Our last day in Japan! The plan for today is to visit the Pokémon store, followed by playing some computer games at Odaiba island, finishing off the day with drinks in our hotel with a view of the city.
We have breakfast at the hotel, I’m still sticking with Japanese food!
They do have a famous soda to try for breakfast, it’s fastened using a marble instead of a cap. Alex manages to open it and we all give it a try. It’s very sweet and fizzy, but doesn’t really taste of much. It’s far too sweet for breakfast so we don’t manage to finish it.
After breakfast, we take the metro to the Pokémon store so that we can buy some presents.
We each get ourselves a gift and Alex buys some Pokémon cards as a gift for his friend. This is the flagship store and has some exclusive items, so it’s crowded and they have limits as to how many packs of cards you can buy per day. The little boy next to us at the check-out was really into it and bought about 60 packs!
On leaving the store we pass a Costa Coffee which is advertising sparkling grapefruit iced coffee. We drop in and give it a try - it’s actually quite pleasant and refreshing.
After a few gin and tonics last night, I’d promised the kids McDonalds as a treat so they could try the local variations, so we take the metro back to Shimbashi.
Walking through the station we finally find it on our last day! Ever since Yuri told us about the jelly drink the other day we have literally checked every vending machine we have passed to find it.
After shaking vigorously we open and each have a try. The shaking turns most of the liquid into jelly and you then have to squeeze it out of the bottle into your mouth. It was a fresh mint flavour and like drinking gloop, we all decided it was fun to try but probably wouldn’t buy it again!
We then find McDonald’s and have an early lunch. I haven’t eaten at McDonald’s for a very long time and I can’t say I’ve missed it. It was the single most unsatisfying meal I’ve had in years and reconfirmed what junk they sell. The kids did enjoy a break to eat some western style food though.
After lunch we took the metro to the Obaida island. The island is built on land reclaimed from the sea and is largely home to entertainment venues and also has a beach.
We start by visiting the huge Gundam robot in the centre of the island and then making our way towards Joyopolis, where we’re hoping to play some arcade games.
It’s around midday and the sun is baking hot so we detour through a shopping centre to take advantage of the aircon.
In the first shop we spy a tiny camper van, it’s very compact but still has enough room to sleep in. Diana would love a camper van, so we spend some time admiring it.
Next we pass the Sunitgam Tiger, shoe shop. This is the original, and very trendy, brand of Asics before they renamed it.
Bella is in need of a new pair of trainers so we treat her to a pair, which she is very excited about!
After some more gift shopping we finally make it to Joyopolis which it turned out was more indoor theme park than computer arcade. After leaving our bags in lockers. We bought day tickets and queued for the first ride.
The first ride was an interactive roller coaster, where you had to play a game and the higher your score the better the ride. After being strapped in we played several levels, tapping buttons in time with the screen, before then riding the rollercoaster, which completed a 360 rotation whilst also spinning!
Next up was a pirate shooting game where you sat on a moving bronco while you shoot at skeletons. We don’t score that highly, as it was quite tricky and hard work on the trigger finger.
Finally we queued to play House of the Dead which is a shoot em up where you compete against the other players. We had to wait about an hour in the queue, which was rather tedious, but the game was fun and I came second!
We were now flagging and had had enough queuing for today, so we went and found a cafe for drinks and a snack. The kids were hungry and ordered main meals, Diana and I had starters and cold beers.
After our snack we decided to go back into town and have some proper dinner at our new favourite restaurant with the iPad ordering.
On the way home we walked past the model Statue of Liberty they have on Odaiba and took some photos with the sun setting.
We took the metro back to Shimbashi, carefully calculating how much we had left on our IC cards so that we could empty them before we leave.
Back at the restaurant we order drinks and all our favourite dishes. Alex accidentally orders fried chicken skin instead of friend chicken, so we give it a try. It’s very greasy but crunchy and tasty, it would make a good beer snack.
We have a lovely meal before heading back to the hotel.
On arriving at the hotel we found some seats in front of the window and bought sake from the vending machine with 1000 yen notes, which we need to exchange to “special” coins. We enjoy the view for a while until we run out of the notes, all our cash now used up!
I nip to the convenience store in the basement for a small bottle of sake and some onigiri for tomorrow. Diana and I the enjoy the view from our window for a while after we finish packing, before showers and bed - exhausted after another long day and such an amazing adventure in Japan.