Day 6: Christmas at the beach

Another day just passed by. And again it showed that Tokyo has so many facets. Today we saw the futuristic Tokyo and the beach.

In the morning we went to the town district Roppongi. But there was not much to see, I do not even bother to upload any picture. Bof.

But then we went to Odaiba island. It is an artificially created island. It is a different Tokyo that we saw there. It was not crazy, loud, busy, old-fashioned, or beautiful. It was new, structured, just futuristic. The building complexes are new and many huge shopping malls offer a variety of products. The Rainbow Bridge connects central Tokyo with the island. The ride on the train alone, which is completely automatically driven (!), was an event. Looking out of the window you can see high buildings, bridges, roads flying by, taking you to another world. As if you witnessed a time travel from the window.

 

And this is where we landed

  

Fabian was again succesful at doing Japanese national sport - he managed to get Puh-San out of a crane machine in "Palette Town" (a wide spread shopping complex)

  

The futuristic building of a TV station

  

Nice skyline by the water

  

Miriam and Fabian relaxing in the sun

  

Walking along the shore suddenly the ground changed from concrete to this

Tokyo by the water:

  

Miriam and I with the Rainbow Bridge in the background

  

 Rainbow Bridge - also very beautiful at night

  

 And then suddenly there was sand under my feet. Tokyo Beach on Christmas Eve! The sun was shining the whole day, there was no cloud in the sky. It was actually warm enough to take off our coats and enjoy the sun.

Here is a 360 degree view of the beach (Fabian is little bit shy and successfully hid from the camera):

 

A nice day ends. And we were a little bit tired when we took the subway back home. 

Do not underestimate the time it takes you to get from one town district to another! It can take hours, because you have to calculate the transfers between different subways and the ways it takes to walk from one platform to another!

When we went back home to our apartment we turned on some Christmas music, and had our German tradition of "Bescherung", exchanging gifts ^^ We thought that we would be a little bit sad, spending Christmas in a foreign country, so far away from our home and families. But as you can see Tokyo was a good means to distract our thoughts, so I was able to handle my Christmas-homesickness. And in Japan, you do not really get into Christmas mood that much, because Christmas does not have the same meaning to Japanese as for Germans. Here it is more of a commercial act and a day to spend with your girlfriend/boyfriend rather than a family day. And tomorrow everything is over anyways. And something else that I noticed: Japanese do not wait to open their Christmas presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning. Anything given as a present in November or December is considered a Christmas gift, but is opened immediately! 

I love my gifts! ^^

ありがとう!

Merry Christmas to everyone!