Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Gundam, and Odaiba 東京都写真美術館とガンダムとお台場

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We had some time off this week to relax and catch up on errands, so we took advantage of having a weekday free and adventured around Tokyo on Wednesday. Our first stop was the Tokyo Municipal Museum of Photography, pictured above. We saw an exhibition of photographs from the permanent collection related to the theme of Travel, as well as the special exhibition on Georges Bigot, a French artist of the late 19th century who lived and worked in Japan for many years.
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After the museum we stopped to relax in lovely afternoon weather and grab smoothies for a snack. While walking back to the train station we spotted the above sign on the sidewalk. Smoking on sidewalks or non-designated areas isn't allowed here, so one frequently sees humorous signs like this one with the giant cigarette posted to the sidewalk.
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We next headed out to Odaiba, an island in Tokyo Bay. Above is me with the Rainbow Bridge and Tokyo behind me, you can see Tokyo Tower at the right.
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The purpose for our visit to Odaiba was to see the 1-1 scale Mobile Suit Gundam that was recently built there.
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I think this was for Joe what the Kamakura Daibutsu was for me, he was really excited and took lots and lots of photos, as well as purchasing some of the licenced merchandise at the official shop on site.
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Honestly, I know very little about Gundam, other than it is from Japanese anime and is about huge robots.
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The detail of the Gundam was pretty amazing, it is about 60 feet tall and has lots of lights on it. About every half hour the head moved and a soundtrack would play. Also, right around sunset it emitted steam from its jet pack, which was pretty cool.
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The Gundam is only scheduled to be open though the end of August, I really wonder what they will do with it at the end of the summer, it seems that too much work was put into it to just take it down.
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Gundam at dusk.
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A final shot...
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We headed out of the park and over to a large shopping and dining complex near the station, from which we had a great view of the Rainbow Bridge and Tokyo Tower.
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The entertainment area of Odaiba had a summer promotion of Mameshiba, a popular mascot that is part bean (mame), part dog (shiba, as in the dog breed shiba inu).
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We had a quick dinner of Japanese food. I had veggie tempura and Joe tried unagi, or eel, for the first time. Traditionally, unagi is eaten during the hottest part of the summer and is believed to give one stamina. For the environmental impact it's not something I indulge in often, but once or twice a year it is super tasty, especially grilled and with the sauce it is accompanied by.
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Odaiba is known for a Statue of Liberty replica, here represented as Mameshiba with Matcha Ice Cream. Before heading back home on the crowded Tokyo trains we each had a small cup of ice cream to finish off our day.

Earthquakes 地震

I am not fond of earthquakes. Here we sit, relaxing after dinner on a Sunday night, and we have a tremor, somewhere in the 3-4 range on the Shindo scale. Ugh. What a strange feeling, the floor below you shaking, the overhead lamp swinging, the doors rattling. Japan uses the Shindo Scale, also known as the JMA Seismic Intensity Scale, to measure what an earthquake feels like at any given location. So, while this was a 6.9 magnitude earthquake at its epicenter out in the ocean, it only felt like a 3 or 4 in the Yokohama-Tokyo area, and had less intensity elsewhere in the country. Immediately afterwards the Japanese Meteorological Agency provides their collected earthquake information on television and the internet. Because I am facinated by and terrified of earthquakes (particularly the predicted Tokai Earthquake), I frequently check the daily earthquake information on the JMA website. For a map showing the seismic intensity of tonight's earthquake click here.

Yokohama Fireworks 横浜花火

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On August 1st the Kanagawa Newspaper sponsored a fireworks festival near Minato Mirai. I finished my summer course the day before, complete with a three-hour final and a 10 minute presentation on the history of Japanese museums (in Japanese), so fireworks were a wonderful reward. Hanabi Taikai (fireworks festivals) are serious business in Japan; for this particular festival tens of thousands of people turned out to watch over 8,000 fireworks go off over an hour and fifteen minute period. On the same night in the Tokyo area there were four or five other festivals, most of which had more fireworks. To say the least, these displays make the average American Independence Day celebration seem like an amateur backyard party. Above is the crowd pouring out of Sakuragicho Station about an hour and a half before the fireworks started, you can spot some of the many people dressed in yukata.

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As we walked out to the waterfront we stopped to grab some take-out, luckily all of the shops in the area were prepared for the mass of people and had amazingly efficient staffing, queues, and ordering systems in place. It took us less than 10 minutes to get fast-food take out, and we were in a line with easily over 100 other people. Amazing... The convenience stores all had lines just to enter them, so the staff were selling popular items like tea, water and beer outside the shops. We wandered around near the waterfront trying to find a small spot to sit amongst the masses of people with their plastic tarps taped to the pavement, but had no luck. Just as we were getting frustrated, we stopped to talk about where to go next near a good viewing spot. As we stood and talked an older gentleman came up to us and offered us a place on his tarp, so sweet!

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Some of the fantastic fireworks....

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... and some more...

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... and my favorite fireworks, those in recognizable forms. I couldn't get a photo of the Hello Kitty or Doraimon fireworks, but this smiley face is pretty awesome too.

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Yokohama Fireworks Video 横浜花火ビデオ