Furu Anime Panikku

Fuji Television, home to countless Japanese dramas as well as some anime. Since we were in the Odaiba area, we decided to drop by Fuji Television’s Odaiba building to take a look at what the hype among tourists was all about.

On the ground floor, there was this really kiddy looking ticket booth just outside the building. The tickets were for accessing the 2 balls of the building.

Indoors on the ground floor was basically all merchandise and souvenirs. There were lots of overpriced foodstuff, as well as some character goods. Nothing of much interest to us here.

We promptly left the ground level and headed up the escalator which was heading for the 7th level. There was a stop at the 5th level. You can see Windbell and his DSLR in action on the escalator below. As for what he was trying to do (*hint:upskirt photos*), that’s for you to decide.

Going up the escalator

And snap!

The 7th floor was similar to the 5th floor, just that it was packed with even more merchandise. I managed to sneak a few shots so that you can get a rough idea as to how it looked like within the store.

And the guy with the sling bag is Mervyn

This was no Akihabara, so we weren’t going to grab any stuff here. There was no Domo-kun that Windbell was searching for anyway.

Shibasaki Kou in Shaolin Girl

We left for the lift to the upper floors for some photography. All that was around the area was mostly shopping centres, roads, beaches and the sea. Besides photography, there wasn’t much else that was entertaining, so we made our way down, ready to leave.

Rainbow Bridge

Ferris Wheel

On our way down, we made a detour at the fifth floor, since there were some exhibitions that might prove to be interesting. And indeed, we did spot some really interesting stuff. Stuff such as…

Would you buy this expensive fossilized crap?

Jackie Chan lookalike in turban

Behind the scenes of a live studio setting up

DVD boxsets!!! Woohoo!!! Spot any familiar doramas?

Of course, the greatest find had to be something anime related. How’s this?

Yes that’s right! It’s a miniature model of the famous ship from One Piece, Going Merry. Although Merry no longer exists physically in the current storyline, she will always be remembered. This model looked so cool, I could steal it if not for my physical limitations. If only I had the ability to teleport, or even the skills that the Ninjas in Nabari no Ou possess…

After this visit, I realised what the attraction factor was. The place is somewhat like a museum, but instead of all the boring stuff that kids would hate, it’s filled with everything a Japanese kid loves on TV. Coming here for Japanese kids would be somewhat fulfilling their childhood dreams. Or so I see it this way. Aside from the fee required to board the elevator to the top floor, I don’t really have any other complaints about the Fuji TV Building.