the adults stood in back. It was pretty full by the time the demonstration started and everybody seemed very excited when Asimo's door opened and he walked out. Most people in the audience cheered and clapped for Asimo as he started walking. It was amazing to see him walk and run on two legs. I couldn't get over how excited the Japanese people were to see him in action. They acted like they were watching a live performance by a rock star.
Asimo showing off his talents
I took a couple of short videos showing Asimo in action.
Asimo running and dancing
The show lasted about 15-20 minutes and it was pretty interesting and amazing to see what Asimo could do. After the demonstration, we went up a couple of floors to a 3D virtual reality movie about space. We found out it was only in Japanese and wasn't worth our time to go to it, but they did give us giant 3D glasses
3D movie about space
After the movie, we went next door to a Japanese fast food place called Lotteria. Sitting outside the door to Lotteria was a stack of chairs with multiple signs on them. I'm not sure what it was trying to convey, but clearly something got lost in translation.
Strange sign on the chairs
Tyler and I couldn't stop laughing at the signs. After lunch, we went back to the museum and watched the 3D Imax dome movie. This one had an English translation available, but it still wasn't super exciting. We then toured the rest of the museum and explored some more of the exhibits. There were lots of signs in English, but the museum seemed to be geared towards older kids than Tyler, so he didn't get super interested in things. Compared to Risupia the day before, the museum just wasn't as interesting or hands on.
We left the museum and headed to the DiverCity mall which is known for a giant Gundam statue that stands outside of it. For those of you that don't know, a Gundam is from a Japanese anime series and they are hugely popular in Japan. Every toy store has tons of models and figures of Gundams. This statue is about 60 feet tall and there were lots of people taking pictures of it when we got there.
Giant Gundam Statue
After looking at the statue, we went into the mall and walked around. We didn't find anything too exciting and headed back to our hotel room to relax for a bit before dinner. I took a picture of one of the crazy buildings on Odaiba that you could see from our balcony.
Fuji TV Building
We went back to the DiverCity mall later to see the Gundam statue put on its "show" which it does several times a day. We weren't sure what to expect, but there were a lot of people standing around waiting for it to start when we got there. Almost everyone had a video camera or phone out so they could recored the performance. I took a video of the show and as you can see it was amazingly unexciting. I couldn't believe so many Japanese people were recording it and seemed genuinely excited to see it.
Giant Gundam "show"
After the show we went back into the mall to find some capsule toys. Capsule toy machines are huge in Japan and you can find them everywhere. They are a fun thing to spend a few dollars on to get some cheap souvenirs. There are so many different types of things you can find in them it is fun to take a look whenever you see them. There are even shops which sell opened capsule toys so that you can finish out a collection without having to keep plunking money into a machine and hoping you get the ones you need. The DiverCity mall had quite a lot of capsule machines on one of its floors.
Capsule toy machines
We went back towards the area of our hotel and found a Tonkatsu restaurant to eat at in the mall. The food was good, but not as good as the Tonkatsu we had in Nara. The restaurant did have a great view of Tokyo Bay and the Rainbow Bridge. We also had a view of the Rainbow bridge from our hotel room. I took a couple of pictures from our balcony.
Rainbow Bridge in Tokyo Bay
After dinner, we explored the mall and bought some candy to take back home before heading back to the hotel for the night.
