Tokyo Streets: Tokyo Bay
As the plane lands towards Haneda Airport, in the early hours of the day, looking down at it from a window the city rises slowly from the bay - the sky pale, still not quite decided between night and morning, the vast metropolis below. Mount Fuji so close, nitidly visible against the pale sky. The tiny ships move slowly in the bay, catching the light. This city has left a mark on me the first time I came here, and coming back after nearly a decade, this image is stuck in my head, the calm energy of Tokyo.
Haneda sits on the bay, and the bay is worth understanding on its own terms. This is all reclaimed land — much of what you see from above, including the islands and infrastructure that frame the city's eastern edge, was built. Odaiba is the clearest example of that.
Odaiba is a man-made island in Tokyo Bay, originally constructed as a defensive fort to protect Edo from naval threat in the 1850s. What stands there now — shopping complexes, open plazas, a beach — bears no resemblance to that origin, which is perhaps the most Tokyo thing about it. The city has a habit of building entirely over its own history without apology.
I'll be honest: Odaiba didn't overwhelm me. It's pleasant rather than compelling — wide, modern, and somewhat placeless in the way that large commercial developments tend to be. But it earns its visit at the right moment, which is sunset. The view back toward the city from here, with the Rainbow Bridge lit up in color and the Tokyo skyline behind it, is genuinely spectacular. Worth timing your visit around that.
Other things worth noting: the Fuji TV building, with its distinctive sphere suspended mid-structure, is one of the more interesting pieces of architecture on the island. Tokyo's own Statue of Liberty stands here too — a replica, but the juxtaposition against the Tokyo skyline makes for a strange and enjoyable photograph. For Gundam fans, the life-size statue outside DiverCity Plaza is the kind of commitment to a cultural reference that only Japan pulls off without irony. There's also a beach, the water not really suitable for swimming, but fine for sitting by. The area has more to it than one visit covers — a science museum, a Ferris wheel, exhibition spaces — but as a half-day with the right light at the end of it, Odaiba delivers. Also teamLAB Tokyo DMM is here, I believe one of the first to open.
On the far side of the bay, about forty minutes by train from Tokyo Station, is Tokyo Disneyland. I haven’t been back since 2016, though I would’ve liked to return, if only because I didn't make it to DisneySea, which seems to requires its own day entirely.
I'll admit I didn't expect much. I'd done Orlando and Euro Disney. But that same, carefree and joyous energy is there at Tokyo Disney. It's immaculate in a way that feels intentional rather than corporate — the kind of place that takes the fantasy seriously.
I found myself genuinely enjoying it, fully, without embarrassment. Everyone taking their costumes quite seriously, dressing up identical to their companions. And the final light show at the castle in the evening — I don't entirely know why, but it made me nostalgic in the best possible way. Possibly a memory of something I’d already seen, or the fact that my month in Tokyo was at its end.
