Venus Fort, Shopping, Food and Cars!

Going back to December 2010 in Tokyo and I decided to visit Odabai Island and Venus Fort. So what is Venus Fort? 

Well, it's a place with lots of interesting stores. 

Stores for older people and for younger people. And the young at heart.

Along with interesting services. Like weddings. Yes, you can get married at Venus Fort. Actually wedding photos here would be very beautiful. 

The reason why is because of the architecture inside Venus Fort that replicates an Italian city. 

 

Complete with arches, statues and more.

Like this beautiful fountain. 

Reminds me so much of the Venetian in Los Vegas, right down to the day and night lighting.

There are vintage cars in the History Garage and people dressed up as characters

And the occasional Italian street.

 I was hungry since I didn't have breakfast.

 So I sat down at Cobara Hetta for a dish of pasta interpreted Japanese style.

 It was interesting with okra, salmon, mentaiko, nori and grated daikon. The soup and salad were very good too.

 The best part was the view from my table.

(this post was originally posted December 2010)

Return to Venue Fort

Eight years ago I first visited Venus Fort. It does not look like much on the outside. 

This time I entered through the History Garage. Not intentionally. But still it was fun to see those retro automobiles. 

And the vintage pseudo store fronts. Although not that retro, seeing that there are recent reproduction Barbie dolls in there.

In between all this is a portable shrine. 

Near the retro gas station. 

 What I came to see was this.

 The interior of Venus Fort.

While not as lit up as it was at Christmas eight years ago, 

The interior design is still impressive. With a definite Italian feel, it reminds me a lot of The Venetian in Las Vegas. 

Including the ceilings.

Which are painted like the sky to give you the feeling you are walking through a medieval town. 

In fact they even go from twilight 

to dawn and back again. 

It was nice to see that Cobara-Hetta was still there. I ate lunch here eight years ago. 

Under this beautiful yet not real sky. 

 And next to this gorgeous fountain. Next time, I will have to do that again.

There are six statues of goddesses at the fountain. 

It's a lovely place to spend time at on a hot muggy day. Which is why I had thought of stopping at Venus Fort in the first place during this trip. But then I realized, like most of the other places I went to, there was a connection. To the musician Mana.

It's Time for Pancakes

Part of my plan for my last day in Tokyo was lunch. Somewhere in the place I was revisiting.

There was something about this restaurant that caught my eye. And my appetite.

Because there was one thing I really wanted to do in Japan. Well a lot of things, but this was something at the top of the list. Pancakes.

Not just any pancakes. Those big, fluffy, super high pancakes. And Shonan Pancake was a place that served them up.

So I ordered, and waited. The thing about these pancakes is that it takes some time for them to cook. But trust me, it was worth it.

Fluffy thick, made with ricotta and marscapone cheese. But not too cheesy. It was just right for the lemon pancakes that I ordered. Served up hot with a scoop of lemon sorbet.

Lemon in the syrup, lemon in the butter, lemon sauce. Yet, it was just right. Like I said, every where I went there was lemon flavors. For these pancakes, it hit the right balance with the bit of cheese flavor in the pancakes. Definitely different, and I would try them again.

As to where Shonen Pancakes is located? It's in Venus Fort, in Odaiba. Which is my next post.

A Very Large Unicorn Adventure

My last day in Tokyo found me with a troublesome right leg and overcast weather. There were many places I wanted to see (as always). One was not far from where I wanted to go but it involved walking, buses and preferring to see it in better weather. So I thought hard as to what to do, given my limitations. There was another place I had thought about revisiting. When I realized there was something I had wanted to see for the first time. Near the place I wanted to revisit. And there was an easy way to get there. I needed to go to Ikebukuro Station to get my N'EX seat and lucky for me, the train I wanted to take was right by the ticket office. So I got on the Saikyo Line for the first time.

The Saikyo Line follows part of the Yamanote Line but doesn't stop at all the stations. Mental note for future, definitely need to use this line, as long as it's not rush hour. It still took some time to go from Ikebukuro to the Tokyo Teleport Station, but much easier than having to change trains. So up I went this rather futuristic escalator.

To find the back of the Fuji TV Building in Odaiba. 

Not far from there was Diver City Shopping Mall and The Gundam Base Tokyo. 

Of course there is a theme cafe. The Gundam Cafe, which looks a lot like the Gundam Cafe in Akihabara. 

But what Akihabara doesn't have is this. 

A lit up 19.7 meters tall 1:1 scale replica of the RX-0 Unicorn Gundam.

That's  64.6 feet. Just a little taller than this man.

 Previously there was a Gundam statue here, based on one of the original designs. But it was removed and on September 26th, 2017, the new Unicorn Gundam was unveiled.

The design was based on the MobileSuit Gundam Unicorn anime.

 It definitely is impressive.

 Both the exhaust ports in the back and various panels light up. Pink means it's in attack mode.

There are a number of parts that move, including the two horns at the top. They move together to create one unicorn horn. There is a video here that shows how this happens, about 45 seconds in,  https://twitter.com/Normal_wa/status/911930241924214784 

While I was there, a man jumped the chain barrier. Two non-uniformed guys escorted him away. So they do have people watching just in case someone does something crazy. Most people, like these, were just getting selfies.

While there wasn't much beyond the colossal model, it was interesting to see and not too difficult for me to get to. Which was good because there was that place I wanted to revisit. 

Off in the distance was more of the Odaiba skyline, including this walkway. 

Which has some resemblance to the Gundam Unicorn. It's by the Tokyo Teleport Train Station. But I am getting a little ahead again. 

Because there was that place I wanted to revisit. 

Which was near the colorful Palette Town Daikanransha, a 100 meter Ferris wheel, which I first saw in December, 2010. And that place is what my next post will be about.