Midnight Drive

Last night was a Friday so Rob and Rob's friend Kazuya invited me to go for a dinner at a nice 回転寿司 (kaitenzushi) place which is a restaurant where the sushi goes round the centre of the tables on a conveyor belt and customers just take what takes their fancy, or order it from one of the chefs if they want it fresher, and then add up the price of the different coloured plates at the end of the meal.

We went to an expensive one, where the food was really delicious, and then decided the price was getting too high, so then drove round the corner to a cheaper one! We're on a budget...

After dinner, we all felt like doing something, so Kaz drove us to his home. It was such a nice house! Despite his protests that it was very small, it was a very spacious new home. It had a very Western atmosphere, with a lack of tatami mat flooring and shoji sliding paper doors. It was a lovely place!

We had some tea there, and then drove to a nearby clothes shop because Rob wants to buy new things. We spent a few minutes there, but he didn't buy anything. Back in the car, we didn't have a clue what to do next. It was about 10pm by that time, but we didn't feel like going home.

And then Rob suggested Odaiba, the man-made island in Tokyo Bay. I'd been there three times before but I really like it so I agreed, and Kaz wanted to as well, so off we went singing "Woah, we're going to Odaiba..." (We're so cool.)

I'd never been driven through central Tokyo before, and it was absolutely incredible. You get a completely different view of everything from the roads, and you see how things connect physically, rather than just on a train or subway map.

We basically followed the Chuo line's route into the centre of Tokyo, and then into the centre of Shinjuku. There were so many lights!

After we left Shinjuku we followed the road into Roppongi, where we saw Tokyo Tower all lit up!

From there, it wasn't long until we were on Rainbow Bridge over Tokyo Bay and parking on Odaiba. I'd been over the bridge on the road once, when I first arrived and I took the Limousine Bus from Narita Airport to Shinjuku. I'd been over it lots of other times on the Yurikamome monorail though.

Once we'd parked, we walked down to the beach and went to the end of the little pier they have. A very nice Japanese man offered to take our photo with Rainbow Bridge, although you can only see the lights!

Here's me with the bridge and Tokyo in the background. It was gone midnight but it looks really light in this photo!

We walked further inland and saw the Statue of Liberty, Japan version. I remembered taking a photo of my youngest brother with it when my family visited me last year. In fact, I associate a lot of Odaiba with my family, because I remember our visit there very clearly.

We wandered a bit more, and saw more of the island, but then started to get hungry. We stopped for a snack at Sizeria (サイゼリア), a cheap Italian restaurant. After that, we were all quite tired, so we walked back to the car.

We passed a couple of places I remembered from last year. You can rent a dog for a couple of hours and walk it up and down the beach, and then go to this restaurant and order something for you and something for the dog! This place is actually crazy!

Kind of an animal theme going on here.

We got home at about 3am, and I was really tired! But when else would I have the opportunity to be driven all the way across Tokyo to Odaiba? Tokyo is such a great city!