Japan 2011-Odaiba

After coming back from Kawagoe, I took a break in the room before heading back out for one last time. I went to Odaiba in Tokyo bay. They had opened a Takoyaki museum at the Decks shopping and entertainment complex. I had previously been to the one in Osaka near Universal Studios Japan. As in Osaka, this is less a museum and more of a food-related attraction. There are souvenirs and a brief history lesson. The main draw is the various vendors who sell different varieties of takoyaki. Takoyaki is a dumpling made with pieces of octopus. The outside is grilled and sometimes crunchy. The inside is molten. The toppings vary. At one location, you can get this sampler pack. The top left is salt and seaweed. Thebottom left is more standard with brown sauce, bonito shavings, and seaweed. The bottom right has green onions and is meant to be dipped in cold dashi in the top right. I found the dashi to be a great help as it cooled down the octobus balls to sa mouth-safe temperature.
As i exited the museum, I saw a vending machine that sold some curios things. In earlier trips, I found oden and corn soup being sold at a vending machine. On this trip, miso soup, tomato basil soup, potato and cheese soup, and curry risotto. At this machine, it just adds to their repetoire. New things were the pasta shown below. There was also curry rice and the prviously found oden. There were other cans that showed chicken and vegetables, possibly a stew. Some items were served hot and others cold

These next few cans are served cold but I dont know what they are. The can on the left looks like a apple covered in chocolate but Im not sure.

Along the boardwalk deck of Decks, Tokyo Bay opens up to the skyline of the city. The prominent structures of the view are Rainbow Bridge and Tokyo Tower. The skyline's buidlings are lit up with the offices of all thw workers who are working late tonight.

The Fuji TV studio is not as bright as many employees have already gone home. They have free tours of the studio during the day and that has already closed for the night as well. Not much left to do but go back.

The next morning was the last morning before flying back home. There was still a few hours left before heading out to the airport. The forecast was for snow and true enough, it was coming down lightly when I awoke and lasted troughout the day and well after I left Japanese air space. I had one last bowl of ramen with the the friends who were sticking around a week longer and with the other friend from So Cal. The ramen shops across the street were a great convenience. I had packed away my camera so no pics. Tetsu was already busy with a line out the door. Setagaya became busy shortly after we found our seats. I had the usual ramen with the thick broth and dumped a load of chopped onions into it. A nd R had the regular style ramen with vegetables and pork. They loved the fishy type broth much more than I did when I first visited the shop. J had the tsuskemen but preferred the fishy broth as well. After this, a nd J are planning to come back to try out. The snow continued as we walked back to the hotel to collect our things.