It is 3/14, Happy Pi Day! Eat some 🥧 at 1:59 if u can ! I was awake at 2am when my alarm went off to see the blood moon lunar eclipse, should have set it 5 minutes earlier! Here are photos from 2:30 am and 6 am (the iPhone is not great at moon photos) It was only 28 degrees and I am working today so I just snapped the photo and went back to bed. It must have been so menacing to ancient peoples….
For our second day in Tokyo the main activity was the marathon expo and registration. I had seen online that the convention center (in South Tokyo on the harbor) was near a TeamLab site. There are several of these in Japan. They are amazing multi-media, digital art experiences.
Breakfast was the FAMOUS 7-11 egg salad sandwich (crusts cut off!).
Alex was in charge of navigation and I happily just followed them into the subway with total trust!
I had bought our tickets in advance at the website so we sailed past the long line at the 9am opening. They are in a few other countries as well but I don’t know if those exhibits are as huge.
The building was enormous! There was a short intro video with English subtitles and descriptions of the various environments and rules for each. We left our shoes and socks and other stuff in a free locker.
I could spend hours writing about the 2 1/2 hours we spent there but will just share a bunch of photos and videos with brief comments. We could have stayed much longer and even redone our favorite parts (for me, the amazing VR koi pond… bare footed in 12 inches of warm water with interactive fish). And it was only $25 per person ! In USA at least $100.
Free lockers to leave shoes and socks and backpacks. There was a huge variety of textures as one walked barefoot.
The long passages between the various exhibits were amazing, one was even a ramp up flowing water. In the dark it was startling when the ground changed surfaces.
So amazing !
The AI was amazing. I followed one Koi for several minutes as it avoided other people and koi. When u touched the koi some turned to flower petals and others swam away fast …
These videos are not able to capture the true wonder of the experience. Also because it was mostly dark and walls mirrors the room seemed to go on forever.
There were dozens of employees and they all spoke perfectly in English. I said good morning and thank you and yes in Japanese. Unlike in other countries I’ve visited they all KNEW I wasn’t a native at first glance 🙂
Giant ball/balloon room. The ones on the ground were rollable. The colors changed through the full spectrum.
After the brief outdoor area we put on our shoes for the Athletic Forest. I had a grape juice with aloe chunks to be well hydrated.
Several amazing climbing and balance challenges.
Amazing “live” art…. With rolling hills..
Alex drew an animal and after being scanned it went live!
There were many hands on artsy rooms as well.
There were then a series of galleries with “creatures” to collect.
The last section was flowers. They all hung from electric pulleys and moved around you very slowly. They smelled great too.
We had a light lunch and then took the train one stop to the convention center. It was HUGE and looked like an alien space ship!
The marathon expo only took up one part of a lower level, we didn’t go up top.
It only took a few minutes to get my packet and charity t shirt.
The expo was the best I’ve been to in years. Lots of cool things to see and do. Alex was very patient and took ALL the photos I requested. They had a quest to get a Marathon postcard stamped at a half dozen spots.
The Tokyo Metro was a big sponsor…
I had been training with Pocari Sweat exclusively for the last 2 months as it was the official on course drink. Lots of carbs and lytes and a subtle grapefruit flavor.
I had first learned of the Abbott 6 Star Majors when I saw a booth in Berlin. Covid delayed Tokyo a lot but I have done it! NY,Boston,Chicago,Berlin, London, and finally Tokyo. Abbott has just added Sydney and possibly soon one in China or South Africa but I have no interest in those. Maybe Athens some day …
I was wiped out after the busy morning at TeamLab and all the Expo activities.
The Japanese founder of ASICS named his company after the quote:
https://corp.asics.com/en/about_asics/history
I re-energized with an ice cold black coffee from a vending machine. So goooooood.
Although Alex had done a great job at leading me through the complicated Subway system, I am happy we took a cab after the expo even if it only saved 10 minutes. Sitting in a soft seat for 45 minutes was much nicer on my legs than going up and down Subway stairs and (often) standing for the Subway rides.
Japan is famous for its animal cafes and Alex had expressed interest so I had found 2 for us to visit on different days. This one was on Cat Street which is one of Tokyo’s hipster/cool areas.
I googled and it was fun that we ended up randomly in a neighborhood we otherwise wouldn’t have experienced.
As soon as we got out of the cab I realized I was decades older than anyone else there! Alex immediately saw a thrift store they knew from NYC and dashed into it while I took photos and drank my coffee.
Lots of cool clothing stores, etc.
We found the cafe up a flight of stairs…
This place had chinchillas, hedgehogs, a GIANT rabbit and …… 🦦 otters! We paid about $12 per person for an hour of animals and unlimited coffee/tea/etc from some vending machines. It was a little extra to buy treats for the animals and I paid to get cuddle time with the otters.
The indoor Otters were napping 💤 ❤️
The ones outside had a big swim area and play area connected by a tube. They would teach their adorable little paws out to take a snack :)))
After the cafe we walked to a metro station. The Main Street in Harajuku is the “Champs Ellyses” of Tokyo and very busy and upscale.
After a long, fun, busy day we were happy to grab takeout Udon for dinner on our room.
We had no interest in US or BBC news so instead we watched Japanese kids shows 😉
Alex wanted to crash early so I went up to the bar for a Coke Zero and looked at some books in the library. Another 25K step day not boding well for the marathon 😉
