I stumbled upon this store while exploring Odaiba, a leisure and business complex that was built across Tokyo Bay from my apartment. It is a man-made island built on more than 1,000 acres of landfill. That's a lot of garbage.
Anyway, I had just visited Little Hong Kong on the 6th. and 7th. floors of the Island Mall. Little Hong Kong, is a restaurant area built to look like the old red-light district in Hong Kong. It has great Cantonese and Dim Sum. For those of you that are unfamiliar with Dim Sum, a cart is usually brought around so that you may choose small tastes of all kinds of food. In this restaurant, patrons sit at a counter and the ledge above the counter rotates. You just grab what looks good as it moves past you - but beware - you can run up a big bill because everything looks good. The price of the dish is determined by the color of the plate that the food is on. Unfortunately, I liked the "blue plate" specials and they were the most expensive.
After my revolving lunch, I did some more brousing in the Island Mall. Ladies you are going to love this. There were two whole floors dedicated to "beautification" techniques from all over the world...Japanese, Chinese, Thai, French, Swiss, Israeli, Hawaiian, Romanian and more... When I have time, I'm going back for the "gold" treatment. It's sort of like what they did to James Bond's girlfriend in "Goldfinger." They cover you with GOLD. Apparently you won't die of "skin suffocation" like Bond's girlfriend did. The gold somehow irritates the skin, no kidding, and causes you to produce skin cells at a much higher rate. I'm sure no one will recognize me when I return...
Opps, almost forgot. For the kids out there, there were two floors of indoor entertainment. There were several catgegories: The Muscle Park (to test your muscles, DUH), The Brain Park (to test your brain, DUH), and the Twin Park (which allowed you and your friends to compete, Double DUH). I watched the action for a while. It was a bit like going to an orchestrated birthday party...the Japanese version of Chucky Cheese.
After this, I think I entered a Stephen King novel. I stumbled into the bug store. This was a place filled with beetles only found in your worst nightmares. It was so awful that it was fascinating - so I spent a long time in the store - watching the owner "prepare" the growing medium for the baby bugs. The main bug featured in the store was the Hercules Beetle (Dynastes Hercules for the entomologists out there). They are really strong bugs in case you didn't get the clue from their name. They are also the longest living beetle in the world (6 to 12 months) which really isn't very long in pet years but is great for the store owner. Once you are hooked on these little pets, you have to get a new one every few months. There was even a Japanese BBC documentary about these beetles featuring information by Japan's leading Hercules Beetle expert, Kojima. To see the Hercules beetle in action, click on the attached link ....
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/zoo-logic--hercules-beetle/1954334111
Back to Kojima, the beetle expert... I hate to break the bad news, but, like your mother said, "Just because someone is smart, it doesn't mean they're smart," or something like that.... There is a fascinating Associated Press article (Aug 20, 2007) about the capture of Kojima by the US Fish & Wildlife Agency. Apparently, Kojima was a notorious smuggler of rare bugs and butterflies from all over the world. They tracked him for years but were never able to nab him till now. For a thrilling story that will make you want to be a Fish and Wildlife Agent instead of joining the French Foreign Legion, go to the link below.
http://www.hawkowlsnest.com/2007/09/notorious-butterfly-smuggler-netted.html
As if my day could not have gotten better, after leaving the nightmare bug shop, I ended up at a haunted house. It was based upon the Japanese horror movie "The Ring." I decided to save that experience for when my daughters visit Tokyo. I need someone to lead me through while I keep my eyes closed.
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