Hey Hive!
If you missed the last few posts, I started sharing about our anniversary trip to Tokyo back in Feb 2023! It'd been at least 3 years since we visited Tokyo and the last time was pre-covid so we decided to go back and find some new places to explore while revisiting our favourite hot-spots.
Last time, we continued our day after visiting Kamakura by going back to Yokohama and getting some delicious karaage for lunch!
Then we went to visit our favourite store in Yokohama - Snoopy Town Shop!
I've been a big fan of PEANUTS comic series since I was a child and was surprised to find so many fans here in Japan that they have multiple outlets of Snoopy stores and even a Snoopy Museum!
We came to check out the Yokohama store since it's one of the bigger ones outside of Tokyo that isn't too far away, and they were having a special event for one of Snoopy's brothers named Olaf whom Seany really likes! I personally find him derpy-looking but that's exactly why Seany likes him.
We bought some merchandise and left to go take a nap and snack in a cafe before heading to our next destination! O we go!
3 Feb 2023. Friday.
We left the cafe and walked past the gate leading to Yokohama Chinatown, which we've briefly seen previously.
But our real destination was a fairly large park nearby which overlooks the harbour!
I guess because Chinatown is nearby they had some Chinese New Year decorations up.
The sky was a quite cloudy and gloomy-looking so it was a tad cold but the real reason we were here was because a lot of dogs go on walks here!
We saw quite a few doggos going on their evening walks here, and even came across a dog pack meeting!
There were also quite a few doggos in very cute sweaters since it was winter time.
There was even a corgi doing a very majestic sploot on the ground!
I felt like a nature photographer trying to photos of all these dogs but they were all quite a distance away so forgive me for the quality.
The park itself is also very pleasant and super spacious. We came here previously before and we love how peaceful this place is.
It's also quite a surprise how close it is to the city, given how large this park is. It literally borders the city and the harbour. I wouldn't be surprised if people hosted weddings here especially with Hotel New Grand just across the street.
There's also this lovely fountain called Guardian of Water that was presented by the people of San Diego in May 1960.
Anyway, the other main reason we came to this park is because it actually leads to the new Gundam Factory, which houses an 18-metre tall Gundam!
This place has since permanently closed down, so we were lucky to be able to visit it this one time! I think it was only a few months after we visited that this place closed down. What a shame, really.
It looks pretty late but I think it was only around 5 or 6pm when we went by and thankfully we weren't too late to go see the giant Gundam.
We headed to the ticket counter to buy our tickets. Initially we thought there would be a long queue since the place was closing down already but thankfully there wasn't. But we also had to fill in some application form to purchase the tickets for some reason.
There were different kinds of tickets available for purchase and I think you could also go up the tower where the Gundam is housed but it costs extra. We didn't bother buying that one since tbh we're not huge fans of Gundam. Neither Sean nor I have seen much of the anime and my only experience with Gundam was playing a PS1 game way back when.
But we did want to see the giant Gundam and we used to always take photos next to the one in Odaiba.
That old one was just a statue though and is supposedly smaller than this particular giant Gundam that actually moves and gives performances!
After we got our tickets and some merch, it was time to head into the factory!
Along the walkway into the factory there are snapshots of the assembly of the giant Gundam that look really cool.
It must have taken a lot of engineering geniuses to even build this 6-storey Gundam much less make it move!
Once we exited the walkway, there it was! Already it looked so huge and we were quite a distance away!
Here's a closeup shot! You could tell it's the exact same model as the one we took with in Odaiba but obviously this is much more detailed and a lot bigger!
Actually when we came by it was already out of it's docking station or tower, and shortly after we arrived one of the performances started!
We managed to snap a few photos with it before the performance started.
Unfortunately since he was already out of his docking tower, the performance we saw was quite simple since it was just him going back into the docking tower.
Here's a video that I sped up since it's actually quite slow in real life. But it makes sense since there's a lot of moving parts and to make such a huge structure move so seamlessly must take a lot.
It looked like he was going to sleep, and we thought we had missed the good performance and he was going to sleep for the night but it was still fairly early so we had hope the next one would be more interesting.
While we were waiting for the next performance, we looked around at the other stuff they had in the factory. There was a message from the original creator of Mobile Suit Gundam Yoshiyuki Tomino apologising to patrons since he thought people would think it was boring that the giant Gundam doesn't walk.
The whole message just talks about how they initially made a Gundam with just a moving head and wanted to make one that could move and walk, but after much research they couldn't do it due to it's enormous weight.
I like how the message sounds very sincere and apologetic and humble when just making a Gundam 6-stories tall move is already such a feat of engineering!
Of course there is a shop selling Gundam and related merchandise but it looks like a pretty small shop considering how much empty space the whole factory takes up.
We decided to go check out the other stuff in the facility first before going into the shop. The factory has 1 building with 2 floors beside the Gundam dock, like so:
From the second floor we enjoyed a very nice view of the Gundam, albeit a little far away.
There was also a conference room that I wasn't sure what the use was. I guess perhaps this was for when they were still building it and they needed a place to conduct meetings.
But now that it's fully built, it's more for tourists to watch a slideshow and videos about the Gundam. It's all in Japanese though so we didn't stick around.
From the second floor we could also enjoy a very nice view of the pier.
We also went to see the Gundam cafe, which is not entirely new since there was a similar one in Tokyo but I think has also since closed down, unfortunately. It was a longstanding cafe in Akihabara though, but I think the whole chain has shut down.
I'm not sure what the other cafes are like since we've never visited it before given our lack of interest in Gundam. So this is actually the first and only time we've ever set foot in a Gundam Cafe.
They have quite a full menu of mostly Western dishes like burgers and pastries and cafe drinks. But they also have some Japanese dishes like curry rice.
It's pretty pricey though and while we were tempted to get a set meal to share we didn't think it was that worth it when it didn't look like we got anything special. It just looked like any other meal you can get from a fast food place.
So we just took a look around the cafe without buying anything.
The cafe itself also looks quite simple, with mostly white and natural wood furnishings. Other than the name it honestly just looks like any other cafe.
There was an alfresco dining area out on the balcony where you could enjoy the view of the Gundam though, which is pretty cool.
Even from here it looked mighty impressive, and ready to defend Japan from Godzilla or something.
Although I'm not an avid fan of the series, I was just in awe that this toy figure could be made into such a massive structure. The real fanboys of the series must be mad when they get to see this in real life.
That's all for this post for now though! Tune in next time for more of the Gundam factory!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
Check out my previous post in this series!
TacoCat’s Travels #267 (Tokyo): Karaage Cravings and Snoopy Shop Stop! 🐶