I have been in Japan for 36 days now, and I am finally begining to feel like my surrounding are normal. This weekend I went all the way to odaiba, which is this man-made island on the tokyo bay. Everything about odaiba is absolutely ridiculous. All the buildings are very modern architecture, and I’m pretty sure the point of modern Japanese architecture is to look as gaudy as possible. The Fuji Television HQ is definitely the worst offender. However there are plenty of other bizarre buildings that give it a run for it’s money.

In Odaiba i went to a pet store, and let me tell you, it was adorable! There was probably about 50 dogs, and all of them were the tiniest of puppies. However it was kindof sad to see a baby monkey, and a meerkat there. Which I probably wouldn’t have cared as much about if I hadn’t seen Animal Planet’s Meerkat Manor. Which was a totally ridiculous show, basically the Real World but with meerkats. Also, I don’t know if this will catch on in America, but everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, dresses their dogs up here. The pet store had an area for clothes, and next door there was a dog costume/clothes store. You could even buy goggles for you dog! Also there is a store in my town that I walk by everyday where all they do is make custom tailored dog clothes. You can get it a soccer jersey for your team. At first I thought it was just a regular pet store, but I looked inside and they were like measuring a dog and they had tons of fabric you could choose from.

Secondly I went to the miraikan (literally looking ahead museum) and met asimo <\a>! I only mention that because before leaving for Japan I said that if I didn’t see one of these I would consider my trip to Japan a failure. I didn’t even know the little robot would be there, but it surprised me! It can do some pretty crazy stuff like run, walk up stairs, balance on one foot, carry stuff, hold your hand and walk with you, but one battery charge lasts about 40 minutes, and I think i missed part of it so I didn’t see it for very long.