Day 12 "Odaiba, Joypolis, Panasonic Center and Christmas Lights"

Day 12 (December 25, 2018)

I got up a little early to re-evaluate the remainder of our itinerary.  I had come to another realization that everything was taking a very long time to accomplish in Tokyo (longer than Kyoto), even with the level of intent and organization I had.  A few snap decisions were made to book a fireworks cruise for Saturday the 29th (instead of fighting it out for a spot on the pier that night), it was expensive, but I had hoped it would be worth it.  The other cruise I had booked for another (non-fireworks) night was cancelled on me a few days prior due to low booking numbers, so I was scrambling to find another option. After this was changed, it would mean that we would no longer be visiting Odaiba on Saturday night.  Keep in mind, Comiket was also running (my poor planning) and I was trying to AVOID the crowds that came with it so everything ended up being shuffled last minute.  I previously had some plans for the day (Christmas!), but wasn’t 100% sure of most of them.  With those thoughts in mind, we made a snap decision to go to Odaiba sooner rather than later and headed out by 9AM. With a morning of research behind me, we also ventured on to a bus for the first time in order to save time and money getting to the station, this routine would become our everyday for the remainder of the trip. Once we figured out which bus stop and which direction, it was all gravy from there (no wrong bus this time!). We were all looking forward to playing at Joypolis, walking their malls and taking in the tourists sites Odaiba had to offer.  I did still wanted to see illuminations that night since it was Christmas and all, so our itinerary was changed to a simple "Odaiba and Illuminations" for the day.  On the topic of illuminations, I found them hard to research online, after some searching I picked out what was one of the better reviewed “large displays” that synced to music in another district and hoped for the best.

It was a beautiful clear day, the trek to Odaiba was long, but the majority of it was on scenic trains so we didn’t mind.  Another one of those “I could do this everyday for the rest of my life” moments.  Once we disembarked the train, it was a short walk around the bay area before heading inside Joypolis right as they were opening.  It was pretty dead there, exactly what I had hoped based off our timing, day of the week and it still actually be a holiday of some sort (though not Federally sanctioned here).

The place was a little smaller than I remembered and there actually wasn’t a LOT of attractions we could do together as a family (a disappointment from J-World the day before where we could all do everything!).  We opt for the entry only tickets and purchase just enough attraction tickets to play some of the larger games, which wasn’t much.  Matt got in a run at the Initial D cars, still there as they were in 2010, and I took Terra to play at one of the best arcades we had seen.  The prices to play were fair, the attendants were quick to move prizes for her and they had a large selection of picture booths and capsule machines to use as well.   It would turn out to be the only time we set aside the concentration it takes to use a Purikiri booth the entire trip.  It was fun, I’m glad we went, but overall I was surprised by how our visit actually turned out, I would rank many of our other experiences (including J-World) above it.  We decided to leave after nearly three hours spent playing arcade games and a few of the carnival and large game attractions (the Olympics game here is an "experience" and will set you back a 600yen ticket!). After three hours, it was lunch time and we weren't thrilled with the cafe on site, we quickly went through their store, purchased a few things and decided to head over to the attached mall "Aqua City Odaiba" for food.

We ended up eating at a buffet place called "The Oven", which was a strange dining experience for us in Japan, but Odaiba tries to be more Western than most of Tokyo so we figured “why not”.  It was Christmas and they displayed a chocolate fountain at the entrance for crying out loud! The food ended up closer to the American buffet standard, definitely nothing to write home about, but we did have a nice view from our table.  With still plenty of time left in the day, we spend some of it browsing around the mall, complete with a robotic receptionist (that was pretty creepy) and finally wandered into the Panasonic Center.

We fondly remembered stumbling into here back in 2010 while simply killing time waiting for Anime Fair to open and wished we had more time to explore it back then.  This time it looked different than I remembered, but they did have some pretty cool exhibits focused on the 2020 Olympics; on the second floor they had some hands-on science experiments and Nintendo demonstrations going.  It was an entertaining (free) stop, but not as engaging as I hoped it would be. I think if you had even more time to dive into some of the experiences offered and paid for the theater (I'm not positive what they were showing/demonstrating inside), then you could get more out of the place. We were only inside for about an hour before heading out, there was one more place from my memory we simply had to visit on our "free" Odaiba day, the 100 yen store named "Can*Do". I bought so many things here, even made it a point to stop in on our last day to finish picking up souvenirs.  Nobody would ever guess these items were bought for 100yen, I love a good 100yen store SO much while traveling in Japan and this was one of the best!

With it now 4:30PM and getting dark, it was time to head to that final item on the agenda. Unfortunately, all I had was a confusing set of directions to (what was advertised as) the largest illuminations display in Tokyo, Caretta Shiodome.  Wasn’t sure what to expect, but I knew it was outdoors and thought it was a quick “walkthrough” experience, it was Christmas so I would have never put us in middle of a huge indoor attraction right as it was getting dark enough to see it (on purpose).  When we finally found it at 5:15PM, it was encircled in a courtyard surrounded by outdoor mall buildings and it was PACKED.  Tokyo+Christmas=Couples vying for a romantic evening.  It took 30 minutes of filtering around a huge crowded circle to even see the lights, all while Matt’s semi-panic attack sets in from being utterly surrounded by people.  Sadly, even once we got “inside” the area, we could barely even see it.  Only being able to snap this and a few more pictures before quickly being shuffled back out.  Though the music they picked, from Tangled, went very well with the dazzling display and I did throughly enjoy it for about 5 of the 30 minutes, I couldn't recommend this experience to anyone.  I couldn’t help but think our Christmas night could have been better spent, but the damage was done and we DID get to see some of the lights I was promised by research. We shuffled back out through the mall, searching for food and coming across a few more oddities along the way.  I honestly do not recall how/where dinner ended up being and what we did (if anything) with the remainder of the night.  I do recall how much colder it seemed to be getting in the mornings and evenings though and we likely turned in pretty early. All that remains in my records for the remainder of this evening is a picture, I'll let you try to fill in the blanks.