Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Japan Trip Day 9 (AM): Odaiba

I had another fucked up start of the day again thanks to fucked up sister. We were supposed to drop our luggages for Airporter luggage transfer by 9am and she was still taking her own fucking sweet time with waking up late, showering, etc. Jeez..

Anyway I would like write a short review of Airporter (https://airporter.co.jp). Yesterday I mentioned about the price which I find quite expensive. After today, I can say that perhaps the pricing is the only negative thing to say. By the way I got a 20% discount upon checking out yesterday so that helped with the cost somehow. The brochure states that the delivery would be by 4pm. In the physical labels that I filled, there is a field for check in time. I put 3pm and tadaa... the luggages were dropped at Disney Celebration Hotel before 3pm. I am impressed. Their updates and communication are also fantastic. When they picked up the luggages, they also sent photos of the luggages and the physical labels that I filled. When the luggages were delivered, they also sent photos of the luggages at the signage of the hotel name. I will definitely use this service again if needed. Fantastic!

I was contemplating to go to Akihabara this morning but in the end I decided not to exhaust myself. My sister wanted to return to Odaiba so I decided to just get all my shopping there since yesterday I already confirmed that the souvenir shop there have Tokyo Banana Kit Kat that I want.

We found the photo spot that we missed yesterday. Initially my sister still said that it was already gone as it was only for Christmas. Stupid... don't want to find info.. I have nothing to say.. After that she really wanted to queue for the Doraemon store. We reached there just before 1030 and the queue outside was estimated to be at least 2 hours. I passed and I went to Gundam Base instead.
The photo spot missed yesterday. The ironic part is that yesterday we were like only 10 steps away from this place.
With smaller crowd, I managed to take picture of the giant Gundam head. The Gundam Build Fighters statues that I did not see yesterday are now at the 'factory' section. Now they are also behind the red ribbon so lucky I took pictures with them before. As I already decided not going Akihabara, I would have space for toys. I was contemplating between buying or using the space for food. I decided NOT to get the Gundam Base limited edition hangar since I do not even have the time to build the normal editions that I already own for a few years now. I decided to buy Vayeate and Mercurius. I have been wanting to get them as my current Vayeate has broken horn and my current Mercurius' Planet Defensors are ugly (I built it when I was still a newbie for Gundam building and I think I built the Planet Defensors wrongly). Previously there were always 1/100 models that I did not have yet and hence I bought. Now I already have everything from Gundam Wing that I want to own (except for the clear versions of the 1/144) so I can finally buy Vayeate and Mercurius.
As the shop was not as crowded as yesterday, I could explore more carefully and I saw 40th anniversary artbook that I missed yesterday!! Artbook is a no brainer for me and it is an instabuy. I bought 2 since I was thinking of selling the other one since this is a limited for the 40th anniversary. 2200 yen for a 54-page book is expensive but heck liao. Some more there is an original illustration for this 40th anniversary project of Heero Yuy meeting Kamille Bidan (who is from Zeta Gundam a.k.a different universe), although Heero is backfacing. There is a big poster with this illustration around the shop but I am only aware of this illustration when I was browsing the book. There are 3 other illustrations with different pairs of Gundam pilots meeting another from a different Gundam universe.
Big but only the back view (Heero) or tiny but front view (Kamille)?
Yesterday my sister told me that there are already more than 1000 photos and each photo is at least 6-7MB. I am a noob and it did not cross my mind that since my new camera has higher megapixel, the size per photo is bigger. I only bought 16GB and now I am not going to risk running out of memory for New Year at Disneyland. I found the microSD to be expensive as they all came with the SD card adaptor. Sigh... Since I already decided that I would not be going to Akihabara, either I bought it at Diver City or I tried my luck to check Aqua City. I passed by the Unicorn Gundam but the 40th anniversary signage is full LED and hence is only visible when lighted up after dark. In the morning, the panel only appears full white. So I have no picture with the 40th anniversary logo huhuhu T_T

Surprisingly Aqua City only opened at 11am and it was not open yet when I reached. I went to take photos of the decorations at JUMP shop. I just learnt that this shop is not permanent so I really will not have photo with Goku.
Goku statue at JUMP shop
I was not expecting to buy anything but ended up buying a double-sided eye mask. I thought it is Kuroko on one side and Akashi on another side but I am wrong. It is actually Kuroko (from Kuroko no Basket) and Robato (from Robot X Laserbeam) since both are creation of the same mangaka Tadatoshi Fujimaki. I thought Robot X Laser beam was the producer or something and this eye mask was based on Kuroko's last movie. Lol.. If I realised that this is not Akashi but a guy whom I do not know, I would not buy.

In the end I bought the expensive microSD since there was none without the adaptor. After that I wanted to have lunch at the burger restaurant that I passed by when entering the mall but there was a long queue. That led me to exploring the mall more to check out the eateries. I discovered noitaminaA Shop and Cafe. noitaminA is an anime TV channel so the shop and cafe are having things based on the anime shown in the channel. The only one that I know is Banana Fish but there was no merchandise that caught my attention. I also found a nice cluster of 'atas' looking restaurants. I was interested in pasta in one of the cafe but there was noone at the door so I was not sure if the shop was already open for business.

I ended up checking the food court which I never knew Aqua City has. As much as I was interested in Wendy's, I went for Coco Ichibana instead. I needed rice at least once a day since in Disneyland later, I would unlikely be eating rice. Although the food was just for sustenance, this turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I found a souvenir shop which is better than the souvenir shop at Diver City since it has senbeis, noris, and more options. The souvenir shop at Diver City mostly has cheap souvenir mochis, which after I tried once, I swear I won't buy again. I bought senbeis because how bad can senbeis be? They should be okay. They also have seafood crackers which will be good as more personalised souvenirs for my aunt and landlady. At least I will not have to think too much about souvenir shopping at Disneyland later.

That was the end of the day as after that, I decided to go to Disneyland to check in to the hotel. I had to walk all the way back to Diver City as I would take Rinkai Line. I deliberately delayed my reply to my sister as I did not intend to wait or see her. I left the area at around 2pm thinking that I would reach the hotel by 3pm. I was completely mistaken with my estimation due to unforeseen circumstances along the way.

First obstacle was at NewDays at Shin-Kiba. This was the first NewDays that I found the Conan stuff to be on sale. After hesitation, I just grabbed one of each of the things on the Conan shelves and I spent more than 15000 yen there. Crazy... There is NewDays outside Maihama station so that became another unplanned pit spot although sadly there was no Conan goodies. Then I mistook Maihama bus terminal for Disneyland bus terminal so in the end I only managed to get on to the 245pm shuttle bus. I should not be complaining and should consider myself lucky still. I arrived at the 'golden window' since not long after I queued, the queue just tripled. If I were late by another 5 minutes, I would end up taking the next bus.
Now I have 20 sets of this as one set is given for every 800 yen purchase
The weather had been reasonable in the morning but midway while queueing for the bus, it suddenly got very windy. Die.. how to survive overnight this way. I was so tired and fell asleep on the bus. I did not pay attention to the announcement and all that so I alighted at Disney Celebration Hotel Wish. I should have alighted at the next stop since I am staying at Disney Celebration Hotel Discover. Discover is just across Wish but the wind was crazy that even walking that short distance was challenging. The good thing about this mishap is that I learn that the decorations at Wish are based on Disneyland and its attraction while the decorations at Discover are based on Disneysea and its attraction.

The check-in queue was long and only at 4pm that I managed to check in. My sister pissed me off again. Knowing that check-in time is at 3pm, she only reached hotel at close to 4pm. I don't care what the reason, it just shows irresponsibility. If I also arrived at 4pm, what time would we end up checking in? Luckily she arrived before my turn to the check in counter because both passports were required. Otherwise, I don't want to imagine what I will do to this idiot.

As the hotel decorations are mostly based on Disneysea, I find only few things that I am interested to take photos of. I do not know if that is a good or a bad thing. My plan for afternoon nap time before tonight is already shortened. If the hotel is so nice and make me going around to take photos, maybe I will not even be having time to nap at all. Hahaha.. I will have afternoon nap now to prepare myself for the overnight experience at Disneyland and Disneysea tonight. Yay... Anyway I will write about the hotel, vacation package, as well as New Year's Eve and Day experience in a post after tomorrow. It will be scary to imagine how long that post will be.

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