Ren's Footprints

My fun little Christmas in Japan just came to a close and I had a great time! My highlight was going to an area of Tokyo called Odaiba with Miho. Odaiba is an artificial island that was built in the 1800s for defense purposes, but it is now a place for leisure. It also has the unique Fuji television building. These pictures should give you an idea of what I am talking about:

We took the train there which crossed Tokyo's famous Rainbow Bridge (which lights up like a rainbow at night). We spent the first part of the sunny day walking along the bay in search of the replica of the statue of liberty. It took a while, but we found it and took a few pictures.

After that we went to a mall called Aqua City and got a taste of Odaiba's famous shopping. The holiday weekend and good weather brought crowds but it was tolerable. We were originally going to have our Christmas "date" at a restaurant at Aqua City but ended up going to Venus Fort (a Venice-themed mall).

Venus fort was overall a classier mall with lots of fancy places to eat and trendy shops. For those of you who have been to Las Vegas, it really resembles the mall at Cesar's Palace (isn't that the one with the Cheesecake factory?) There were also various free exhibits and shows in some of the mall's big lobbies. At one point there was a Christmas light show at one of the fountains (see the picture below). Miho had also seen on the internet that there was going to be American gospel singers so we headed to that vicinity of the mall and just decided to eat at a nice Hawaiian restaurant which overlooked the stage for the performance. It was a great choice because the food and drinks were delicious and we got to enjoy the show sitting down. However, there was a 10% gratuity fee on the dinner because this is the biggest date weekend in Japan. In fact, Christmas in Japan is more like Valentines Day in the USA.

After dinner we walked around some and ended up seeing a really cool illuminated Godzilla attacking a Christmas tree. From that area there was a beautiful night view of the Statue of Liberty, Rainbow Bridge, and Tokyo Tower. The Tokyo Tower is on the same block as the Major League Baseball office I will work at beginning next month. It is also probably where I will attend a block party to countdown New Years.

When we got home we got to eat the cake that Miho made. It was baked to perfection and decorated beautifully. It was so delicious! Check it out in the video:

Christmas in Tokyo was great!