Asakusa to Odaiba - interesting shots of life

Hi again. It's gotten quite hard to blog, I know its gotten really boring around here and I deeply appreciate everyone who's sticking around and supporting me. I do want to improve, but things are getting a bit stressful in my life and I'm not sure what to do. I did take some photos today that I think will be fun so stay tuned!

Continuing the little series on Odaiba I've been writing about the past month or so, here and there, I have some more nice photos to share before I move onto some other lovely Japan writeups! I also want to show some interesting shots from Asakusa, because that's my usual starting point to get to Odaiba island^^



The kimono and architecture make it look like a photo of a time past XD


A rickshaw ride should be fun if you can handle the attention!

I travel to Odaiba via the Tokyo River Cruise, which I have written about Here. Odaiba is most easily reached via the Yurikamome line from Shimbashi Station. But for the scenic route you can't beat the River Cruise.



Caught a glimpse of a Japanese Coast Guard boat, never saw one before

It's also a great way to see two major tourist areas in one day if you are on a tight vacation schedule. Of course you can spend all day in Asakusa with all the interesting things to see in the area. But for me, having been to Tokyo so often I don't have much left to see there, and relaxing on a boat suits me fine.

On the most recent Tokyo River Cruise I took (yes I've taken several haha!) I almost fell asleep. That's how relaxing it is for me!

Spotted this adorable Sanrio sign in AquaCity

Odaiba has a lot to do too, but more modern things than Asakusa. There's shopping, an Onsen, Cat cafe, Hello Kitty theme area, Toys R US etc so it may appeal to younger visitors more. Honestly, I don't feel there is much more I can say about Odaiba as I have written about it many times before. So let's just enjoy a few more fun photos!



Jun Komori advertises Sega Joypolis amusement park (in Odaiba)


The ferris wheel of Odaiba


Randomly spotted a bouncy house Gachapin!


In the plaza between Megaweb and Venus Fort they had these things you could roll inside of in a kiddy pool? XD

As you can see, a lot of great things to do for your younger sibling or child. Or if you are silly like me, just a lot of things to keep your shutter clicking haha! Looking over these photos I miss those easy going days just experiencing fun things. I'm having a hard time adjusting to my new job, so it's consuming me DDX

Venus Fort - Trendy, family and outlet shopping

Hello everyone. I am writing to you from DisneyWorld now, and boy its been a stressful day TT I didn't sleep much more than 5 hours last night so I just didn't have the energy to deal with the rigors of traveling. I'm going to do my best to get some rest and be in a better mood tomorrow, but I really think Disney vacations are generally not relaxing.

Being that I'm on vacation, I am relaly not sure how much I will be blogging this week. In all honesty I just feel like there is not much point to it, so posts may be sparse. I do have a goal to overhaul the content of this blog a bit, so the content can match the layout haha, when I get back home. So if you can just put up with the lack of updates till then^^



Today I want to write about Venus Fort, which has been a well known tourist point on Odaiba in Tokyo Bay. Venus Fort was known as a ritzy, if not gimmicky, shopping mall to round out the more generic shopping malls of Aquacity and Decks. The main attractive point of Venus Fort was it's special interior design which mimicked Italian plazas complete with false sky.

The false sky itself changed color/luminosity to match the time of day. It gave a rich feeling to the mall, to match the brands that were carried there. Though it was a place I had wanted to visit, I never did before it shut down. I was really sad that I had missed out on something simply because I waited too long.



But I was in luck! Venus Fort came back, re-branded with a hipper more accessible image - perhaps to match the harsher economic climate. Anyhow, Venus Fort separated its floors into themes: Venus FAMILY, Venus GRAND, and Venus Outlet!


Interior of Venus Fort, still retaining that European charm ^_~



For those who are interested in fashion the outlet floor will be the place you want to head. Though I have to admit, the prices of the items on the outlet floor will not be impressive to us who are used to sales and outlets in the US, but it may be a good chance to get a lower price item out of Japan's sale months.

Here's a list of the gal brand stores that are available in Venus OUTLET:
Moussy
Lip Service
MercuryDuo
Dazzlin'
Titty&co.
Duras
Murua (argh XD)
247 Love



Of course there are many more brands that are worth checking out including Ralph Lauren, Anna Sui, Zara, Burberry Blue Label, Levi's Anne Klein etc etc etc XD There are accessory, shoe, children clothing and electronic shops. Plus restaurants so you are set up for a day long shopping trip haha.



But if you have some kids in tow, fear not, there are somethings to entertain them too! On the Venus FAMILY floor there is an arcade, pet stores, gift shops and best of all - Hello Kitty's Kawaii Paradise, a mini theme park. It includes a gift shop, restaurant and play area.

It would be great for lovers of Hello Kitty too! If you want to read more about it, please check out Kirin's great write up^^

Though I didn't get anything when I visited Venus Fort, I really look forward to going back and checking out Murua (since it's one of my favorite brands now haha) and Hello Kitty's Kawaii Paradise since it was not opened at the time I went there.

Odaiba beach front with Hello Kitty

Hello friends. I had just written a really depressing post about my birthday and deleted it. I don't want this blog to turn into a place where I express my personal problems. I will say I moved furniture, cleaned my grandma's apartment on my birthday, it was not my day at all and that's all there is to say on it.

Rather I would like to show some beautiful photos, which will hopefully cheer me up and be entertaining for you^^ Odaiba is a city in Tokyo I have written about several times in the past, because its a very fun entertainment area and there is much to do there. I recommend you go there if your are visiting Tokyo of course haha.

FujiTV building and Aquafront shopping mall looming over the Odaiba beach

Odaiba has several big shopping malls, an amusement park, onsen, car showfloor etc so its a big date area besides being great for tourists. But Odaiba is unique because it is a reclaimed island in Tokyo bay. That means it was created with dumped sand and garbage etc haha!

People enjoying Odaiba beach

This super cutie corgi loves the beach too XD

And because it is an island, there is a great beach area! It has a white/light sand beach, which I assume was imported and dumped there, with a nice boardwalk and a rest area. In the summer people do use it as a regular beach with children going in the water. But mostly it is a strolling and relaxing place.

The Odaiba beach looks nice normally, but luckily when I visited it back in August 2010 (yes that's how old these photos are haha!) they were having a special event! For an environmental campaign called "Green Tokyo" which aimed to plant more trees in Tokyo, Giant Hello Kitty statues were placed in the Odaiba beach water.

What Hello Kitty has to do with planting trees I cannot tell you! But it was indeed so cute and I took notice of it. Hello Kitty is deep in Japanese pop culture and she represents so many things! Do you like Hello Kitty the character? Or do you like other Sanrio characters?

Well actually I do feel better now! Cuteness always works haha.

Shinagawa Aquarium; cute marine animals!

Good afternoon! I am getting in a quick post before I move on to all the other stuff I need to get done today, then tomorrow. Then I have some spare time to do tasks that I don't have a deadline for but need to finish anyways. I want to get all my Disney photos edited because, well, I will announce it later XD

Today I want to write about Japan finally. I know Japan writeups are not as popular as they used to be (or seem so) but its a fun part of my life that I like to be nostalgic about hehe. Maybe if I ever get really motivated I will organize the writeups into a big guide or something. Well I've been lots of place in Tokyo over the past few years.

And here is one of the several aquariums I have visited: Shinagawa Aquarium!




Now there is a main Shinagawa Aquarium that is listed in all the usual travel guides/books. But this is a smaller, less known one that I'm going to write about. Even if it's smaller there were still lots of nice exhibits and animals to view. I swear Japan has more aquariums than any other place haha!



There were some water fowl


These fish live in a tube

They have all the usual varieties of salt water and fresh water fish to oggle. Honestly it's fun enough to see bright color tropical fish, or freaky giant open ocean fish, but for me I can only look at fish for so long before I have been satisfied haha! Luckily this aquarium has several other fun things to do.






Of course the main event being the small dolphin show. Some people feel dolphin shows are cruel, and I would prefer not to get into that discussion, let's just say it exists, people watch it and the keepers seem to really care about the dolphins. They performed a short time, mostly just some jumps and unison moves.



An octopus with a takoyaki display, this is some dark humor


The aquarium was decorated for summer matsuri time

The other thing I found to be interesting was the feeder fish they had in an open tank. Judging by the crowd around it is a popular thing. You can put your hand in and the feeder fish will eat off the bacteria and dead skin. It feels weird, the fish kind vibrate on your skin, but really your skin feels so much fresher/smoother after!

Then we went upstairs and outside to see the penguins, another thing Japanese people love and you always find them at every zoo an aquarium. They also had a sea lion, but his tank appear to have chemicals/oil in it as there was a shiny rainbow film over the water, that made me feel really bad and uncomfortable.




Overall its a nice small aquarium. I enjoyed the feeder fish alot, and everything was pretty enjoyable for an afternoon activity. The fee was a bit over 1,500 yen which seemed fair for the amount of displays. It was troublesome to get to though so I can't foresee visiting again.

Now for some natural beauty

Perhaps I expended too much mental energy on the last post content haha, because now I don't know what to post! Well really what can I write to top that unless I do some more interesting makeup or fashion? I don't feel very pretty right now so I'm not gonna fancy up for a bit, and I think some nature-y photos are perfect to change up one's mental attitude right XD

Honestly these photos are from over a year ago, and I don't remember the name of this place at all... Yes, why didn't I write it down at the time? Well well, it was rather an out of the way garden so it may not be the place many people mark down in their travel schedule^^




This snack photo is random but I saw these Kit Kats in a conbini on the way to the garden. Bitter Almond should be a regular type of flavor for chocolate, but I was very curious about the Cola and Lemon flavor, too bad I couldn't try it!



Walking in the back streets to reach the garden

Anyhow, the waterfall garden I visited was a rather far walk from the station so maybe I should have gotten a snack haha. It was a warm day and I was already quite sweaty from the walking, but the shade and water of the garden did little to cool me off.

But it was pretty, so please enjoy some photos, hopefully you will find the beauty in them too!



Well here's the map of the garden, I guess someone can translate the name?








There was a cemetery right next to it

Hmm, well that's that! I'll try to think of some new interesting things to write about so everyone can keep enjoying Moments Like Diamonds, the 2 year anniversary will be next month so sometimes its hard to keep it fresh after all this time haha!

Tsubohachi, a chain izakaya

Thank you everyone who has given me such nice comments on my last post with my face photos, I feel photos like that are so boring/off-putting but your support makes me more confident^^ Anyhow I am also sorry that I haven't blogged recently, this weekend was so busy everyday! But atleast now I got the fabric for my halloween costume!

I'm going to do a Japan writeup now, try to break up the personal fashion-y posts a bit haha. Today I am introducing Tsubohachi and like it says in the title Tsubohachi is a chain of izakaya (Japanese pubs) which can be found in locations all over Japan.



Tsubohachi in Motoyawata

Although one of the fun point of izakaya is the huge variety of them and the specialty of small individually run izakaya. But there are times when you want a cheap meal in which you know exactly what you will get. Like other chain izakaya Tsubohachi has a very low cost menu so you can feel free to eat alot haha!



A menu page of Tsubohachi


Complimentary appetizers

We stopped at this Tsubohachi after our game of bowling and exploring Motoyawata a little bit. The interior was a bit dated, but it was comfortable. We got a floor table, but there was a cutout in the floor for everyone's legs so it was still comfortable haha.

Of course as usual I was trying to save money and eat properly so I didn't try so much at Tsubohachi, but everything I did have was pretty good in quality. It was personally what I expect for lower cost food, and I think I'm fairly realistic but still optimistic in my expectations haha!



Daikon Salad


Tamagoyaki seasoned with dashi


A tiny little parfait, good but teeny haha!

I know we had more, but I guess I didn't take pics of what my friend ordered, sorry there was not much food to look at! But as you can see from the menu photo there is plenty to choose from, especially a lot of nice Japanese type foods. The quantities are small so make sure to order many different things haha!




I haven't eaten at a izakaya in a long time, indeed I think I only dined at a restaurant twice or something during my Japan Trip this summer. But if you have the chance please try some izakaya the food is usually great and the atmosphere is fun and enjoyable^^

A round of bowling in Tokyo

Well it's my last night here in Tokyo again, its quite sad actually. I mean besides obviously being sad to leave, I am here in the apartment alone while my friend is working. I really wish we could have spent my last day together, but flights during the week were cheaper than the weekend.

I've been meaning to write some more proper posts about Japan, and it seems to write about a fun time I had spending with my friend last year. If we can't hang out today, at least I can reminisce right? ^^

The bowling alley was in this building, which included other fun activities

Now really, I don't like bowling that much. It's fun enough, but I am not so great at it. My lowest score was seriously 24 (but that was in high school gym class and I was more interested in messing around and being obnxious with my friends..yeah) anyhow, but bowling is one of the activities you can enjoy with friends here that doesn't involve food or alcohol or singing (but it can of course).




This is the entire alley XD

The main difference between bowling in the US and Japan of course is the size of the alley. There are bowling alleys here as big as in the US, but averagely there are fewer lanes. Furthermore I am used to bowling alleys that are attached to bars, restaurants, arcades, have full meal service etc.




Not the kind of set up you want to see TT


I guess I'm gonna bowl haha!

But I am not interested in those things, so going for a round at a smaller alley without a bunch of people inhaling pizza and booze was fine for me XD Indeed there were only a couple other people there that evening. The other thing I really liked was the shoes were dispensed from a vending machine!




The shoe vending lockers


Put in 300yen, press the button and get bowling shoes!

I didn't win the game of course, I only got one strike, but it was just fun to do something familiar but I had never done in Japan before. Bowling is something I can do just once or twice a year and be satisfied haha. That goes for mosts recreation sports! Though billiards and badminton are fairly fun^^

Do you like bowling? Or have a favorite recreation sport?

Host, hostesses, etc billboard photos

Oh my gosh, I am having a hard time trying to get this post written. I don't know what to write about recently, this topic of hosts and hostesses seems popular since I had a few people ask me to write on it, but I still don't know what to say or feel inspired to even say anything haha.

Perhaps its because I only know the basic facts about hosts and hostesses. I mean I have never been to any of those types of bars and I don't know any hostesses on a deep enough level to ask them about what working life means for them.

I hosting and hostessing is not glamorous, it can be unsafe (not just in crazy stalker follows you and stabs you, as in you don't have job security) and it takes a physical toll on the workers. But it still attracts many people as both workers and customers.

One thing I find interesting is how all host clubs belong to a "group", which generally owns/manages several host clubs. Whenever I see the group name under the club name I get the feeling like its a cult or a mafia haha! But host clubs are businesses, which are very carefully managed in styling, image and service to get you to part with your money.

There are a wide variety of clubs to choose from, and sometimes I wonder how so many can keep making money as they do. Well I know hostess clubs are not doing as well as they had some years ago. But despite the difficult financial times, paying someone for a fake relationship continues in Japan^^

Sorry I don't have much more to say on the topic. There are plenty of websites that explain what hosts and hostesses are, so it's unnecessary for me to reiterate. I never plan to go to one myself as my money is more important than fake flirting with some overly-done guy. So I'll never be the one to give a first hand account.