Oh, Odaiba

Odaiba is an artificially-created Island on the bay of Tokyo. Although it began life as a waste-disposal area, the reclaimed land* was seen by the then-Mayor as a gold-mine. Work began in 1985 but by 1991 funds were low, Tokyo-ites unenthusiastic and the Mayor kicked out. However, in 1996 Fuji rezoned its headquarters here and since then it has flourished.

I fell in love with this area, which is reached by Shimbashi (future-world) by a monorail over the Rainbow Bridge, and if I decide to move after six months for a change of location I’d request here.

Some of the highlights include:

Venus Fort – an Venice-themed shopping mall with an ever-changing ceiling depending on the time of day.



Toyota Showroom – the largest in the world, with games, simulators, test-runs and, this lovely model. The car, not me.


The concert piazza – it just happened to be Hawaii week.


The beach – artificial, and you can hire a dog to walk along the beach.

Joypolis – a cool 3-floor Sega theme-park. Loads of awesome rides but my favourite was ‘Room of the Living Dolls’, aka ‘The Scariest Experience of my Life’. You sit around a table in a room with dolls placed the whole way around you and a human-sized doll to the left. Headphones are given to you and the lights go off. In the pitch black, you hear a creepy woman tell you a story. Of course, I couldn’t understand much apart from ‘You will die, you will die’. The headphones were incredible as it sounded like people were walking around you. Wind blew from behind to cause the sensation even further. A girl starts singing and the woman goes crazy, then a shotgun is fired and it’s freaky. The room lights up and the dolls eyes are bleeding and, through strobe lighting, the big doll jerks. It was terrifying, but I loved it.

Here are some shots of the view to Tokyo. Sadly, my batteries died before evening so I’ll go back and get some night-shots.



Such an awesome place. Sitting across the bay at sunset watching the sun go down and eating a burger, I can’t describe why but it was the first place I felt that I’d really accomplished something in coming to Japan. Another one of the top places I’d show someone if they came.

*I was kind of expecting a place like Springfield in The Simpsons episode with the garbage disposal and the golf course is all bumpy with rubbish bursting at the seams. But alas, it was fine.