Day 16 - 5/28/18 Rich: "I don't know how to live like this"

Day 16 - Monday - A Memorial Day to Remember

Who knew Lady Liberty had a sister in Japan!

Odaibo is Tokyo's playground district, sort of a Coney Island, but built on a love of technology, video games, virtual reality, robots, androids, hello kitty, transformers and leggos.  Rich really wanted to see the ASIMO robot, the 20 meters tall transformer, and the replica of the Statue of Liberty.  We had also heard of the spectacular sunset views over to Tokyo Bay and the Rainbow Bridge. A perfect last day.   

Child and Globe

After a quick 20 minute ride on the monorail near our hotel, we started at The Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, home to ASIMO the adorable robot.  Four of the five floors were permanent exhibits featuring a huge model of planet earth that hung in the five story atrium and displayed satellite images of earth in real time. Every hour or so, the globe was also used as a 3D screen to project shows such as "A beautiful Earth" - topics from kids in the Pacific Area were chosen from e-mails and elaborated into 5 minute visual segments.  The permanent exhibits also included such simple science as quantum computing; IPS (induced pluripotent stem) cell technology; particle physics especially muon detection; and a representation of the internet's functioning with black and white balls rolling along silver pathways and up silver elevators which I didn't really understand; and how to manage risk arising from natural disasters such as earthquakes, typhoons, pandemics; space travel especially the  ISS (international space station).  There were also museum guides spinning around on new age wheel chairs that were motorized, running DNA isolation experiments.  If your parents were really on the ball, they had signed you up for an hour in the chemistry lab, where you were taught to do distillations and purifications.  To be honest, I didn't understand a lot of what was there, not just because of the language barrier.  But the Japanese children did and they were rapt, applauding enthusiastically - waiting in long lines to push levers and adjust graphics. The place was literally stuffed to the gills with children from about 2 months old to 10 years old, and in the three hours we were there, I'm not sure I heard squabbling or crying or whining.  Also no uniforms. These children were with parents, usually Moms, and we couldn't figure out why those of school age were not in school, and we checked, no, it was not a school holiday. 
On the ground floor, two movies, not part of the permanent exhibit were being shown in two "Dome Theaters", and despite the cost ($18.00 each, half price for children) hundreds had lined up and seemed undaunted by the three hour wait.  We passed - maybe we can catch the shows on Netflix.
Given that the museum had literally run out of food, we headed off hungrily towards the nearby food court, pausing briefly to be impressed by the two story Transformer, that was a model used in the filming of the movie which we have not yet seen.  
The food court itself was the largest on the island, with dozens of fast food options sold from small storefronts with the difference being that this was a "gourmet" food court, and each store had a top chef sponsor who had helped guide the choice of menu, production and quality of the food.  A dizzying array of choices, but we opted for a very popular "Tonkatsu" or pork cutlet that is breaded and deep fat fried and served over rice (Pat) or noodles (Rich).  While often served with a curry sauces, we opted for a more traditional barbecue style sauce that was delicious.  Even the bowls in which the food was served were beautiful.  And this was the fast food court, mind you.  We did an obligatory tour through the attached mall: in addition to hermes and vitton, there were stores including a hello kitty store complete with hello kitty pancakes, ice cream, and doughnuts, a Madame Tussau's wax gallery, a virtual reality pod rental, an android staffed information counter, and a wasabi store.  

Sunset View of Tokyo Skyline and Bridge

As night set in, only more beautiful

As the day turned to evening, we found ourselves on the boardwalk and admiring the statue of liberty replica and "love" sign that were so impressive with the view of the Rainbow Bridge and Tokyo skyline as a backdrop.  People watching was even more fun.  Catching our second wind, we decided to stay through to sunset and were rewarded by not only a glorious sunset, but the sight of several red lanterned flat topped boats that motored into the bay, dropped anchor, and we watched as black suited businessmen clambered up the ladders to the boat roof to observe the view, snap a few photos with the two or three hostesses clad in beautiful kimonos that were with them, then clamber back into the boats presumably for their sunset cocktail.  Sadly tuckered out and saying good-bye to our Tokyo adventure, we headed back to the monorail, swiftly back to our Shiodome stop, picking up some snacks as we felt too exhausted to negotiate yet another restaurant, and back up to our hotel room to pack and get ready for our long long trip back home.  
We did manage to get back in time for the 8 o'clock rendition of the giant two story cuckoo clock's musical show, on the outside wall of the Nippon building adjacent to our own hotel.  It was very special but also somewhat weird.  If I was a child, it would have frightened me.

WAIT!  We realized we couldn't spend our last night in Japan, one of the best places on the planet for food, eating snack food from Family Mart.  We rallied, spruced up a bit, and headed back down to the hotel restaurant for some Wagu beef, which we had avoided up till this point in response to some sticker shock at some of the prices.  But the hotel had a reasonable small plate size (180 g) with vegetables and potatoes and we splurged and ordered this with a glass of delicious red wine apiece.  

Rich working his way into some WAGU

Pat so happy

We also realized we couldn't leave without saying goodbye to Koji, the genius bartender in the Park hotel bar.  We joined a handful of other patrons at the bar, ordered up a Crimson Expresso Martini (rum, port wine, beet juice, framboise, lavender bitters, expresso beans and raspberries) and a Prohibition Manhattan with so many ingredients we don't remember except for rye, cigar bitters made with tea and grilled cinnamon - a stick of cinnamon soaked in alcohol, lit, and then blown out but smouldering a heavenly cinnamon scent.  We toasted the genius Koji again, headed up to our room, only to be intercepted by Koji himself who handed us a champagne glass containing what he described as his newest signature cocktail - just for us.  He wanted us to enjoy it in our room. In the elevator, clutching the champagne cocktail, our bellies full of Wagu beef, Rich said "I don't know how to live like this." Thank you Tokyo, thank you Japan for showing us the hospitality and respect that we hope to be able to pay forward to one of you visiting in the future.

Goodnight moon! Goodnight Tokyo! from our hotel room