Tokyo Vacation May 2018 Day 8

Justin & Scott woke fairly early, but at 10:30am I was still asleep, so they woke me. We left the hotel bound for Odaiba to see the Gundam Unicorn and to visit the Toys’R’Us store. While I was used to taking the above-ground trains to Odaiba, this time around we took the JR Saikyo line, which turned into the underground Rinkai line. We boarded the train’s 10th car, and by carefully walking up the aisle of each train car and switching cars, we were eventually able to reach the train’s first car. Initially, each time the train stopped at a station, we would dash the length of the train car and pass through the connecting doors into the next car. When we realized that transitioning by one or two cars per station wouldn’t get us to the first car quickly enough, we began changing rail cars while the train was moving. Our goal was to reach the head of the train for the view of Tokyo Bay and the Rainbow Bridge. But upon reaching the first car, we realized that since we’d taken a different train route, the train we were on was underground, eliminating the spectacular view but also considerably reducing our transit time.

When the train stopped next, we realized that we were at the Tokyo Teleport station. So we got off and began to discuss which exit would be more practical while looking up at the giant illustrated map on the station wall. An English speaking female station attendant approached and asked where we wanted to go. We replied, “Gundam,” so she handed us a map of the island and directed us to the escalators that would take us above ground. So we headed up, finding ourselves not too very far from the highly famous Daikanransha ferris wheel.

We walked the path across the island, passing a pair of Japanese ladies who pushed around their pet dogs in baby carriages, eventually reaching the Diver City shopping mall and its new guardian, the life-sized Unicorn Gundam. We all snapped photos of the robot statue. I lay down on my stomach on the brick ground in order to get a wide, angled photo of Justin & Scott along with a group of Japanese school kids who joined the photo shot.

At 12:40pm, we entered the Gundam statue gift shop trailer. Justin purchased a model of the Unicorn Gundam in a limited edition box labeled with the “Life-Sized Unicorn Gundam” and “Gundam Base Toyko” logos. Finally, at 1pm, the Gundam’s audio speakers powered up, shouting, “Banagher Links, Unicorn Gundam ikimasu!” Then the statue’s knee joints followed by chest panels flared, the face swapped, and the forehead horn split in half, and the mecha illuminated internally in red. The entire transformation was brief. And after the background music ended the Gundam reverted back to its standard form for a moment. Then it silently once again reverted to “Destroy” mode to allow more time for photographs.

An English-speaking Asian young man asked Justin to take his picture posed with the Gundam. By coincidence, when Justin & I found ourselves on the west sixth floor of the Diver City mall, the same young man was by our side. While Scott examined the restaurants on the sixth floor, Justin & I took the elevator up to the seventh floor where we found a skate park themed café and a camping themed café, and a bilingual sign announcing that access to the Gundam Base Tokyo was limited to the elevator & escalator on the east end of the mall. So we rode the elevator back down one floor, just catching Scott before he went up. Then we walked across the mall to the east side and took the escalator up to the seventh floor, which consisted of a large “Battle Colosseum” video game arcade and the extensive Gundam Base Tokyo exhibition.

The free-to enter Gundam Base Tokyo opens with displays of plastic models of historical titular Gundam robots and their primary antagonists as well as displays of limited edition “Gunpla” kits available only at the Gundam Base Tokyo exhibition. The entry of the exhibition area also features life-sized statues of the Gundam Build Fighters characters.

Past the initial exhibition lies a massive Gunpla store touting the largest selection of Gundam plastic model kits available anywhere. A side outlet specializes in limited edition Gundam apparel including shirts, ties, shoes, bags, and briefcases.

The center of the expansive Gundam Base Tokyo is a curtained-off exhibition titled “Future of Gunpla.” Every 20 minutes an audience is led behind the curtain, and the host shows off a large 1:20 scale Gundam Unicorn plastic model kit that’s fully illuminated and completely transforms from its Unicorn mode into its complete “Destroy” mode including extended beam sabers over its shoulders. The demonstration suggests that Bandai is aggressively at work on developing both larger plastic model kits and also robotic, interactive model kits. Of course, since the display is a prototype, photography of it is strictly prohibited.

Past the main store floor is a display of a selection of prior Gunpla World Cup winning models, and also a walk-through exhibition explaining the development process of Gundam plastic models. The exhibition reveals that employees in the Shizuoka Gundam model factory all work while wearing Gundam style uniforms with rank badges designating their status from workman up to general manager. The exhibit also illustrates a die used for injecting molding models, the colored plastic beads that are melted to create the colored plastic pieces, the hand-crafted tools Gunpla designers create to sculpt prototype model kits, and the considerations that affect packaging design. The exhibition also includes a motorized, interactive scale model of the Shizuoka production facility, an injection molding machine for illustration, and even a 515-yen plastic model of Bandai’s injection molding machine! Customers are limited to five purchases per day due to the exclusivity of many of the exhibition’s offerings. So Justin purchased four of the injection molding machine kits, and Scott bought another for a friend.

The back of the exhibition space contains a room with tables where patrons can assemble their freshly purchased kits, a second work space for painting the kits with assistance and advice from professional modelers, and a studio stage where modelers tape and live-stream their plastic model building.

After spending considerable time in the Gundam Base Tokyo, we descended a few floors and browsed the “The Odaiba” gift shop. I noticed and had to purchase a 410 yen rubber keychain depicting Golgo 13 in his underwear holding a pistol while standing next to Tokyo Tower. The contoured and textured rubber keychain also has a back side that depicts Duke Togo’s backside. When I pointed out the keychain to Justin, he purchased two of them.

We crossed the hall and snapped pictures with the Hello Kitty Robo statue at the Hello Kitty store. Then we descended to the first floor’s food court. I spent 1,150 yen on a large bowl of fried, sliced pork katsu curry and a Coke from Kimukatsutei. From the same restaurant, Justin ordered the bonito gyudon. At one counter, Scott ordered a serving of fresh takoyaki. At another counter, he ordered an omrice with brown gravy. Justin didn’t like the taste of his fishy beef bowl. Scott didn’t like the taste of the zesty rice in the omelet-rice, so Scott ended up eating Justin’s bonito rice while I finished off the omrice. Justin ordered a bowl of soy broth ramen that he ultimately considered “just okay.” Scott ordered a serving of the same rolled sliced pork fried then added to curry. To finish up, Justin ordered a pig-in-a-blanket and a serving of mini-pigs-in-blankets from Auntie Anne’s while Scott selected a dozen donuts from Krispy Kreme, including mango flavor, banana flavor, and matcha flavor.

At that point, Justin, Scott and I decided to go separate routes. I’d go hunting for ero doujinshi while Scott & Justin would stop by the Tokyo Dome to search for Yomiuri Giants souvenirs for baseball fans back home then return to the hotel. At Osaki station I left Justin & Scott. I got on the Yamanote line and promptly began to nod off. I distinctly started when I woke with a start, realizing that I was at a station. Thankfully the stop was Shimbashi, four stops ahead of Akiba.

I exited the Electric Town exit and instead of heading directly toward Chuo Dori went straight ahead, past the M’s tower before turning right. In the alley before the Radio Kaikan building I discovered another Surugaya goods store. The shelves outside the store, in the dark alley, consisted of “junk” figures at especially bargain prices. The first floor consisted of used figure toys. The second floor is devoted to bishounen and fujoshi interests. The third floor is adult doujinshi including a table that offered packages of 30 random doujinshi for only 300 yen.

With a brisk pace, I browsed Melon Books, K-Books, Toranoana, and the Toranoana outlet store across the street from the main store, where I purchased, at last, the Azasuke Wind “Dressing Room” Black Lagoon doujinshi and the URC “Ao o Yuukai Ryoujoku” Pretty Cure doujinshi.

I also browsed the stores off Chuo Dori, leading me to find the Serial Box Bulb rental case store below a Comic Blister store that specialized in American comics. I was surprised to discover that the White Canvas shop carried not just Japanese doujin goods but also full cuts of genga from anime series Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls, Queen’s Blade, Bleach, and Naruto. I paid 1,587 yen for a full scene cut of genga from Samurai Girls. Genga packs from Naruto were around 4,900 yen apiece.

At the end of my excursion, I went back to the Surugaya store next to RajiKaikan, intending to purchase a grab bag of doujinshi, but the alarm at the front door beeped. I stepped back and forward again, confirming that it was me setting off the security alarm. I don’t know what was causing the alarm. A young man staffer of the store came to the door and said to me, “Another store, please,” clearly suggesting to me that I patronize another store rather than his. So I gave up and walked across the street to the station and went back to the Shinjuku Hilton because I didn’t see any coin lockers outside of the station’s turnstile gates where I could temporarily leave my backpack. Coincidentally, just as I walked into the hotel lobby, I spied Scott & Justin walking out.

After separating from me on the Rinkai line, Justin & Scott had somehow ended up on the train going in the opposite direction, but after some delay they returned to the hotel. They considered going to Tokyo Dome City but discovered it was closed. Scott & Justin realized that while the three of us had visited Odaiba in the morning, we’d left the island completely forgetting to also stop at the Toys ‘R’ Us store. So Scott & Justin looked up the address for the store in Higashi Ikebukuro. Justin also packed a box for mailing. Scott & Justin were on their way to the post office & Toys ‘R’ us when I bumped into them. So we all went upstairs where I dropped off my purchases, and we went back out.

The 24-hour postal service counters on the second floor of the main branch Shinjku post office were very crowded at 8pm. Justin took his waiting number. The numbers cycle from 600 to 999. The numbers were around 950. Justin’s number was 650. After waiting for 15 or 20 minutes, we gave up and instead took the train to Ikebukuro station. Once there, Scott showed me his phone and told me that we were going to take the Marunochi to Yurakucho. So when I spotted the gate for the Marunochi subway line, I tugged Justin and passed through the gate, only to find that Scott wasn’t with us. We got him on the phone, and he asserted that the Marunochi didn’t go where we needed to go. I was confused. Based on Scott’s verbal instructions, I’d thought we needed to take the Marunochi subway line to Yurakucho. Scott found us and explained that he’d misspoken and misidentified “Metro” as “Marunochi,” and that we needed to ride the Yurakucho subway line, not literally go to Yurakucho city.

We managed to find the rear entrance of the Sunshine City mall at 8:45, fifteen minutes before the store’s closing time. A security guard directed us to the Toys ‘R’ Us store in the basement. While browsing the store, the PA began playing “Kumbaya” signifying the store’s closing. Justin selected a pair of Godzilla monster figures and a handful of Ultraman monster figures. He also purchased a Star Wars “Rey” S.H. Figuarts figure to take home as a gift for a friend. For that same friend, I purchased a Japanese exclusive small “Darth Vader in a barrel” game and a child’s Yomiuri Giants bib that would be ideal for wall display.

Since we were already using the subway lines this evening, we continued to do so, taking the Yurakucho line to Ikebukuro, then the Fukutoshin line to Shinjuku-Sanchome, then the Marunochi subway line to Nishi Shinjuku, which exits on the street just a few blocks behind the Hilton. So we started walking back toward the hotel when we decided instead of go in the opposite direction to the 7-11 to purchase late night snack food including nikuman and pizzaman hot buns, and egg salad sandwiches.

We returned to the hotel and caught several anime episodes on TV including Comic Girls, Rokuhoudou Yotsuiro Biyori, and Hisone to Masotan.