tgif in odaiba...

last friday was spent differently as i decided to grab the chance to leave my work early for a little trip to odaiba. our company managed to acquire tickets to an IT expo and everybody were invited, so long you're willing to spend for transpo and get clearance from your day's work. asking permission to go from my senpai was easy, he was never difficult with things like this. what made me think twice in going though was the sure two thousand yen i'd have to shell out for transpo... but because that was odaiba [venus fort instantly came to mind], with a camera in my bag i went anyway.

my very first click was of this imposing structure that housed the expo for three days. cool huh? :) first time i've been here was about 4 years ago, same expo as far as i can remember. this starwars-inspired building called tokyo bigsight has a total flr area of 230,873 sqm, of which 80,660 sqm dedicated to indoor exhibition spaces [info i only lifted from their website minus the starwars thingy :P]. it is practically situated amidst odaiba's cluster of malls, exhibition halls and amusement park [yeah, ferris wheel and all]. every gaijin should visit odaiba, architecture like this is almost everywhere :)

as for the expo, i guess it was a success judging from the number of japanese IT companies from here and abroad that joined. the company i belong to had one booth shared with 5 others in a space provided for our country. you know what's the "fun part" here? knowing the volatile people movement within IT community in the philippines, it would be inevitable to meet somebody you know from your previous company/ies. so when me and my partner [i was with an officemate/friend pala] went, we were at least half expecting that we'd meet again people from our previous "endeavor" which turned out to be the same company . thus, when we saw this somebody, a manager i think [i swear i forgot the name] we did exchange brief pleasantries [or at least tried to :D], you know, him saying the usual " musta ka na? ang tagal mo na dito ha? galing mo na siguro magnihonggo?" to which i replied "ndi pa rin... nasa inyo pa ba si *** ". turned out i sounded i expected the person i asked to have left already. sagot sya sounding offended "oo naman". ngiti na lang ako... [sorry di sadya hehe].

hmmm, i forgot to mention earlier that we were looking forward to the freebies each booth had to offer. the moment we reached the hall [it was already 3pm when we got there!] and had brief hello to everybody i felt like greeting [konti lang sila hehe] we went around signing everything we could :P [they will only give you those freebies in exchange for a filled out survey form]. i intentionally did not take pictures inside to maximize the remaining 2 hrs. of the exhibit :). the giveaways varied from the very handy electric fan and stress ball to popcorn and bottled water that made up for our snack of the day. me and my partner were guilty of "hit and run", my boss knew of this anyway so what the heck?! hehe we left the soonest we heard the thank you message over the speakers. there's still more left on our itinerary:)

one train station away from bigsight is the ever glorious venus fort, a venice-themed shopping haven for shopaholics with money. [so evidently that does not include me. :P ] from the outside the mall looks just like any ordinary outlet shop but the interior is artistic with typical european ambiance. although our feet were killing us, it was fun to attempt to be glamorous and at least check out the garments marked "on sale", we later found out that "on sale" in venus fort doesnt necessarily mean we can afford it. just to give you idea the cheapest cap i checked was 4thou yen [RL naman kasi hehe]. we left empty handed [buti na lang kundi nagsisisi na ko] but with full stomach nevertheless... we had a quick bite[yes again, we were walking that's why!] at a wafflehouse which surprisingly has good prices. :)

after that, we visited the toyota showroom just across the mall. and had a blast snapping away pictures :D see this futuristic car? toyoto calls this a personal mobility car "fits you like a glove". o di ba :D unfortunately, it is only out for visitors to see and not "ride". anyway, we had convertibles, 4wd, sedan. those were more than enough for me...hehehe too bad i didnt have my intl driver's license with me [naks mangarap ba??], there's this 1.4 km driving course dubbed as ride-one, where visitors can take a car of their choice out for a spin. galing di ba? :)

i got home by 11pm. it was fun, tiring but fun. i know i covered only a little area of odaiba, there's so much more to see! i promised myself to visit that coooool place again and bring bin and friends along. im sure they'll enjoy the showroom just as much as i did. i heard the sony showroom, sega amusement park [virtual skydiving yey!], national museum for technology are must-see. next time just has to be an all-day tour :D