Neil Duckett

Sunday i took a trip out to Odaiba, 2 trains and about 40 minutes from home.

Odaiba (お台場) is a large artificial island in Tokyo, Japan, featuring many hypermodern and just plain strange looking buildings.

Odaiba was originally constructed in 1853 by the Tokugawa shogunate as a series of 6 fortresses in order to protect Tokyo from attack by sea, the primary threat being Commodore Matthew Perry’s Black Ships, which had arrived in the same year. Daiba in Japanese refers to the cannon batteries placed on the islands.

The area is now a very popular shopping and entertainment destination featuring attractions such as Decks Tokyo Beach, Aquacity Odaiba, Museum of Maritime Science, National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, Oedo Onsen Monogatari, Palette Town, Venus Fort, Sun Walk, Tokyo Big Site and the list goes on.

Odaiba is also home to many businesses including, the Fuji TV Building, Panasonic Centre, Telecom Centre, Mega Web.

I had originally intended heading to Odaiba for a look around then over to Tokyo Big Site to have a look at the Tokyo International Anime Show but after a slow start to the day and the weather turning bad i only managed to get a few hours around Odaiba in and taking a few photos was harder and harder as the day wore on.

Looking towards Rainbow Bridge which connects Tokyo to Odaiba. 

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I took the long way home from my travels this morning and took a stroll through Yoyogi Park. Yoyogi Park (代々木公園, Yoyogi kōen) is one of the largest parks in Tokyo, located adjacent to Harajuku Station and Meiji Shrine in Shibuya.

Even though it was barely lunch time the park was already filling quickly with punters enjoying their first weekend of Hanami Parties. Hanami (花見, Hanami lit. “flower viewing”) is the Japanese traditional custom of enjoying the beauty of flowers, “flower” in this case almost always meaning cherry blossoms (桜 or 櫻, sakura^?), or ume blossoms (梅, ume).

If you can look past the sea of blue tarpaulins it’s quiet a site to be seen. The Hanami parties are a great excuse to pull up some grass in the park and progressively get loaded on your favourite drop. After being restricted to indoor activety for much of winter, it’s a welcome change to get outside and enjoy Spring time in Japan.

It’s first in best dressed when it comes to getting a spot during the Hanami season. People gather in the park from the early hours on the weekend and no doubt during the week for those not working.

Often there’ll be a few designated individuals that will go early and mark the spot with their tarps and the others in their party will join later in the day.

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A week today and the 10 finalists in this years Miss Universe Japan contest will take the stage hoping to represent Japan later in the year and Miss Universe 2008.

Since attending Miss Nippon 2008 i had kept a close eye on the calendar in the lead up to next weeks event. Not close enough by the looks of it and it seems ticket sales closed yesterday. I have someone on the job as i write this and i’m still a hopeful starter at next Thursdays event, fingers crossed.

Since its founding in 1998, the Miss Universe Japan pageant, run by acclaimed French national director, Ines Ligron. It has achieved the impressive result of having three top 5 finalists and one winner at the Miss Universe pageant within a short span of 9 years.

Ines Ligron was catapulted to the international spotlight when Riyo Mori won Japan’s second Miss Universe crown in Mexico in 2007.

Riyo Mori, a ballet dancer from Shizuoka won the Miss Universe Japan title and later went on to claim the Miss Universe title in Mexico City, Mexico. She is Japan’s first Miss Universe in 48 years.

In a pageant filled with mishaps and controversy, during the crowning of Riyo with the official Mikimoto crown, it slipped from her grasp and nearly fell to the floor.

Mori was able to hold on to the crown, which is made of diamonds and pearls and is valued at over $250,000.

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It’s a big year for Odakyu Railways this year with a new Romance Car and other additions to the fleet. To celebrate the 80th Anniversary of the good guys down at Odakyu Railways held a competition for primary school kids to come up with a winning train design.

I’m lucky, or unlucky enough depending on which way you look at it, to spend a lot of time on the Odakyu line as i commute to work and the other day i saw one of the winning entries. I must say i was glad to find out the train was decorated by primary school kids rather than adults. 

The Odawara Line (小田原線, Odawara-sen) is a main line in Japan operated by the private railway operator Odakyū Electric Railway.

It stretches 82.5 km from Shinjuku in central Tokyo through the southwest suburbs to the city of Odawara in Kanagawa Prefecture, the gateway to Hakone.

It is a heavy commuter line and is also known for its “Romancecar” “limited express” train. From Yoyogi-Uehara some trains continue onto the Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line and beyond to the East Japan Railway Company Jōban Line.

Now that i’ve seen the train once, it seems i see it all the time. Makes for a nicer view than the boring old gray numbers.

The designs the kids came up with are featured on the Local, Semi-Express and the Express Trains. For more of the winning designs and other entries you can visit the Odakyu website here.

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This weekend i headed up to Gala Yuzawa, about 1.5hrs North West of Tokyo on the Shinkansen. I must say, it certainly is the easiest way to get to the snow and the same as last week, pretty cheap too. This weeks trip was an up and back affair for 8700 yen, which includes the day on the mountain.

Gala Yuzawa is in Niigata Prefecture, check it out on this Map Of Japan, and the station is only operational during ski season where the lifts operate directly from it’s own station, how easy is that?! The station is actually on a side track which diverges from the main Joetsu Shinkansen track just after Echigo Yuzawa Station, being only 3 minutes further on. The main Joetsu Shinkansen line runs between Tokyo and Niigata City on the Sea of Japan, Northwestern coast of Japan.

Although you can go to Gala Yuzawa as a destination, there is very little parking, as it is really regarded as a day trippers mountain. The number of people at Gala Yuzawa is limited to some extent by how many people the Shinkansen can carry there. Even so, it does get crowded, but not as much as you might expect.

The Joetsu Shinkansen, you can just tell it goes fast by the look of it.

It was another great day and we were treated with perfect conditions - being blue skies, great snow and 12 degrees C.

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