Odaiba and Sega Joypolis

Another weekend had come with no plans. It was friday evening and I was sitting at my desk looking really busy, searching for something to do on the weekend. I stumbled upon the statue of liberty. Yes, In Japan. Gifted by france as usual. On doing some more R & D, found out that it was located at a port called Odaiba. I asked my colleague and he seemed interested. So i chalked out a rough plan for the next day ( which I must remember is always, always someone else's job).

We left our apartment at about 11.00 ( come on, it's a saturday). Had to catch a train from shimabshi station, which is my regular railway station. It Does not come anywhere close to andheri. The funny part is it is as noisy as andheri station. Only the noise, nothing else. We had to catch the yurikamome, which is an unmanned train running on rubber tires. The train ride to Odaiba is an attraction in itself (as adverised). I did not pick up the one day pass for the train, which was a mistake, as it is much cheaper if you plan to spend the whole day in odaiba. We were at one end of the train, and it is really fascinating to know that no one is driving the train. We got down at odaiba, the station that was the nearest to the statue of liberty.

After some regular photo ops at the statue of liberty, we headed to sega joypolis. This is like a 3 storey building full of popular sega games and rides, as well as some of new and upcoming ones. Again, did the mistake of not taking a full day pass and ended up spending more money inside. The virtual plane tour was a blast. The horror shows were ok. Maybe scarier if i knew what the characters were talking about.

After sega, the next stop was Mega web. Part of Palette Town, Mega Web is a Toyota showroom, where you can view and touch Toyota's newest models and car accessories, test drive a real car ("Ride One") or ride an automatic, electric vehicle ("E-com Ride"). Historic cars are exhibited in the "Historic Garage". With no driving licence, we were compelled to ride in one of the e-cars. It was a bit weird, sitting at the wheel while the car drives itself. Reminded me of Jurassic park. After we got of the car, we went to the car museum which was an exciting walk through all old cars which you would have seen in 70-80s flicks.

We hung around pallete town for a bit after that.This shopping and entertainment complex consists of Venus Fort, Sun Walk, Mega Web, a Ferris Wheel and Zepp Tokyo, a large concert venue. With the feet starting to kill us, we took th yurikamome back home.

A saturday well spent, i must say. Better than sitting at home and watching movies on cable.