My 52nd Birthday...

My birthday got off to a somewhat slow start. We tried to go to a movie, but it was sold out. Then we headed to a museum, but it was unexpectedly closed because it was a national holiday. As I started to grow hangry (hunger-induced anger), Ashlynn asked what would make me happy and I said sushi.

So we headed to Uobei in Shibuya; it's owned by the same folks as Genko and has the same cool order and delivery system, but with a larger menu. I loved the snow crab; this double piece was just under $2! Despite incredibly low prices, the quality of the sushi is fantastic.

I tried to stick with unusual pieces that I don't see in Holland. The eel with yam and octopus with leeks were amazing.

I'd be happy eating here everyday. Ashlynn, however, has stopped eating fish, so it's not her top choice; at least there are several vegetarian options for her.

Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation...

I know there's no use even attempting to bring Ashlynn to an art museum, but she was willing to go to a science museum. Rather than the regular science museum, we visited this cutting edge museum.

 The first exhibit was about androids, which we found quite creepy.

This is a Telenoid, which is even creepier. It's basically an android with the bare minimum fundamental requirements for human appearance. Strangely, it can hug because humans require physical contact.

We waited about 20 minutes for a robot demonstration, which was defnitely worth it. Asimo is a humanoid robot designed and developed by Honda.

Even though we couldn't understand what he was saying, it was great to see a robot jumping and running like a little kid.

We participated in an experiment that required us to walk in place while solving math equations. Each problem was only on the screen briefly, so there was a lot of guessing going on.

Other Sightings on Odaiba...

In addition to several other humongous malls, there was a large ferris wheel, which we ran out of time to ride.

 There was also this cute dog...

 ...and some cool architecture.

Lowrys Farm...

Ashlynn's first paid job in Tokyo was for Lowrys Farm and we just happened upon one of their stores in the mall behind the Statue of Liberty while searching for lunch. I bought Ashlynn a necklace set and then she willingly posed for me in the store.

If her face will be on this in-store ad in the future, I'm afraid that it'll be after we've already left the country. After searching five floors of stores and restaurants, we finally settled on a Hawaiian pancake house for lunch.

Lady Liberty...

One of the reasons we headed to Odaiba was to see the Statue of Liberty. Apparently there are 100s of replicas around the world of Lady Liberty. This particular one is actually a replica of a replica in France. After the French replica proved extremely popular when it visited Tokyo for a year in 1998 in honor of The French Year in Japan, a replica was built and permanently placed on the beach in Odaiba in 2000. This one is about 1/4 of the size of the original. Here's Ashlynn and Andrea...

...Ashlynn as Lady Liberty...

...and me and Ashlynn.

Odaiba Island...

Once we were headed in the correct direction on the metro, we crossed the Rainbow Bridge, apparently named for its lights at night. 

Odaiba is an artificial island initially built for defensive purposes in the 1850s.

Ashlynn was happy to finally be able to walk along a beach.

This bride looked pretty happy, too.

Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building...

As this was a holiday week, I'd hoped that Ashlynn would have enough time off that we could head to Hong Kong to visit with a hash friend or at least do an overnight trip to Kyoto. However, she had a job on the Wednesday (yeah!) and castings on both Thursday and Friday. Luckily Friday's call time was at 7 p.m. so we had the whole day to goof around. Melisa and Andrea joined us in our quest to visit Odaiba Island. First thing I did was lead us astray by picking the wrong direction on the metro. We found ourselves in the vicinity of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building which allows free visits to their observation deck on the 45th floor.

It was a hazy day, so we couldn't see Mt. Fuji, but we got a better feel for how huge this city is.

The building also housed a great tourist information center.