Odaiba

Odaiba is an artificial island in Tokyo Bay that was expanded in the 1990s as a flagship urban project and now functions as a large leisure, science and shopping district. The original chain of six small islands was built between 1853 and 1857 as gun batteries against Commodore Perry's black ships, which is where the name daiba, Japanese for fort, comes from. The modern district was launched in the late 1980s under governor Shunichi Suzuki as a second Tokyo skyline with apartments, a convention centre and a manmade beach across the bay from the Rainbow Bridge, which opened in 1993. Today the island is home to the Miraikan science museum, the Yurikamome elevated railway, the shopping complexes DiverCity Tokyo Plaza and Aqua City, an 18-metre Unicorn Gundam statue and that artificial beach. Families usually visit on a day trip from Shimbashi.