Odaiba is a teenager’s dream destination. We ride into the area on a futuristic area aerial train. It is raining steadily, making the harbor dark and gray. It is also cold and windy. Hopefully we can find plenty of indoor activities to keep us busy.

Leaving the rail station, we cross the elevated walkways along the harbor park. How surprising to see the Statue of Liberty! What is she doing here? Sure, she is a miniature version, but the backdrop of skyscrapers and the gray water make the scene eerily familiar. If it weren’t for the cherry blossoms, I might think I had teleported to New York City. Nearby music is playing. There is a choreographed water fountain display with lights and water cannon. What is this place?

The rain picks up and we decide to find the Odaiba Retro museum, a recreation of nostalgic Japan. It seems like a good way to spend time out of the rain. But, it proves ridiculously hard to do. We follow the gps through a large mall. Then we go out into the rain and into another mall. “You have arrived!”, Google proclaims.

No Google. We are standing in the men’s underwear section of a Japanese department store. Perhaps this is someone’s idea of a joke? We go down one floor and then up one floor. No museum. We head out into the rain into yet another mall. Still no museum. We pass a children’s play place and home-goods stores.

We also find an indoor amusement park with way too many unsupervised pre-teens. That is enough to let this former middle school teacher know to keep walking. Some things transcend culture.

Defeated, we stop at the Tokyo Trick Art Museum, where we spend a few hours taking selfies with 3d art. I guess we really are teenagers in old bodies. After laughing and posing, we decide to head back to mall number one for a Hawaiian burger. A taro roll sounds great.

After walking about two minutes we find ourselves somehow inside the retro museum. How on earth did this happen? I have to be inside some kind of fun house. Statue of Liberty appears while looking for mall. Underwear stalls when looking for museum. Museum only appears when looking for burger. This is such a weird day.

As we walk we look at vintage candy stalls. Teenagers are playing retro carnival games. We peek into a 1950’s schoolroom. It is a cute diversion, but also very, very busy. Too many people for us to linger.

The trail back through multi-story malls is like winding your way through a maze. Every few minutes some distraction catches my eye. I need to buy miniature sushi from a capsule store. I have to see where the long hallway decorated like an Italian alley goes. And I absolutely have to visit the shop with antiques under glass and the clothing store designed around Santa Claus. What is this place?

My Hawaiin burger is delicious and came with a view of the Statue of Liberty while listening to Hawaiian radio. We spend the remainder of the afternoon in a variety of shopping complexes. We watch people and browse anime. We try on clothing and buy donuts. There are numerous shops that sell funko pop, monchichi, and labubu. (I think that is the correct terms…. I am the last person you should ask about Japanese pop culture.) There are stores filled with life size movie superheroes.

Walking past cotton candy cloud creations and ignoring the crowded shops, I am on an be final mission. My husband keeps asking where I am going. I tell him to be patient. Finally, we exit the Diver City mall out a small back door. There in all its glory is the unicorn gundam. He is taller than the three story mall. From our position on a second story portico, he looks even taller.

What a day! I truly feel like we are in a science fiction movie. Here is the plot: Girl teleported on high speed arial tram to find Statue of Liberty. She walks down a long hallway to find modern day Japan only to walk through a looking glass into a world of unreal creatures and 3d illusions. After completing the maze of amusement parks and photo challenges, she emerges into Japan circa 1950. After a long journey through a dark tunnel complete with Italian music and restaurants, she arrives in Hawaii for lunch after a brief visit with Santa Claus. After lunch she journeys into a high end shopping mall where she fights her way through enormous crowds to buy a giant bucket of doughnut holes. Leaving the mall, she finds the mall exit blocked by a giant four story transformer (gundam). Exhausted, she heads back into the rain to find a way back home, leaving behind a world of illusions and endless amusement.

Sounds strange. But a true account of our day in Odaiba. I wouldn’t lie to you. Santa (and gundam) is watching.