ODaiba with Canadian Friends

As our Canadian friends have decided to leave Japan returning to their homeland (the lack of maple syrup and coverage of Ice Hockey games finally proved too much) we planned an action-packed day of fun in ODaiba. Thus at 10.32am a very groggy Matt and Debbie (having bowling until the small hours of the morning and not getting anywhere near the 11 hours of sleep they like) met up with Greg and Ronda in Shin Matsudo, a mere 32 minutes later than originally planned.


Go Japan! We show our support for the Japan team in the World Cup in front of the giant Japanese flag. Show those gaijin football hooligans how to play! Or at least beat Korea.	We take a brief respite from the action in front of the "Free Lady" (Japan's slightly shorter replica of the Statue of Liberty. Everything is made shorter over here to accomodate the shorter people, except the Tokyo tower (Japan's Eiffel tower). That's taller. Take that France! Heh heh.

Matt and Greg pose with a couple of lovely ladies handing out fliers for the "Institute for the study of footballitis" World Cup promotion. The boys wanted to pose with the girls in tiny hot pants inside but then the web site would lose its PG rating. Saucy.	Modern photography fails to capture the fact that this sculpture is in fact only a piano player from the front and from the side is actually a victorian couple walking a monkey. The next piano player sculpture back is of a brass band from the side.

Approaching the Maritime museum which is in the shape of a giant battle ship and inside contains many cool models of ships as well as a frightenly high observation deck. Pretty view of Tokyo bay but wobbly knees, eh Matt?	Debbie shows her familial resemble to her older sister, Donna, and Matt tries out for the Hamster police. Unfortunately Matt was unable to get into the Hamster police force as he was too tall.

Looking out over Tokyo.	Matt stands beside a model of Japan's largest ever battle ship.

Inside Venus fort. The coolest mall ever. Possibly Debbie's favourite place ever. Combining top label shopping, gourmet restaurants and cafes, and a plaza venue for concerts, all inside a beautiful recreation of renaissance Italy with a late afternoon to twilight sky painted on the ceiling.	A view of the fountain from the mezzanine floor inside the divine Venus fort mall.

A jolly train ride home after a long day of fun in ODaiba. Greg snuggles in between two friendly Japanese people. (They are friendly because they did not get up and move to another train carriage to avoid us loud and sweaty gaijin.)	Matt, Debbie and Ronda also enjoy the train ride home. Please note the cool free bag with a cute dog wearing a KDDI T-shirt given out by hotpants clad girls at the World Cup promotion. Interestingly, this promotion demonstrates the tendency in Japanese advertising to more clothing on cute animals and less on cute girls.

Greg and Ronda are now back in Canadia, seeking (or perhaps already working) in jobs where they never have to hear "go to shopping" unless they spy a tourist. Truly they are lucky folk, and shall be sorely missed for the rest of our time here. If you're reading this guys, HI! Japan ain't the same without you!