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We hadn't had time to visit the port area of Odaiba on our last visit to Tokyo, so we hopped on various modes of transport to make our way across the other side of Tokyo Bay to see the Maraikan Museum ( Museum of Emerging Science), where amongst other things, the famous robot Asimo lives. On the ground floor, a temporary exhibition all about Ninjas (no turtles in sight!) and their vast history in Japan of intense loyalty to their lords and being sent in to infiltrate other regions - spies rather than just karate masters. Our visit here was a relatively brief half hour, as we didn't want to miss Asimo's appearance on the 3rd floor. The current version is Asimo #3, with the first making its appearance in 2001. There was a bilingual discussion of hopes for humanity in the future, some hopping and running, a song and a kick of a soccer ball. Its movements were really smooth and it was hard to believe there wasn't a person inside. There were some other great interactive exhibits on the 3rd floor, such as a model of how the internet works with white and black balls representing 0's and 1's; how the 5 senses work; a virtual reality spacial game etc. On the 5th floor was a life size model of the Japanese Science module on the International Space Station, movement games, and an amazing view over a huge globe of Earth. Odaiba is home to some incredible architecture as many of the world's best were invited to submit designs when the port area was being reinvigorated. Unfortunately, it started to rain heavily so missed our photo opportunities - hence the two unashamedly plagiarised images of the Tokyo Big Sight and Fuji TV headquarters. On the way back to the train station, we stopped at a large mall for some shopping - just in time to watch a multitude of people with their dogs dressed up in completely ridiculous outfits and accessories taking part in some sort of doggie to show. They were all over the inside of the mall too - obviously more lenient dog laws than ours. A highlight of the mall was a whole shop dedicated to Ghibli toys - we'd bypassed at the museum due to large crowds. Delicious buffet dinner back at the hotel.
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