Day 7: Odaiba & Ochiai, TOKYO

Odaiba

Originally, Sushi Dai was recommended to us by our friends but according to them and the internets, you normally have to get there by 3am to wait for the 5am opening if you don’t want to wait for four hours, which is the normal wait time if you don’t make the first or second seating. We said screw that because we were tired. I had even wanted to try getting to the market around 5am, when it opened, but we woke up around 7am and had to pack because we were going to a different hotel later that night. We stashed our stuff at a coin locker in Akihabara station, planning on being back in the afternoon to hit up more shops, and then we headed to Toyosu Fish Market.

Our JR rail pass actually ended yesterday so we just used Google Maps and our Suica cards, and that worked out pretty well. While we were on the rails, there were so many more people in suits. We had noticed last night that yesterday had been the last day of their Golden Week and I guess this meant everybody was back at work.

Sushi Dai

We actually walked to Daiwa Sushi first since it was closer to the bus stop we got off at. There was no line outside so we were about to go in, but we didn’t have enough cash on us at that moment so we kept walking and ended up finding an ATM machine on the way to Sushi Dai. We decided that if Daiwa Sushi had zero line, may there was a chance that there would be a less intense wait at Sushi Dai. When we got to Sushi Dai, we almost thought it was closed because there was no one sitting in any of the chairs they had out in front!

It was a real treat to arrive at Sushi Dai around 10:18am and be seated with no wait time. We finally got sushi while in Japan and the omakase meal really hit the spot. For only 4500 yen each, this was amazing. And I will say, it was an experience to eat Spanish Mackerel sperm… I told myself it was just mayonnaise and my brain was mostly able to get over the gross factor. It’s a little weird that I don’t find it weird at all to eat fish eggs but there is so much gross factor with the idea of eating animal sperm.

I think what surprised us the most was that even the lean fish was super soft and not fishy at all. In the states, I think it’s fairly easy to find good fatty salmon or tuna but things like snapper and mackerel are often more fishy and rubbery. Everything we got was fresh tasting, even the lean tuna!

But yea, we think the pro tip is to go here the day after Golden Week ends if you want to go without a crazy wait and after getting a reasonable amount of sleep.

Toyosu Fish Market

After we finished at Sushi Dai, we tried to find our way to the Fish Market but couldn’t really figure out how to get to the main floor. I think it might have been finished already since we went relatively late in the morning. We were able to peak down from the observatory area but it wasn’t really busy and we weren’t able to see much. It did smell very fishy though and we saw a group of students rushing around trying to fill out worksheets, haha.

On our way out, we walked around the souvenir shop area and then briefly went up the the roof garden. Which is where I learned why you don’t walk and talk pictures at the same time. Shortly after I took this picture, I tripped and scrapped my hand up because of what I think was a gutter.

We then started to head over to the Mori Digital Art Museum that was not too far away from where we were.

Palette Town

On our way to the Mori Digital Art Museum, we walked around Palette Town and checked out the Venus Fort mall. The interior reminded us a lot of the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas. I realized then that I wore jeans instead of pants conducive to wushu poses so we tried to walk around find some relatively cheap sweat pants, but we quickly realized we were probably in the wrong place for the price point we were looking for.

On our way to the digital art museum, we passed some Toyota building as well as this gigantic ferris wheel. And then we waited at the Wendy’s to meet up with Henry’s family.

Mori Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless

This museum was the epitome of eye-candy and Henry’s cousin half-jokingly said, “I’m in Instagram hell.”

Everything here makes you want to take pictures so it was hard to put our phones down and just enjoy the exhibits. I honestly didn’t calm down until towards the end after we got all our wushu pictures done… But it was great to put the phone camera away and just interact with the exhibits! A lot of the projections are interactive and there’s even an app that tells you about each exhibit and lets you interact directly with the color schemes or etc!

Our favorite exhibits were the infinite waves, crystal room, lantern room, and flower animals!

And of course, obligatory wushu poses.

Honestly, we took so many pictures here–it was ridiculous.

Unicorn Gundam Statue

After something like three hours at the Mori Digital Art Museum, we headed nearby to the Unicorn Gundam Statue! We walked through the cafe/shop behind it as well as the mall. Checked this off our must-see list for Japan!

Ochiai

Ryokan Takemine

This hotel is sort of a fusion between a ryokan and a western hotel and it’s very well done. We got to our room and gasped at the size and set up. I just couldn’t believe we had stepping stones in gravel leading up to the tatami area and corners for bamboo plants. The huge bath and shower area was fantastic–it was such a treat to sit in a massive bath after so much walking over this trip.

We were also served a set meal in our room and this was included as well as our breakfast for the room and price we chose earlier.

I think the only disappointing thing was that we wanted the kaiseki dinner and were told that we were supposed to call a week before to get it however, their website specifically states that you need to call three days prior and we did that. I think there was some communication issues because when I called about the dinner, the receptionist said we just need to indicate our meal at check-in, and I guess the website is just wrong. In the end, we still really enjoyed our meal (although I think we were a starving a bit) and it was just such a treat to get served the meal in our room.