It's hard work thinking on the fly so much. With our group consisting of 6 people, we constantly have to make adjustments to the plans, depending on tiredness, whether we've spent too much time in a certain place and are running behind time or if things just don't want to be open as was the case yesterday (well, Wednesday.. I'm writing this on Sunday).
This morning we had planned on doing car stuff with Paul. Dean and I awoke at our usually time and decided to go for a walk around the area. In comparison to the yucky surroundings in Dobutsuen-mae, Shinagawa/Takanawa is the Ritz. In the place of hobos and drunkards at 6.30 in the morning, we had quiet surroundings, and the streets furnished with respectable buildings and fancy cars. It was just quiet mostly residential buildings though so nothing really out of the ordinary to see. We did spot a couple of places to eat and a few vending machines, but headed back to the hotel.
We had organised to meet everyone in the lobby at 9am, but with us running around yesterday, Zoe and Paul didn't wake up until 8:30, whilst Whitney was a leisurely 8:45. We were still all ready to go by 9:30 though, so with Up Garage not opening until 11:00, it didn't put us behind that much. We decided to go around the corner and see if either Aux Brucelles or Edelweiss was open. Only the bar was open, so we decided to give Edelweiss a try. Edelweiss is a boulangerie in the Grand Prince New Takanawa, so if we had decided to go here to start with, we could have just gone through the gardens rather than the long way around the block, but we weren't decided yet. While it was nice enough, you were paying more because it was at a Prince (just like at the snow).
After some pancakes, we were on our way. It was decided that Mum and Whitney should just come with us, as it's easier to leave them near the train station, rather than trying to organise to meet them somewhere. After jumping on the Yamanote line to Shibuya, we switched to the Den-en-toshi line. The train out to Up Garage takes about 45mins if it stops at all stations, so we settled in for the ride. It's sort of good, as you get to see parts of Tokyo that you wouldn't ordinarily see, and it gave us a seat, something that's in short supply in this city.
We made it out there and after a short walk to the real Route 246, we were at Up Garage. I would love this place if I had the money and I was doing up my car to keep, but we were here for Paul mainly. After walking around for a while looking at various parts and translating, we came across a couple of R33 GTR turbos. Paul is going to turbo his vitara and this would have been ideal, but we weren't sure if they would fit the manifold he's getting, so we decided against them. He did get a deep dish steering wheel for 4500Y, so that was a good thing, but I felt like I'd let the team down, as we'd come all this way and it didn't have all the stuff he'd wanted. After grabbing lunch in a mall near Aobadai station, we headed back. We nearly left Zoe at the station as we rushed to catch an express train that was just arriving, but we made it, and headed back towards Shibuya, before catching a train up to Shinjuku then another to Nakano. It was slightly annoying coming here again, after yesterday's failed effort, but it's only 3 stops or so from Shinjuku, so not that far out of the way.
We made a b-line for the mall, and headed to Robot Robot. We've been there and usually it's chock full of Star Wars stuff, but they seemed to be down this year, as they had opened another two shops in Nakano mall, as well as a new shop in Akihabara. Oh well, we weren't to know, but again, I felt like I was sliding as a guide. Zoe did find some Powerpuff Girls stuff in the other Robot Robot shop, and Whitney got some K-On stuff from one of the various otaku places there.
It was now getting on in the afternoon and we still wanted to see Odaiba, as well as head to Super Autobacs at Wangan, so after getting the train to Shimbashi, via Tokyo station, we got on the Yurikamome line to Odaiba. This is a private "railway" (it runs on tyres and has no driver) so is a bit more expensive than either the Metro subways or JR Lines, but either it or the Rinkai (another private line) are the only railway to go to Odaiba. Yurikamome is cool though because it does a 270-degree up spiral before crossing the Rainbow bridge.
It would have been pointless dragging Mum and Whitney to more car stuff, so we left them at one of the Odaiba stations, before heading on to Ariake. According to Google Maps, it would be roughly 250m walk from Ariake station to Super Autobacs, but it wasn't. It took us about 20 mins to walk, but my internal compass served us well and we got there without any major dramas. Paul looked for a boss kit for his new steering wheel, as well as the Snap-On key holders (makes it look like you've got a Snap On screw driver jammed in your lock). We couldn't find either, so I asked one of the attendants, and he found out that they had been discontinued.. Big jobs. This was to be another annoying day... We looked around for a while longer, but we were getting too hungry, so we headed back to Odaiba to meet mum and Whit.
They hadn't explored much, as they were cold and hungry, but they had found a buffet place, so we went there for dinner. The food was ok, but as with most buffets, it's not going to be the absolute best quality, but still quite edible. The toilets were something else though. With Sega Joypolis being in the same building, the mens urinals had games, where the amount and aim of your urine could either make you beat some guys or fill a cistern or something.. didn't make much sense, but it was cool and I've never seen it before.
After we were all done we started to head back, before I spotted a KTM X-Bow, something we don't get in Australia. It must have been a promo shoot, as they also had the new KTM 1198 RC with it. I got a few shots, but everyone was getting cold and tired (Odaiba is on the water), so we headed back to the hotel.
We were planning on staying up a little tonight, but with everyone so wrecked, we go to bed earlyish, ready for another day.
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