This week I had my last two work days here in Japan, where I prepared and then held a presentation about my work and the results I achieved. All in all I am very satisfied with the work I could get done in the short amount of time I worked at the company here. Also my boss seemed to be happy with the worked I achieved in that time. He also said that despite his initial concerns about the usefulness of working students before he approved my working student contract, he now fully understood the value that students can bring into the company. I am glad that I could deliver on the expectations of everyone here and I am proud of my accomplishments so far.
Also, now that university is over I had more time to travel around Tokyo and experience some new places. Two of these that I will talk about in this weeks blog post are Yokohama and Odaiba. Letās go!
Yokohama - the non-claustrophobic Tokyo
My first trip took me to Yokohama. The overall plan I had was to visit China Town again during the day, but also see more of Yokohama on the way there. I got off at a station called Sakuragicho and walked towards the coast. On the way there, there was an amusement park called Yokohama Cosmoworld, which was unfortunately closed. The amusement park consisted of a ferry wheel and some roller coasters. I bet the view from the ferry wheel must be beautiful. Well, maybe another timeā¦
After the amusement park, there was pier going over the river and then alongside the river for some time. Every lantern on this pier had speakers attached to them, which constantly played some classical musical. Iād have preferred it to walk along it in silence, but I guess it was time for some fresh tunes. At the end of the pier there was a building with a passage through it and some brick buildings far away. Donāt know why, but I think it looks dope.
The far away brick house in the last picture had a small park in front of it. Okay, maybe park is the wrong word for it, more like some dried up grass with a few bushes. The park, the brick building and the clouds together looked really scenic and reminded me a little of the Netherlands. I guess the constant subtle smell of the ocean also helped in that regard.
The coast itself looked pretty nice, but nothing too exciting. You didnāt have a clear view of the ocean, but rather harbor and more city in the background. I felt like the way to the coast was way better then the coast itself. But maybe thatās just me. From here I went to China Town and walked around there. I gotta say, it looked way more impressing during the night, when all the lights come on and the night is illuminated by all the colors.
Afterwards I walked back to the station taking another route. I went to the Landmark and Queens Tower, which both have a mall in their bottom floors. The malls were surprisingly empty and some of the shops werenāt even open. The highlight of the two towers in my opinion was the square connecting the two towers. There was a gigantic swirly wirly metal art thingy there. I know, my art descriptions are so on point, I should probably work as a art consultant. Anyway, the construction looked pretty nice.
I really enjoyed my trip to Yokohama and I realized that I appreciate the cities surrounding Tokyo more than Tokyo itself. When I exited the train and the station in Yokohama and walked around there I felt a little less constricted. Tokyo tends to be really dense and everything is crammed in there. Yokohama and all other cities around Tokyo have a little more space. They usually are still packed with high buildings everywhere, but they are wider apart from each other, and in the case of Yokohama you have the open sea on one side, which makes the city even more open. I really liked that contrast to Tokyo.
Odaiba - the Trash Island
East of Shinjuku station there is a small artificial island called Odaiba, also lovingly referred to as Trash Island by some people. I have absolutely no clue why it is called like that. Anyway, Odaiba was originally an island used for maritime defense. Back in the day when Japan was forced to open up by the US, they build these islands and positioned canons here to attack US ships in case of a war. However, since they signed a peace treaty at some point, these islands were never really used. In the late 1990s Odaiba was rebuilt and turned into a entertainment and shopping district. The whole district of Odaiba has a futuristic look to it.
After arriving in Odaiba, the first place that I visited was the Hachitama observation sphere room. It is a gigantic sphere located at the top of the Fuji TV building with a 270Ā° view of the city. You can see pretty much the whole of Odaiba from here, which makes it the perfect first stop to get an overview of the entire district. The view from the sphere room is absolutely beautiful. If youāre lucky and the sky is clear, you can actually also see Mt. Fuji from here. The sky was indeed completely clear on the day I went to Odaiba. Well almost entirely clear, except of course the part where Mt. Fuji wasā¦ Oh well, at some point I will see youā¦ Somedayā¦
Afterwards, I went to the Divercity Mall. The hightlight of the mall is just in front of the building: a gigantic Gundam statue. Alright, I gotta be honest with you here. I know that Gundam is an Anime, but that is about all I know about it. Before coming to Japan I didnāt even know it existed. Anyway, the statue is huge and it looks amazing.
My last stop in Odaiba was the replica of the Statue of Freedom directly at the coast of Odaiba. However, as I found out when I arrived there, the statue was at that point under construction and surrounded by scaffolds. What a shame. It was thus renamed to the Statue of Sadness. Next to the Statue of Sadness was a deck, where you had a very scenic view of Tokyo and the sea between Odaiba and the mainland Tokyo area. At this point the sun was setting and I have to say that the scenery was the most beautiful I have seen thus far in Tokyo. The photos look kinda neat, but do not really make the view I had justice. I definitely recommend anyone visiting Toyko to come here during sunset. It is definitely worth it!
Odaiba is probably my favorite place in Tokyo itself. It looks really beautiful and has a lot of open spaces. The futuristic look of most of the buildings here is also really nice and adds to the whole flair of the district. I really dig it.
Plans for the next weeks
For the next few weeks I already planned some day trips and there are also more to come. In no particular order there is a trip to Mt. Mitake planned, which is going to involve a lot of hiking, a trip to Hakone, where I want to stay for a night and enjoy my first onsen experience as well as hike around the nearby national parks and maybe finally get a glimpse of Mt. Fuji and then also a trip to Asakusa. I have been to Asakusa on multiple occasions, but I never really walked around there a lot. I always just passed by there and went somewhere else. Next time I will actually explore it.
Other then that I want to develop my finance helper app further. My goal will be to have all the major features I want implemented into the app. I guess I should be able to accomplish this in two weeks and I will share my results at the end in some blog post.
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Thanks for reading and see you next week :)
Ash