Odaiba - Shy Anime at Takeshiba & 100% Doraemon Friends Exhibition
I was going to walk Rainbow Bridge today since I've never done it. So after a pancake breakfast at the restaurant my hotel collabed with, it was off to Shimbashi for the monorail to the suggested starting point, Shibaura-Futo Station.

While about to get on the automated Yurikamome I spotted their station stamp. Been on the lookout for these since learning about station stamps.

I took a detour when I recognised one of the spots featured in the Anime, Shy. I was going to visit the spot anyway at some point so I got off earlier at Takeshiba Station. The walk could wait.
I wasn't going to do a full tour of the spots just that this particular spot looked interesting with a giant open space and a ship mast.

The path leading out of the station was interesting already because the tiles featured Kanji that had the radical for ship 舟 on them.
Fun trying to deduct where Anime scenes take place. Touring the spots also means visiting places you'd normally wouldn't go to just by visiting the mainstream tourist spots.

This particular spot was from episode 24. Weather was nice and great to be somewhere that wasn't over-run with people.
Skytree towering in the distance like from many other areas around Tokyo.
Seemed like a pretty chill place to hang around although I guess it was a weekday morning. Very quiet other than mums taking their baby out for a stroll or people walking their dogs.
Don't know what it's like during the weekend.
Not quite sure why they kept a mast here but cool little decorations around the lower arches.

I think they're just repeated after so many.

Had these sculptures to spot too for the kids.

Rainbow Bridge in the distance since I was heading over to Odaiba before making this detour.

It was fairly much lunch time by this point so I decided to skip the walk and just take the monorail straight to Odaiba.

There was some kind of meat festival going on when I got there. I don't really eat much so wasn't interested. Was quite a lot of people.

Back at Diver City with Gundam Unicorn. Usual crowds of tourists around it but there was a long snaking queue of girls waiting for a gig to happen too. Some here for the Jujutsu Kaisen collab.

Ramen place I first visited over 6 years ago in the food hall still here. I guess the place is so busy there's no shortage of business. Didn't have any this time though.

Someone had marked the Mugiwara Store on Maps as permanently closed but looked fine to me.

Here was where you could exchange your stamp rally cards for exclusive JJK goods. Very busy.
I've been watching the show and caught up to the Culling Game but it's nothing spectacular for me.

Doraemon Future Department store looked more or less the same outside.

But they've done away with the play area inside for more shop space.
There was a pretty cool promo of this year's remake movie, "Castle of the Undersea Devil". I was hoping to watch it while in Japan but there was only one cinema screening it and it was very far out. Guess I'll just wait until the online release as usual.

I was here for the perpertual calendar, time cloth and hopefully the gadget guide book.
No guide book but otherwise found most of the items.

Decided against buying them because the quality wasn't that great.
The perpetual calendar is cheaper than Ghibli's offerings but also a lot less detailed.

There was also only one left of the cloth.

Came by some brochures and discovered they were doing an exhibition nearby, Doraemon 100% Friends. I think it actually kicked off in Hong Kong first before they decided to run it in Japan too funnily enough.

Keep on pushing that JJK event.

These events kind of lacking when they just use the exact same art everywhere. I guess they give like-minded people a chance to gather though.

Tokyo Teleport Station we meet again. Never would have passed by the first place if it wasn't for Weathering with You/Tenki no Ko. Hasn't changed but Weather Girl was doing her job today it seems.
Really was just passing by this time to head to the Doraemon exhibit though.

Some kind of marathon was going on as I made my way there through Aomi Station. The staff standing around the checkpoints put in a lot of energy to cheer on the participants even when just a single person was running by.

When I realised I was going to be passing by Tokyo Big Sight I decided to make another detour because it was another spot I had been wanting to visit since my first trip.

Was an impressive... sight indeed. Always see it in social media when large expos are going on like Comiket or Tokyo Game Show. I didn't go in because there didn't seem to be anything interesting on and didn't know how much time I'd be spending at the Doraemon exhibit.

I was kind of confused why there was a giant saw outside. Was fun to see though. Looked it up and it's supposed to be pop art "Saw, Sawing" created by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen to represent problem solving.
It really does look surreal when it looks completely out-of-place.

After working my way back, I finally reached the Dream Park area and a big blow up Doraemon was visible in the distance.

Unfortunately, I missed the part about requiring a ticket to view all the Doraemon statues up close.

Seems there were a lot of other people who didn't know so I ended up snapping photos outside the low barrier along with them, lol...

These statues were free to enjoy outside TV Asahi Studios before the Doraemon 100% Friends exhibition happened.
I guess they realised they could monetise it.

Pretty cool to spot statues from my favourite Doraemon movies like the original dinosaur movie adaptation.

There were characters from Fujio's other works too like Esper Mami, a show that deals with very mature themes so I doubt it's for children.

Doraemon and his gang gets more exposure.

There wasn't much order really. Just grab a photo when you could or people hogging the spot even after snapping a picture. Not quite the Doraemon spirit...

Legs were starting to complain so decided to make my way back. Seems Shimbashi Station was another stop for the Detective Conan stamp rally.

Omrice for a late lunch. It was really bland compared to the one I had in Ikebukuro.

Don't know if it had anything do with the "bronze, amateur chef" that prepared it.

With all the 4K walking tour videos I was taking of my own, I needed more storage space.
From my last trip I noticed Western brands were sometimes more expensive than back in the UK but native Japanese brands like IO Data, Kioxia and indeed Toshiba, were cheaper.
Something to keep in mind instead of thinking everything is cheaper in Japan thanks to the exchange rate and tax free benefits.
So native brands it was.

Back to Akiba to rest up for the next trip out.




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