| | Sake-Drenched Postcards - Odaiba: Where Bubbles Don't Burst |
 | | Described by Forbes as "a sort of Canary-Wharf-on-hallucinogens," Odaiba is a man-made 1,100-acre peninsula of shopping and office building creations jutting into Tokyo Harbor that set back the local citizens some $31 billion. |
 | | But people don't come to Odaiba for the beach; they come to buy jeans, dine on the delights offered at Sizzler, experience virtual reality, and wait in a long line for the Ferris wheel. |
 | | Though this dash of history amid modernity is obviously to add a bit of intrigue, Odaiba does indeed have a past that goes beyond that first shovel full of sand tossed into Tokyo Harbor over a decade ago. |
| www.bigempire.com /sake/bubble1.html (1375 words) |