So in this entry, I will cover the rest of the areas that I visited before, though in some of the areas new places were explored. Again, my overall thoughts of these areas will generally be minimal as they haven't changed much from my original thoughts. For more details on these places, please read my old blogs on them (links below).
Japan Trip 2016: Roppongi, Harajuku, Saitama, Tokyo
Japan Trip 2014: Asakusa, Meguro, Odaiba
HARAJUKU
DAYS SPENT: 0.5
OVERALL THOUGHTS: My thoughts on this area hasn't changed, although I did not explore it as thoroughly as last time. I was only here for one thing: to check out the Calbee+ Store, a space devoted to selling and serving Calbee brand potato chips!
PLACES VISITED:
Takeshita Street + Calbee+ Store
Takeshita Street has a bunch of food places and fashion shops and other shops. When I got there it was about 3:20 PM, so I'm guessing I was in the crowd of after school students. As I walked down the street, I could understand why there'd be such a crowd. A lot of the shops looked they carried unique or fun items. This street was young and "hip".
The Calbee+ Store was really small, but wow, did it carry a lot of potato chips! Boxes and boxes and bags full of potato chips! I was internally drooling as I stepped inside. The neat thing about the Calbee+ Store is that I think they carry flavours that aren't sold in regular stores. Also, different Calbee+ Store locations carry slightly different flavours.
The Calbee+ Store also has a standing dining area upstairs, but I didn't try it out because it looked really busy. Next time I will definitely dine in!
The front of the Calbee+ Store.
The menu for the dining area.
All the chips! I felt like I was in a very small potato chip heaven, hahaha.
SAITAMA
DAYS SPENT: 1
OVERALL THOUGHTS: So I came here for two reasons: to re-visit Capcom Cafe and to buy a CD from Tower Records. Commuting to Saitama from Shinjuku took just about an hour, but it was worth it for Capcom Cafe.
PLACES VISITED:
Aeon Mall (RE-VISIT)
I won't say too much here since the Capcom Cafe will be covered in my future Japan Eats blog.
I went to Tower Records because there was a CD single that I just had to find and buy. The night before, I watched Music Station, this one hour music TV program that featured various artists / performers every week. Well, there was one performance I enjoyed so much that I had to get the song. I was really lucky I recorded the performance on my phone. It became something I'd watch almost every morning and every night, hahaha. If I can I'll post up the video in a future blog. The CD single was Sakurako Ohara's Nakitai Kurai. And I found it, yayy!
Some musical entertainment in the mall.
TOKYO
DAYS SPENT: 2
OVERALL THOUGHTS: The only reason I visited Tokyo was to check out Tokyo One Piece Tower with my sister -- and then again with my sister and her hubby! I love One Piece so much that I didn't mind checking this place out twice on the same trip.
PLACES VISITED:
Tokyo One Piece Tower (RE-VISIT)
Now... I had already visited Tokyo One Piece Tower the last time I visited Japan (will refer to it as "One Piece Tower" from this point on), and a lot of the attractions were the same, except for a few things:
-The introductory area was different
-Admission to the Live Attraction needs to be purchased when buying general admission
-Many of the staple attractions have English subtitles!!!!!
When I visited One Piece Tower two years ago, none of the attractions had English subtitles. There were QR codes to scan for English context (I think), but nothing so accessible as English subtitles. It made me so happy to see this.
For admission, I purchased the Live & Park Pass (3200 yen) when I visited One Piece Tower with my sister -- then the Park Pass (2200 yen) when I visited with my sister and her hubby. There is also a combo admission for Tokyo Tower deck and the Park Pass (2900 yen), but I already checked that out the last time. To purchase admission just for One Piece Tower, you need to enter Tokyo Tower and head to the 3rd floor to One Piece Tower's entrance.
Overall, I really enjoyed myself and could have stayed longer. There are still a couple food places I've yet to check out (Sanji's buffet / restaurant and Franky's snack / popcorn / cola bar), so I will definitely go back. Well -- knowing me, unless One Piece Tower poofs away, I will always go back no matter what! <3 <3 <3
If you are a One Piece fan, I highly recommend checking this out at least once!
Some of the photos in this section might be spoiler-y depending on how far you are with One Piece.
Me sitting on the palm of a Pacifista.
This was a memorable scene.
Watch out! The ground is tearing apart! I don't look impressed,
hahaha... but the illusion is done nicely.
For your convenience, I'll lift the general overview of the attractions from my old blog. I'll update my experiences, though, if there are any new thoughts. Anything that's lifted from the old blog will be in italics.
Luffy's Endless Adventure
This was like a mini funhouse. After seeing some scenes, you end up in a maze of mirrors.
The mirror mazes still spooked me out, but at least I wasn't going through them by myself this time. It was nice going through this attraction again with English subtitles.
Luffy and Shanks. I think this was the scene (in the manga) that pulled me in for good.
I had no idea I was going to be hit with such feels.
If you click on the picture, you can faintly make out the English subtitles.
Another scene with feels. As I said in my last blog, this was a
very nice recreation of Nami's room.
And another feely scene.
Robin's Finding Ponegliff
There are ponegliffs littered around One Piece Tower and your job is to find and record as many as you can in 30 minutes. You are given a replica den den mushi (transponder snail), and you place the den den mushi over the ponegliff to record it.
Again, this was my favourite attraction. And again, I should have taken a pic of the den den mushi. The English subtitles really helped in giving clues for what ponegliffs were real and which were fake.
When I did this with my sister, we got a low score even though we thoroughly looked everywhere. When I did this with my sister and her hubby, we still got a pretty low score... but we found the ponegliff! It's really too bad that you can do this attraction only once per admission.
Usopp's Road to Sogeking
This is similar to those games where you knock down targets with a ball in a given time, but with this you use the provided slingshot. You are given around five bullets which you can use over and over depending on how fast you can retrieve them.
It sounds very simple and easy, but really it's very hard, lol. First there are five marines to shoot down. Once those are shot down, the final target will show itself.
This was my second-favourite attraction. It's quick but really challenging. We were lucky to witness just one person winning during our two days at One Piece Tower. When I went two years ago, nobody had won.
Bullseye! Somebody won!!! And down to the last second, too.
Zoro's Soul of Edge
The first half of this attraction was an exhibit of various sword replicas from the series. The second half was a virtual reality room where you are given a sword and you are trying to slice bad guys at the right time. At the end you are given an overall score plus accuracy.
Just like last time, I didn't do too well. My sister scored really well, though, and she received some kind of certificate! I'm soooooo jealous!!! Hahaha.
Brook's Horror House
Unlike last time, there is no funny story to go with this attraction. This attraction wasn't particularly scary, but was fun to go through.
Nami's Casino House
I didn't cover this last time, but now that the attraction has English subtitles I was able to understand what was going on.
In a nutshell, in Nami's Casino House, 3 rounds will happen. For each round, you are to guess what the outcome will be. If you are right, you will win some "virtual beli". If you make it out on top and earn 300,000 virtual beli in the end, then you'll receive a Nami VIP card.
As a game, so far that I can tell, this is just a random guessing game. There is no way to tell what the outcome will be for each round -- especially the 2nd round. However, having the English subtitles really helps in making the experience more enjoyable.
If you see a longish line for this, I'd suggest you try going in line to see if you'll be the next group to go in. If you're by yourself or with a small group, they may end up waiting for more people before starting this attraction.
Chopper's Thousand Sunny Tours
I didn't cover this last time. Again, it was due to not understanding the context of the attraction. The English subtitles helped.
This attraction was basically exploring the Thousand Sunny while trying to pick up clues about a certain plan. You would be able to interact with some of the objects in each room.
There were several rooms to explore. One was the kitchen where a life-sized Sanji was standing. Another was a bedroom with Nami's treasure chest (you should try touching it to see what happens, hehehe ;)). One of the funnier rooms was the hall leading to the shower and bathroom.
When nobody was looking, I hugged the life-sized Sanji and had my sister take a pic of it, hahaha.
Live Action Show (Live Attraction 3)
Just like with Live Attraction 2, I really enjoyed this!!! The performers were great and the energy was so high. They featured so many characters, too. It -- was -- so -- amazing. The theme song (Greeeen's Phantom - Yakusoku -) was great as well.
Unfortunately there were no English subtitles for this, but it's understandable. With everything that's happening on stage, you'd miss so much if you were reading English subtitles.
OTHER PHOTOS:
ODAIBA
DAYS SPENT: 2
OVERALL THOUGHTS: The first time I visited Odaiba about four years ago, I had no idea what was so interesting about Odaiba besides the life-sized gundam and that it was a man-made island. Now I know. Now I understand. From the few places we visited, Odaiba has something for almost everybody -- shopping for adults, gundam for the Gundam fans, and fun, fun, FUN for the young. Odaiba is a like a mini-vacation resort.
PLACES VISITED:
DiverCity (RE-VISIT) + the Gundams
So DiverCity is a huge shopping mall, with Gundam Front at the top. I won't talk too much about this... but instead will talk about the life-sized gundam. Now I'm not a gundam fan (haven't watched any of the shows except for a few episodes of Gundam Wing and Endless Waltz), but my sister's hubby is. The first day we went to Odaiba, we mainly went to check out the gundam stuff -- particularly the gundam transformation and light show.
Then when my sister's hubby went to check out Gundam Front, my sister and I shopped at Daiso, this 100-yen shop that carried a lot of stuffs. Then my sister and I trekked to Aqua City and DECKS, hoping to find the Takoyaki Museum. By the time we found the Takoyaki Museum, we ran out of time. It was through searching for the Takoyaki Museum that I realized there was more to Odaiba than just shopping and the gundam.
Just to say, the gundam transformation and light show were neat. Based on my sister's hubby's impressions / reactions to them, they're a must-experience for the gundam fan.
The gundam before transformation. If you go to Odaiba just to witness this,
do your research to find out at what times the transformation happens.
do your research to find out at what times the transformation happens.
The gundam after transformation.
The gundam just before the light show. Again, look up when the light show happens!
Aqua City
This is what I spent a fair amount of time on:
As my sister and I were walking past the information booth, I caught a glance at the employee there. I looked away immediately, thinking 'She's wearing so much make-up. I better not stare'. Then I took another glance at her again and realized something -- she wasn't human. We walked closer and found out she was Junco, a life-sized robot (with pre-loaded messages) acting as an information desk employee.
It was really interesting and unnerving at the same time. She would move her arms and turn her head every now and then. Sometimes she would turn and her eyes would be staring right into yours. She also spoke English. It was really neat.
Movies currently playing in theaters. One day I might experience one... hopefully.
Junco. Quite neat and unnerving.
Junco in motion. The volume is pretty soft.
I just find it interesting that there is an Xbox One above Junco's head.
It must be acting as a sensor or something.
DECKS Tokyo Beach
So DECKS -- aside from the Sega Joypolis that was right across -- was the fun, fun, FUN for the young. I mean... just look at that entrance! It's so colourful and full of life! Walking through, it kinda made me think of those festivals in anime shows.
There were a lot of snack shops and crane games. There was also a BB gun shooting gallery (I think it was a BB gun) and a haunted house attraction. If there was more time I totally would have explored and experienced more than I did.
The Takoyaki Museum was at the end of DECKS, but that will be covered in a later blog.
Me holding a gun in the shooting gallery.
I obviously have no idea how to hold a gun.
Kit Kat flavours galore!
Lady Gaga wax figure from Madame Tussauds.
There is a Madame Tussauds somewhere on this island,
though not exactly sure where.
though not exactly sure where.
OTHER PHOTOS:
But... Odaiba's version.
it's really neat. You pretty much have the whole dance floor to
do your moves so long as you're hitting the left - right notes with the
correct feet and in the corresponding area. If you are curious,
you can check out this YouTube video of it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kksXU42lEBY.
That's it for Part 2. Part 3 will cover all the new areas I hit. Wish me luck that I'll be able to put out Part 3 in a timely manner! Aka, my working hours won't be as lengthy as before, hahaha.
Thank you for reading! If you have any questions or comments about any of these places I visited, feel free to say something in the comments box! :)
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