I cleared out my sleeping space by 11 AM as agreed and prepared for the last big day. I thought I'd take it easy and start with doing some more laundry because almost all my clean stuff was gone again and it would be so much work with my tiny washing machine at home. They didn't mind if I left my other stuff at the hostel temporarily. I took some breakfast with me to the laundromat and caught up with messages while waiting.
Then went back and took my stuff and said goodbye to Mizu san. He offered to help carry stuff but I assured him it's okay, I am catching a bus nearby. He was already super busy cleaning as many people were checking out this morning. I really missed our interactions after this, it was like having a parent/friend to look forward to seeing after every day. But hopefully it will be possible to stop by again next year, if not I'm still thinking of bringing a small gift at least.
Because I planned it wrong I had to move to another hotel for the last night. They did offer to let me stay another night at the hostel but I also didn't wanna trouble the hotel that was expecting me. The bus station was actually further than I thought and with a suitcase, some big bags, and a bad leg this wasn't gonna work so I called a taxi, bit expensive but very much worth it. After dropping off my stuff and eating the pudding from yesterday 👀 it was time for the last day of adventure (tomorrow early afternoon my plane was going).
Near the hotel I saw an old newspaper vending machine, the only other time I saw this was in Ikaho. Not sure if they always sell out first or if they are not in use anymore cause they were always sold out. The closest station to the hotel was Minami Senju, it was kinda far and a lot of stair climbing, already casting a big debuff on my painful leg 🥹 I missed Uguisudani station!
From here I went to Harajuku station and visited the Ikea for a big bag that I could check in for the flight because there was no way everything would fit in my suitcase/backpack as planned. Also got a native Japanese charger cause it seemed useful to have but it was weaker than the one I already had (was using a converter before).
There
was another restaurant I wanted to visit but they just happened to be
closed today due to hosting a company party. So I went to a konbini
nearby. I found something amazing there, espresso pan, it was bread with
coffee cream filling. It reminded me of the Dutch mokkataart.
Very
close to there was Hie shrine, it's another of the giant famous ones,
it has a giant torii gate in front and even has escalators leading up to
it. It feels very unusual for a shrine, but it helps make it accessible
for everyone so that's a big plus. As I got there though so my
disappointment the main area was under construction and there was not
much to see. You could go into their office but I didn't get where to go
and everyone was busy around me running around so I wasn't sure who to
ask, and decided to come back another time.
Now
the place next up was super far, about one and a half hours of travel
and I wasn't sure about it, but I just felt like I had to. It was the
island next to Kawasaki that I wanted to visit, Eastern Ogi Island
Southern Park. Last part I had to take a really long bus there. When I
arrived it was already dark and it felt like it was freezing so I
wrapped myself in warm stuff and added some heating packs. It was a very
industrial place and people looked so confused what a white person is
doing in this godforsaken place 🤣
But
a little more to the south was the park next to the sea and the
lighting and industrial skyline gave it such a strange interesting vibe.
There were also hundreds of people fishing along the coast even though
it was so dark and cold, really didn't expect that. From here you can
also see the impressive Aqua Line bridge/tunnel that spans from Kawasaki
to Kisarazu in Chiba.
At a konbini nearby I found matcha baumkuchen and shiitake tempura, that was sooo good!
Last stop for today (and the entire trip 🥺)
was gonna be Odaiba. Another island but next to Tokyo. This place was
so much more gigantic than I expected and I spent like over four hours
exploring everything. No regrets whatsoever, the vibes were so different
from central Tokyo and there were much fewer people, it felt like
visiting a different part of the country.
One
of the first landmarks you find there is the Statue of Liberty. Yes
that one. If you're curious why it's here, it's because in 1998 France
brought it to Japan to celebrate their friendship. Why France if it's
American? Apparently the one in New York was also made by French and was
brought over as a gift by boat, it's 93 meters tall but they brought it
over in disassembled pieces back in 1884-1886. While the statue in
Odaiba is still a sight to behold it's "only" 12 something meters tall.
Close
to there is the Rainbow Bridge, 798 meters wide, connecting Minato
Shibaura to Odaiba. It is so pretty from this angle. I only saw it in
white but as its name suggests it can turn into any color of the
rainbow. It's used to celebrate and raise awareness for certain things,
but not sure how they decide when and what.
Then
there's Fuji television building, with the giant steel orb in the
middle, you might recognize it if you've seen some of Tokyo before! I
couldn't get a proper picture of it from the front but I took a picture
from the side, the structure looks so smooth somehow, something about it
makes it satisfying to look at xD
Right
next to that is the place everyone is waiting for! The mall and area
around is is called Diver City, which is a pun on Diversity (the place
is very diverse I guess?), and Daiba from Odaiba is also the Japanese
pronunciation of Diver. The word Daiba itself means like a fort, because
the island was built to protect Tokyo during the war, and when the
Japanese insert an o- or go- in front of a word it indicates that they
give it more respect or that it's important to them somehow, I guess the
fort to protect the rest of the city was quite important! But now it's
just an island that looks cool and that's also important!
Oh
yeah that's not what I wanted to talk about.. it's the radiant mall
with the rainbow colors, and the Gundam that's right in front of its
plaza and also rotates between, so it's part of the beautiful rainbow
chaos. It's one of those landmarks (is a Gundam a landmark?) that you
often see in news related to Japan or Tokyo. Pic included of course!
Right
around the corner of the mall there was a place called Unko Museum
Tokyo, idk what the shit they're doing in there cause it was already
outside opening hours but unko means 💩.
Other
than that there was lots of forest, flower, mushroom, light art called
LightWalk Odaiba, the sing reminded me of some fantasy thing like Avatar
or Guild Wars 2 or something.
A
bit more ahead is the Dream Bridge, I don't know the lore for this but
it's a wide bridge with lots of lights and weird patterns and it looks
even more amazing at night so in this case I'm happy that it I got to
see it after dark!
Before
moving on I had a little snack at the konbini, fruit milk and sweet
dango, not super nutritious but it made me happy so it helped! The staff
didn't look very happy, lots of partygoers were in the area so they
must've had it really busy.
The
last big sight for today (hehe) was Tokyo Big Sight, the upside down
triangle help up by four pillars. It has to be the building most
featured in anime! This place is a frequent space for conventions and
events and exhibitions. It existed since 1996 and has over 100k square
meters in usable space, which makes it the biggest convention venue in
Japan. Before reaching the building itself there is a massive road
leading up to it with two covered walkways on the side, and you gotta go
up quite some stairs (or I believe there's escalators as well), which
makes it feel all the much more majestic.
I
wanted to see more after this despite being almost unable to stand on
my left leg but the last train was gonna depart very soon so I walked
over to the next station and went back to my hotel is Asakusa. The hotel
was a bit scary at night, it was very dark and smelled like smoke and
there was a guy snoring really loud and I thought it was some monster
that was growling from the dark 💀 Quickly went to the ground floor to take a shower and back to my room
on the fourth floor (the cursed number...) other than that I had a good
sleep but it reaaaally made me miss the hostel.
In
the pictures I will include the amount of steps/kilometers I walked, I
never walked this much in my life but this trip blessed me with the
power of infinite curiosity and determination, unfortunately I am
trapped in this shell of meat and bones and had to come to terms with my
limits...! but this was so much fun and I feel like I never made a better decision in my life than to go on this spontaneous trip.
Unfortunately
mount Fuji was not visible at all during the entire trip but on the
plane back I could see it from the window, what a proper goodbye!
Thank
you so much if you read all the way up to this point. I hope you had as
much as fun reading it as I had writing it. I just felt like the trip
deserved a proper report in some form. This made me so much more
motivated to plan an even more exciting trip for next year, hopefully
that one will come true in October. Let's goooo!
One more bonus video, random train crossings (why are those such a vibe):
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