Today started like yesterday, with the group meeting up at noon to head our for the day. But since I woke up a little bit earlier than that, I decided to head back go Yarou Ramen for another taste. It was just so good—I couldn’t resist!

On top of that good morning, I wandered into the giant red GIGO building. It’s such an icon of Akihabara (although sadly, it’s rebranded from its SEGA roots), that I wanted to give some of the games a try (also, to get rid of some coins, haha) After seeing a machine with 大放出 (big payout) plastered all over it, I couldn’t help it and… THEY WEREN’T KIDDING! Netted 2 plushies in a single play!! This morning’s already going great!

Finally, back at the hotel, we all met up to start our journey to Odaiba. The set of small islands in the center south of Tokyo that the Yurikamome line runs through. It’s home to a lot of big, flashy buildings. On our schedule today was the Miraikan (Future) Museum and TeamLabs, an interactive art exhibit. Before heading there, however, we first went to Diver City Tokyo Plaza!

Diver City Tokyo Plaza is a massive mall/entertainment complex that has lots of different stores, restaurants, sports, etc! There’s even a giant Gundam at the very front. Take a look!

Upon walking in, I was immediately lured in by this store that sells a GIANT bundle of cotton candy. And I mean like absolutely giant. A stupid amount of cotton candy. I got the rainbow one. Good way to start pride month, eh?
There was also an expansive crane game section, but I think my win earlier today satisfied me enough to keep me from throwing 100 yen coins into the machines. I mostly wandered around and tried to counteract that intense sugar high from the aforementioned cotton candy.

We made it out just in tome to see the Gundam Statue move! Sadly, it wasn’t anything all that impressive, but it wasn’t disappointing either. Not overwhelming or underwhelming—it was whelming. Only the head opened and closed, some lights flashed, and one of the knee sections moved, and that was about it. Absolutely don’t regret stating to watch it, though. Will say though, feels quintessentially Japan! Can’t wait to see where we’ll be in 30 years with all this stuff.

Speaking of the future, we next headed to the Miraikan! It was absolutely massive, the outside under construction, yet still a behemoth to behold.

Inside was quite spacious and modern, fitting for a facility meant to display ideas of the future. In my opinion, however, a lot of what I expected about it was pretty much confirmed. I think it’s a great place for ideas and introducing people to topics they might not have considered, but it was mostly uncritical of our current system and the way we do things. Things such as plastic pollution were instead just addressed as “Oh! More innovation”, with or protesting as a form of change never really introduced. Great ideas, but ultimately half the story. It feels enough to leave some people inspired, but also a lot of people pessimistic.

Overall, the museum had many artistic interpretations of things, such as future progress, microbes, incorporation of technology with nature, etc. I personally found the giant light up globe to be pretty interesting.

Upon exiting, we then took the Yurikamome line over to Toyosu station, where TeamLabs was a minute walk away! We were cutting it close, but luckily the line was nowhere near as bad as expected. Given how tired my legs were from so much walking the past two weeks, I had thought “how cool could this actually be.”

Turns out, VERY cool! I was not expecting it to be that immersive or visually entertaining. In my opinion, a must-go. I’ll let the gallery below do the talking, but really, it’s a you-have-to-be-there sort of thing.

Afterwards, it was getting dark, and we all went our separate ways back home. I managed to exit around the same time as both Sten and Stephen, so we accompanied each other back to the hotel. Had some great talk with Sten about the co-op process, getting myself out there in the game industry. It was filled with a lot of flattery, but ultimately, I’m glad I now have someone I can talk to about all this. “So when are you moving here?”

No idea, but I’m certainly open to the idea 🙂

Finally getting back home after around 40 minutes on two different train lines, I decided, you know what? Screw it!

Let’s do some Karaoke!

I gathered up a few friends willing, and headed to the Big Echo just a minute from our hotel. Once again a situation where I’m very glad I was able to speak Japanese, haha. The receptionists couldnt speak any English, and we needed to be led to another building.

But once we were there, a completely other story! We all kicked it off and had a ton of fun. The little tablet they had for ordering things was a bit confusing at first, but we soon got used to it. I had a ton of songs cued up in my head, and enjoyed everyone else’s picks. The drinks and food they had there were great for the occasion, and I greatly enjoyed the fancy mustard they had.

I don’t greatly enjoy my singing voice, but if you’re curious, here’s a bit of it. I’m singing Brain Fluid Explosion Girl, a notoriously fast song.

Afterwards, it was around midnight, so we all headed back home, and to bed we went! Lights out, for another day tomorrow.