Enjoying the Odd in Tokyo

Thursday, Feb 17, 2016

The day was forecast to be a warm spring day with temperatures in the upper 60s. What did we decide to do to enjoy the sunshine? We decided to explore the Tokyo Trick Art Museum out on Odaiba Island.

Odaiba is a totally manmade island area with beaches, shopping, and lots of fun things for the family to do. And one of these fun things to do is visit the Tokyo Trick Art Museum. I’d had it on my list since first arriving here.

There is more than one Trick Art Museums in the Tokyo area (there is also one out by Mt. Takao), but I wanted to check out Odaiba, too. After googling and finding it listed under Tokyo Trick Art Museum, we got the directions and set off.

After enjoying a delicious lunch at a soba restaurant next to the Shinjuku station where you place your orders through a vending machine, we took the monorail to Odaiba. At the Odaiba Kaihinkouen Station we turned right and exited the station. After exiting, we turned left and walked through the plaza, heading for the big building that features Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum. I think it’s called the Island Mall.

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Upon entering the building, we went up to the 4th floor. The Tokyo Trick Art Museum is located across from the kids play area. The tickets are available for 900yen for adults, and 600yen for kids (ages 4-14) from a vending machine at the window. We bought and then got in line.

They let people in a few at a time and give a little explanation at the beginning (English is available).

Then you just wander. And this is where you need to be prepared to crawl around on the floor at least a few times. While some photos work better than others, it’s all fun.

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After the photos we walked across the street to the beach and checked out the Statue of Liberty. I found out later that the Statue of Liberty is a replica of one brought from Paris and presented to Odaiba in 1998 for a yearlong celebration of Japan’s ties with France.  It measures approximately 12.25 meters tall from its pedestal and weighs about nine tons. It was so popular during the celebration that they brought it back and this replica has been on display since 2000. It makes for a great photo.

Across the street from the Statue of Liberty, we spied a Hawaiian Burger joint and went there for a beer, a burger and a beautiful view of Tokyo.

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After a delicious burger, we walked along the walkway heading away from the beach and towards the distant ferris wheel, and found that it’s not nearly as far away as it looked on the map.

We entered the Venus Fort building and ran into an old car’s museum with some beautiful cars on display.

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Walking through that, we exited into the shopping mall that is designed to resemble ancient Italy. I read that the lighted sky ceiling changes colors during the day—but we didn’t pay attention.

My goal was finding the Strangelove shop. It is a shop of weird oddities and I had read about it on a couple of websites. It is located on the second floor, near the Legos store. To enter, you must stand at the door where the foot outlines are, and ring the ship bell with the metal rod and wait for them to open the door. I love to browse these types of shops with their devilish figurines, old taxidermy, and weird vintage items. After a browse through, we reluctantly left and took the monorail from the Aomi station outside the mall and headed to Toyosu.

Getting off there, we headed back to Shinjuku. Since the night was clear we decided to head for the observation deck of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building for a million-dollar view of the Tokyo lights. 

Another beautiful view of Tokyo. And it's free!

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Though the area is pretty dead here at night because it's mostly government buildings, it's just a few blocks away from the 24-hour madness of Shinjuku.