Early, but not too early, morning on our third day in Tokyo saw us heading a few blocks up the road to the Tsukiji Fish Markets. With the market covering many blocks it is one of the biggest markets of any kind in the world. The bedlam of scooters, trucks, sellers and buyers hurrying around and not forgetting for one moment the wide-eyed tourists scrambling out of their way, really gave the market the atmosphere that it’s famous for.

We missed seeing the auctions but the stalls within the market provided all the entertainment we needed. The market seemed to sell every kind of fresh or live-seafood available. Next to seafood, shops and stalls also sell fruit and vegetables (many unique to Japan), knives, ceramics, etc. but we didn’t see these as we had come to see mainly the fish. To my amazement there was hardly any fish smell at all – attesting to the freshness of the seafood – though I could have done without walking into some fish guts.

After seeing some fishmongers deal with rather large tuna and other fish it was time to move on to our next destination, Odaiba.

Odaiba are some man made islands in Tokyo Bay that were built to protect Tokyo from attaches by sea. It was redeveloped (and continues to be) and has become a very popular entertainment and shopping district. There were are quite a few attractions on the island including parks (including a faux beach), theme parks, shopping centres, museums and interesting architecture. We had limited time so we headed to the National Museum of Emerging Science and Technology (MeSci) and Palette Town (which includes the Toyota showcase city: Megaweb and two shopping centres: Sunwalk and Venus Fort.)

MeSci is a very cool place. Housed in a large gorgeously designed open-style glass building the museum is a highly hands-on experience of the latest developments in science and technology. There are robots, virtual-reality rides, life-size models (including of a space habitation module), and other interactive displays such as touch-screens and labs. One of the cooler concepts was the Ride Cam. We mounted a motion platform where the movement of the platform was controlled by a member of the public through manipulation of a robot. What we saw was what the robot saw and how we moved was how the robot moved. Check out the pics here.

After MeSci it was on to Palette Town. Although there was shopping to be had at Sunwalk and the interesting Venus Fort (with ceilings that look like the sky changing over from the blue of day to the black of night at the right time. Just like the ceilings of certain casinos in Las Vegas – although these remain on the blue of day 24-7!) we spent most of our time at Toyota’s Megaweb: a Toyota showcase. Although there were some of the latest models of Toyota’s range of vehicles on display (and I even got to sit in some) to my disappointment there was only one concept car on display. Unexpected treasures included the Fuji Speedway motion simulator (which allowed us to simulate racing a car along the Fuji Speedway) and Drivers Workout which tested your reaction times.