Odaiba is a hard neighborhood to love. Built on reclaimed land in Tokyo Bay just as the Japanese economic bubble burst in the early 90s, it is an impressive development in its scale, but oppressive in its sterility. Arrow-straight roads with neat, trimmed hedges sit silent and unused. Huge, boldly designed, almost-intentionally ugly office blocks are interspersed with weed-covered waste ground. A brightly lit monorail loops the island and a huge, glowing ferris wheel towers over it yet the streets are always empty. Its a weird place. And yet there are some fun things here – the Nagisa outdoor rave parties, the little urban beach (for strolling, not swimming) , Venus Fort ( a huge corrugated iron shack on the outside that houses a faux-medieval Italian village shopping mall on the inside), the impressive Miraikan Museum of emerging Sciences, the new Gundam robot (above) and little did I know ….the city’s most stunning swimming pool.
Daisuke had booked us into the Odaiba Hotel Nikko for our first night, in a room with a beautiful harbourside view from the balcony . But its when we decided on a whim to go for a swim that it really took our breath away. It cost 3,000 yen – but it was well worth it. The pool is located on a rooftop terrace, in a glass walled room.
On one side, a brightly-lit monorail whizzed by , through the billion dollar futurescape of Odaiba’s skyscrapers. On the other side sat the illuiminated spire of Tokyo tower across the Bay, perfectely centred in the middle of the illuminated rainbow bridge. We did laps between them for a while, before heading outside to soak in a warm jacuzzi, feeling the gently summer breeze, and gazing down at this:
The harbour below us, complete with one-third size Statue of Liberty replica and the blinking neon of the Chinese restaurant barges.
It blew my mind. Who knew Tokyo could be like this?
