Odaiba

With the evening left to our own devices we chose to take a little look around Odaiba before riding the driverless Yurikamome Monorail over the Rainbow Bridge and back to the hotel.

This is the bridge which looks quite stunning lit up at night. The original plan had been to walk over it, but time was getting on so that plan got rejected in favour of riding the train.

Odaiba takes its name from the cannons that were placed offshore by the Tokugawa shogunate to protect Tokyo from a seaborne attack. It is now a place for the locals to hang out, particularly in Summer with attractions, food places and shopping areas all in close proximity. The city's Marie Museum is also here.

Another museum here is the Captain Santa museum. Now I have no idea what this is all about but it looks Western not Japanese at all. I'm wondering if it is an import of somekind. Are the people around him reindeers, it's all just a little confusing.

Another import is this scaled replica of the Statue of Liberty, built in France then shipped over here and erected in 2000. You could almost trick people with this pic into thinking it's Manhattan.

Aqua City is next door to the Decks complex and houses more shops and a huge cinema complex. Whilst I would have liked to seen a Japanese Film in Japan, time would beat me on this occasion as we had to be heading back.

The monorail ride was pretty cool, with a nice view out of the front, and excellent reliability of service (well by this point I was used to everything running as it should).

Nasu Highland