Hey Hive!
I'm currently recounting our anniversary trip to Tokyo back in Feb 2023! It'd been at least 3 years since we visited Tokyo and the last time was pre-covid so we decided to go back and find some new places to explore while revisiting our favourite hot-spots.
Last week, we finished exploring Joypolis, the tech-savvy indoor theme park in Odaiba with a truly unique experience - playing lawyers in a video game! One of our favourite video game series, Ace Attorney, had a special attraction in Joypolis where you could basically play the game in real life!
They built the set from the game and we could actually be in Phoenix Wright's law office, it was so cool! There were even some unique cases they let you play out here that aren't in the games but unfortunately everything was in Japanese so we had a hard time actually playing it. It was still a really cool experience though!
But after that we were pretty hungry since we skipped lunch so we left Joypolis and went to go get an early dinner at Yoshinoya. I was getting a little hangry so this helped a lot.
There's still a little bit more to this day so let's finish it off!
6 Feb 2023. Monday.
The area where the Yoshinoya was located was actually quite interesting. I think it's an overlooked spot but there are some cool shops here. We saw a hobby shop with a line outside, I presume these people were queuing for some exclusive merchandise or something.
There was also quite a big dog cafe along this stretch, and we saw some adorable doggos from outside!
There were actually quite a few dogs in there and if we hadn't just eaten at Yoshinoya we would've gone in for a bite just to admire the cute doggies!
Look at this cute shiba!
This was probably the first time I've seen a dog-friendly restaurant in Japan since mainland Tokyo is mostly "fast food", convenience stores and bars. The cafes we've seen there are not advertised as dog-friendly.
But this restaurant clearly is, which is great! Looks like they have lots of canine clientele. Of course they have rules for your doggos too to make sure everyone has a good dining experience.
This cutie doesn't look amused that their owner isn't back with treats yet.
We walked down this street and they actually had a few different pet-friendly cafes here, which made us think there must be quite a few doggos in this neighbourhood.
The building at the end of the street is a mall called The Decks and it looked like it was built on a deck itself too!
There was a nice view on the deck itself especially with the sun setting.
The mall also had this very cool retro-looking arcade! It felt like such a blast to the past even though everything is in Japanese. But the nostalgic vibes were on point.
There were so many old posters around with actual old arcade machines that were still fully functioning too! It was like a museum/arcade in a way.
There were so many different old machines, some I've never seen before. I bet arcade connoisseurs would love this place!
There was a Super Mario pinball machine that looked so cool! I've never actually played a real pinball machine before, only virtual ones so to see one irl was interesting.
It really felt like a retro paradise with so many nostalgic items and machines in one place!
There was also a mini bowling alley and some old pachinko machines.
There was such a variety of machines here too, unlike regular arcades where it's mostly the same game machines.
There were some tabletop games too, and a long wall full of old manga covers.
They even made an old-school barber shop storefront and I really liked the retro sign board.
There was this shop with lots of pirate-themed items including some retro-looking posters.
I think these were both Ultra Man statues but I don't recognise the Red and Blue one.
There were also some regular shops like this one for doing caricatures but they decorated the store with old posters to blend in with the overall theme of this place.
There was also a palm reading shop but I guess this looked a bit more generic.
There was also a retro snacks store! I bet those who grew up here would be hit with such a nostalgia trip if they saw all these snacks. We didn't recognise a lot of them since we didn't have these growing up sadly.
The Tokyo Trick Art Museum is also here but it looks a bit newer compared to everything else here especially with the ticket machine outside.
There was a remake of Showa Station which apparently is both a train station in Kanagawa and also the name of the Japanese Antarctic research station as well. I guess this is supposed to mimic the train station though I'm not sure why.
This shop had some souvenirs and stationery.
But they also had some unique T-shirts like the Nyanstagram and Tiffanya shirts which I thought were quite cute.
There was another mini arcade here with mostly crane machines.
I'm not sure what this is but it looked like the entrance to a haunted house and was very eerie-looking so we walk past it pretty quickly.
There was a Takoyaki Museum which actually just looked like a food court and was fairly modern too.
There was a display in this old Japanese inn with lots of retro stuff that looked so cool.
After we finished exploring we left and headed back to Odaiba station.
While on the way back to the hotel we saw this banner and were really tempted to go for a massage after all the walking we did so we figured why not.
It was in a nondescript building beside some apartment blocks and we had to go up a flight of stairs but once we got there it looked pretty legit.
I think this might've been the first time we tried a Thai massage, or actually any massage in Japan.
There were a lot of certificates on the wall for each of the massage therapists here so it must be legit.
Here are the prices:
I don't remember which one we did, either the Thai course of the Oil Treatment course.
We opted for a joint room couple massage and it was very good. After all that standing and walking it was honestly such a relief. I always feel awkward getting massages since I don't like strangers touching me but my feet and back were so sore that day that my anxieties just faded away with my aches.
After that it was time for a late dinner and we bought some takeaway tempura dons from Tendon Tenya.
I decided on the All-Star Tendon since it had quite a spread and was pretty decent even if it wasn't super crispy anymore by the time we got back to our hotel.
Sean got the karaage bowl which was pretty good as well.
But that's it for today! The next day will be quite an adventure so tune in next week! Here's a teaser:
Thanks for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
Check out my previous post in this series!
TacoCat’s Travels #280 (Tokyo): Becoming Lawyers in Joypolis! 🧑⚖️
