Tokyo: VW’s, Ewoks and More

Fairly eventful day today.

There was a big VW show in Odaiba (will be on Auto Otaku soon) so Kaori and I headed down to Tokyo on the “express” to have a look and do some shopping as well. The forecast called for showers and when we woke up it was a little cloudy but we hoped it would stay dry.

As I said in the previous post, the sakura are finally starting to bloom in Tsukuba. I snapped a couple pics on the walk to the station. Here are some of the trees across from our apartment. Still kinda naked now but they should be full in about a week or so.

Some more trees near the local elementary school.

Just a short walk down this path to the station.

A nice Sunday morning in Tsukuba.

Heading down into Tsukuba station. Doesn’t look too crowded here.

Hop on the TX train which quickly fills with people. Sundays are actually pretty busy days for the Tsukuba Express as many Tsukuba people head to Tokyo for fun and many Tokyo people head to Mt. Tsukuba for hiking and and other wilderness stuff.

45 minutes later we are at Akihabara Station where we board a JR Yamanote Line train. The Yamanote line is probably Tokyo’s busiest and most well known rail line as it loops around the center of Tokyo.

After an excruciating wait of about two minutes the next train came. I probably looked like a major tetsu or train geek when I took this picture.

www.train-otaku.com?

After the quick ride down the Yamanote-sen we got off at Shimbashi where we had to change trains one last time time.

Yurikamome Shimbashi Station.

Advertisers will put their message anywhere they can in Tokyo.

Hey an alien exhibit!. That might be cool.

Inside Shimbashi Station.

Shinkansen heading for Tokyo Station on the JR line.

View from out the window of the Yurikamome. This line is probably one of the most scenic in Tokyo.

All of the Yurikamome trains are fully automated so there are no drivers. Kind of like the monorails at Disneyland although it’s not actually a monorail. I have ridden this train many times but this time I took some pics.

Crossing over the highway near Shiodome.

Kitty-chan bus.

The famous Rainbow Bridge with Odaiba visible across the water.

To elevate itself onto the bridge, the line loops over itself as seen is this Google Earth photo. Pretty cool.

Passing over some tugboats.

The rail line and standard road occupy the lower level of the bridge while the highway occupies the top. Cars drive right next to the train so you can make funny faces at people driving.

I wonder if the guy in this Stagea saw me taking a picture of him?

Kaori doesn’t seem as interested as I am.

Forrester and a chopper cruising in front of some Japanese Coast Guard ships.

Over the bridge and into the Daiba area.

Sakura in front of the Fuji TV building.

Setting up the stage for tomorrow night’s “Hey! Hey! Hey!” live TV special.

Got off the train, and while walking down to the VW show we saw this classy looking van cruising one of the parking lots.

After spending some time checking out all the dope old school VW’s it began to rain. We looked for something to do indoors. Hey, how ’bout that Alien show we saw the sign for?

I was kind of expecting some kind of sweet freak show thing with some Alien corpses or maybe even live aliens but it was actually more of a scientific educational thing. Oh well.

They did have this awesome Ewok from Star Wars though. (crappy cell phone pic)

By the time we finished at the alien thing it was raining pretty good and it was cold so we decided to head back to Akihabara.

I had been wanting to buy an HD camcorder for a while and Kaori’s dad wanted us to pick up an Ipod for him to play in his barber shop. Yodobashi Camera in Akiba is the place to go for one stop electronics shopping.

You can see just how big it is in the pic above. I didn’t take any pics inside but the place is absolutely crazy. Their prices are decent and what’s even better is their point card system which basically means you can get like 10-15% store credit on any item you purchase there.

I wanted to buy a Canon HV20 video camera and instead of some unhelpful clerk there is an actual Canon rep that helps customers with questions about the brand’s products. Even better is that you can negotiate the price! I had seen the same camera advertised a little cheaper online and we told them clerk and he came back with a small handheld calculator and knocked it down below the ‘net price. So cool. I’d like to see you do that at Best Buy.

So now I have a new toy to play with. Expect some video content as soon as I reacquaint myself with the video editing world.

By then it was getting late so we got back on the Tsukuba Express to go home.

When we got home we were tired, hungry and lazy so we ordered some Pizza Hut delivery.

It tasted good in all of its greasy brilliance and made a satisfying end to a packed day.