Odaiba

Odaiba is located on Tokyo Bay, at the closest location to Tokyo Downtown. The name “Odaiba” comes from the landfill sites you can see in the photo. “Odaiba” means “battery”, or “fortress” . When US Commodore Matthew C. Perry came to Japan with large warships run by steam engines 180 years ago, Japanese goverment, Tokugawa Shogunate at that time, fell in panic and started to build fortresses in Tokyo Bay on the way to the capital.

But now the image of Odaiba has flipped . For people in Tokyo now, Odaiba is the icon for recreation zone closest to Tokyo. On this summer we saw many people enjoying their holidays. But this is not a usual scene: in these two years we could not see such scenes due to COVID-19. Though still on the process of recovery, we are sure the normal but happy days are coming back.