We woke up late the next morning took our time getting ready.
When we did make it out of the hotel, we stopped at a little cafe that boasted italian coffee, but it was nothing special, and it tasted like all other coffee found in Japan.
After that we made our way to Shimbashi Station in Minato-Ku, Tokyo. This is the starting station for the Self-Driving Train that takes you to Odaiba. The driver-less train we took was the Yurikamome Line. It usually has a line of people waiting to take the "driver's spot" in the train with the big windows out front. We did wait an extra fifteen minutes so we could get the front seat on the next train.
I took video of nearly the entire train ride! My camera overheated near the end of the trip and stopped filming, and I had to ask Cormac to take video of the remaining few minutes. So of the entire ride I'm only missing 30 seconds to 1 minute of ride time!
We went into the Tokyo Trick-Art Museum inside one of the buildings in the shopping centers, and there was quite the line to get in.
We waited in line for maybe twenty minutes, and when we got in it was quite a free-for-all to get pictures taken. There wasn't a lot of room to walk around. But because it is Japan everyone was nice and patient with each other. People made lines to take the pictures with the scenes they wanted. Strangers took pictures for each other. Even though it was crowded and you had to wait long times in some cases to take pictures, it was overall a fun experience.
For most of the time we were in such a rush to take a photo and get out of the way for the next person, we were unable to really monitor how the pictures were turning out. As a result a lot of them don't look great, but it was fun to take them anyways.
There was also a piece of art that was 3D and shifted as you moved. I was able to take some video of it.
After we finished with the Trick-Art Museum we walked around the Shopping Center in Odaiba for a while. While we were in the Venus Fort I showed him the creepy odds-and-ends shop called Strange Love that I had last been to the previous August (check out that blog post for more information). It was just as creepy as ever and still ridiculously expensive, but still one of my favorite shops in Tokyo.
We got some food and walked around for a bit longer, knowing we would have to get back to the car and drive back to Fukushima soon.
On the ground floor of one of the shopping centers there is a series of large rooms that act as a museum. At this time there was an exhibit of old Japanese cars, as well as a Delorian. I didn't think to take pictures of this exhibit, which I completely regret.
As we were leaving Odaiba and headed back to the train, we happened upon a street performer and his trained monkey! I filmed them, and paid some money for their performance. It was pretty funny, and I enjoyed it very much. Once again my camera was overheating, so I had to break the performance up into multiple videos and put them together after the fact.
From here we got back on the train and hopped lines for around an hour until we made it back to the rugby stadium, and back to my car.
When we got back to the car and the parking lot, I checked the paying machine so I could pay my bill and drive home. Now, the prices posted in the lot were reasonable. I expected to pay about ¥2,400 for parking in this lot overnight.
When I put in my parking spot, I saw that the amount I owed was over ¥16,300! Whaaaaaaat?! Holy SHIT! How could this happen? What the actual FUCK?!
I found that there was a small sign posted at the back of the parking lot. It said that on this particular weekend (rugby game weekend) they were increasing the price of the spots in this lot nearly 7 times it's normal cost!
I was freaking livid!
I think they should have posted this cost change somewhere where people would see it, not hidden in the back of the lot where nearly nobody would see it! It is the most dishonest thing I have ever seen in this country.
I made my way to the nearest combini and withdrew the nearly $150 to pay this fucking parking fee!
Cormac could see I was in no mood. I had previously told him that parking was on me, and that he didn't need to help. After this he felt bad and did help me with half the cost of parking. I felt bad and grateful at the same time. We left Tokyo is a much fouler mood than when we'd had an hour before.
Cormac, bless his heart, did his best to get it all off my mind. We turned our thoughts to more fun things as we got on the freeway to make our way back to Fukushima. Soon after we got on the freeway, we got stopped to a standstill. Traffic was bumper-to-bumper and moving at a snail's pace. We had gotten stuck in Tokyo traffic. We spent more than an hour in this traffic and made it about a 1/2 mile. We realized that the reason for the stopped traffic is because there was some construction going on and the construction crew was letting one car past at a time. It seemed like an extra-retarded way to do things, especially in a city as busy as Tokyo.
You would think that the events of the night, dishonest parking prices, and being stuck in Tokyo traffic for an hour + would be the end of my good mood, but really it was the opposite. Cormac had done a good job about talking to me and keeping my mind off the obscene amount of money we'd lost. We had fun talking about the rest of our fun trip, and talking about brighter things in general. I'm really glad he was there to share that experience with me
And I learned a lesson about being extra-careful about reading ALL the signs in a parking lot, especially if it's an event weekend. But even today (exactly one full year later) this memory makes my blood boil.
We finally made it back to Fukushima City in the wee hours of the morning and I stayed at Cormac's place so I could get a few hours of sleep before having to drive back to Minamisoma. It would not have been safe for me to drive alone at that time of night and after the long drive from Tokyo.
Overall, a good weekend with a bitter ending.
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