Odaiba - Part 2

As mentioned, the primary reason of our visit to Odaiba was to see Shimogo Town Yosakoi group perform. Clara had a couple of old friends in the Shimogo group and was excited to meet them again. Likewise, Yuki and I knew we would also see old old faces from the time we spent in Shimogo.

I really like watching Yosakoi and it seems a great activity for people of all ages to participate in. Good exercise and a great opportunity for local groups to socialise. I also imagine that these groups play an important role in returning some local pride to rural communities under threat.

I have to say that the Shimogo performance was excellent! The dance moves were choreographed to perfection (in my humble opinion), the costumes were vibrant and traditional, and the taiko drum sounded threatening. All the constituent pieces fitted together well and truly managed to communicate the Aizu spirit. Fantastic!

I really enjoyed meeting some of my old students again. They seemed pleased to see me and were happy to exchange a few words. I was taken aback to discover that some of my old students are now in their early 20s!

A nice trip down memory lane and reassuring to know that although we are gone from Shimogo, we are not yet forgotten.

Odaiba - Part 1

Last week we went to Odaiba, primarily to watch the Shimogo Town Yosakoi dance group perform. However, we had some time to kill before the performance started so we walked around Odaiba for some sightseeing.

Odaiba is a pretty impressive place which I need to visit again. After travelling in to Tokyo, we had to take the Yurikome Line across Rainbow Bridge to reach Odaiba. I thought I had made a mistake when the train passed by Rainbow Bridge and felt a pang of disappointment that we would not be passing over. However, the train line corkscrewed around and we promptly crossed over the water. The bridge is composed of two railway tracks, a walkway, and several roads at different levels. The walkway is obviously popular with foreigners as we must have seen 20 or 30 non-Japanese people walking the span of the bridge. Of more particular note for Clara and I was the road which was adjacent to the railway line we were crossing over. Clara and I started waving at people walking or in cars who were crossing the bridge. Much to the amusement of our fellow passengers, we garnered a lot of attention from people at various distances from the train. The best moment was when Clara and I waved at a man driving what looked like an open top Caterham 7. We got a lot of waves from the guy as he blasted past our train and into the distance. A few minutes later, as we were coming to the end of the bridge, we saw the Caterham stopped at traffic lights some way off. Clara and I started to wave again and received some enthusiastic waving in return from the jolly driver who must have been keeping his eyes on the approaching train. Our fellow passengers on the train found the antics highly amusing.

As we had some time before the Shimogo Town performance, we walked around the Palette Town shopping centre and exhibition centre. There seems to be quite a strong automotive theme in this area as Toyota had a number of their products on display which people could sit in and ask salesmen for information. Of greater interest to me were a number of racing cars in display. There was a Toyota F1 car and a Lexus track car.

After looking at the Toyota, Lexus, and F1 merchandise shop, we decided to retire for some refreshments as we still had over an hour before the performance. We stumbled across an Italian Cafe Bar which was full of F1 memorabilia and contained an interesting selection of cars. The bar had a number of leather sofas and armchairs and I could picture myself getting comfortable for the day and quaffing a few beers to while away the hours surrounded by some impressive automotive relics. I really want to return sometime and just chill and sup the Italian beers. There is also a nice terrace outside the bar which would be great on a summer day.....next year perhaps....