Shindo

It's been another eventful day in Tokyo.

As Lucinda mentioned in our last entry, we had an early start this morning. What she couldn't have imagined was the way we'd be woken up.

Around 8.30am, both our alarms went off within about a minute of each other. We stirred sleepily and hit our respective snooze buttons.

I was just starting to prop myself up in bed when we heard a low, muffled rumble. That in itself wasn't out of the ordinary, as our hotel's very close to the train line.

What happened next though, was like nothing we've ever experienced before - well, except in a simulator, three days ago...

Our 24-storey hotel building shook from side to side for about 15 seconds, as if Godzilla got hold of it and was doing the Agadoo.

I said "is that an earthquake?!".

Lucinda searched Google and sure enough, Tokyo suffered a "moderate" earthquake at 8.33am.

It measured 4 on the seven-point Japanese "shindo" seismic intensity scale, and no immediate damage was reported. Other than to my underpants.

Apparently Japan has minor tremors almost daily, and the buildings are designed in such a way as to minimise any structural impact, but for two small town kids from Scotland it was quite a blog-worthy experience.

Despite that minor natural disaster, it turned out to be a lovely sunny day for our trip to Odaiba. The train ride was worth the visit in itself, looping its way across Tokyo Bay and taking in all the city sights.

The man-made island is a getaway from the city for Tokyo-ites, who flock to the shopping malls, restaurants, venues and exhibits.

I forgot my good camera in a rush to make our 10.30am brunch reservation at Bill's, which was recommended by one of those "50 Best Things to Do"-style videos on YouTube.

We were lured in by tempting footage of mountainous fluffy ricotta hot cake (pancake) stacks dusted with icing sugar, drizzled in syrup and coated in sliced banana.

I made some horrendous wisecrack about them "selling like hot cakes", because I can't help myself.

That's honeycomb butter on top if anyone's counting the calories.

We also sampled a lychee and shochu spritz with prosecco, on the basis that drinking before midday is absolutely fine when you're on honeymoon.

Odaiba has four (I think) shopping malls, so we trudged around those for much of the day without really buying anything.

The first place we saw was an old-style arcade, with tonnes of retro cabinets and fun games to play.

I couldn't resist the arm wrestling game, and managed to set a new high score, although I think I might have been the first person to play it that morning.

Tokyo's shopping centres have a little bit of everything, and they're all different, which obviously can't be said about the ones back home.

For instance, this one had a shop which sold puppies, for thousands of pounds each.

Call me tight-fisted, but for that money, I'd expect them to know not to eat their own doo-doo. Just saying.

Next door to this was a shop where you could kit out your badly behaved pup in a little suit and bow tie, a dress, a sweater, you name it. Couldn't see any bibs though.

Some of the other interesting stuff we saw included a couple of shamisen (Japanese stringed instruments) and a bunch of samurai swords.

Even better was the sight which greeted me in the toilets. Bear with me here.

Apparently in some places in Japan they have something called an "interactive urinal". It's like a video game, only instead of using a controller, you use your wee-wee.

Yes, this is an actual screenshot from my visit. If I'd known I was going to be judged on my output I probably would have had more than one lychee spritz.

After this I might have been forgiven for thinking I was seeing things, but that was definitely the case for our next stop.

The Trick Art Museum is home to an assortment of optical illusions, most of which provide great photo opportunities. You can pretend you're fighting off a ninja, riding a tiger like Dio or failing to catch a penguin.

Next we went to Toyota's Megaweb, which is a car-themed amusement park with hundreds of old and new models. And not just Toyotas either - Messerschmidt, Cadillac, DeLorean, Jaguar, Ferrari, Lotus, rally cars, GTs, you name it.

The technology section of the park included some nifty games to showcase Toyota's support of the Paralympics, along with some segway-type things that you could play with, but only if you understood the Japanese instructions.

I took the virtual reality wheelchair racing for a spin, but picked the wrong difficulty mode, and ended up absolutely knackered trying to keep up with the Paralympic champion's time.

If you're reading this thinking we need a right good slap-up meal to regain all that energy, then you're exactly right.

Aqua City Odaiba have what they call a "Ramen Stadium" on the top floor which showcases six of the best ramen restaurants from all over Japan.

We spent a bit of time mulling over the various bowls, but the two we selected were the rich miso honoo aburi flame-broiled meat loaded ramen from Kanazawa and a fatty pork tonkotsu from Nidaime Hakata Daruma, with gyozas to start.

Dinner demolished and with the sun setting, we went for a romantic stroll along the beach park with a breathtaking view of the Rainbow Bridge (plus the imitation Statue of Liberty).

Tomorrow we're doing a bit of sightseeing in Roppongi, before venturing further afield to the hipster suburb of Shimokitazawa.

George