A senpai who works in Japan was kind enough to let me stay over for a few days, and as luck would have it he actually lives near odaiba - you could see the yurikamome line from his living room. So one morning I first walked to odaiba by crossing Rainbow Bridge. This sounds all nice and romantic, but you are walking right next to the trafic so there is a lot of noise and fumes, but the view is great:
After walking along the beach and doing some window shopping at the various malls I walked over to Kokusai-tenjijō-seimon station (the station in front of Tokyo Big Sight, and also where you get on the train in the CD) to get on the train. I chose to listen to the first boyfriend, mostly because I was unsure whether I would be able to keep a straight face while listening to the second xD
Before getting on the train I checked to see how I could get the timing of departing right. This wasn't to difficult: the second track begins when the doors of the train close, so it was easy to get the timing right.
Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures while on the train, sorry.
Like I mentioned in the review of the CD: The tracks are divided by station, but the story continues seamlessly. A lot of famous landmarks are mentioned, and for the most part those came into view when mentioned or just a little later. I suppose the timing differs depending on where you sit in the train (I was sitting somewhere near the middle) and it was only a few seconds off.
There were just two moments that were off in my opinion. When Oedo Onsen was mentioned I couldn't see it anywhere. Then again maybe I just missed it because we were just going around a corner, and I couldn't exactly run from one side of the train to the other to see whether I might be able to see it from there (well, I could have, but I didn't want to bother anyone). The other moment is when your boyfriend mentions that the Ferris Wheel looks very different from different angles, but by that time you are on the Rainbow Bridge and you can't see the actual Ferris Wheel at all. You did see it from every possible angle during the ride though.
The next moment more then makes up for it though. During track 6 there is a part where the background sounds fade out and you hear a bgm instead. This is actually while you are in the 'loop' part of Rainbow Bridge, and it really makes a great atmosphere~ I must have been grinning like an idiot at that point, but I couldn't really care.
The sound effects on the train (such as the sound before the opening and closing of the doors) are different from the actual yurikamome line. I suppose this is logical, I doubt they would be allowed to use the official ones, and re-creating them would probably be a hell of a job. Also, this CD was released in 2009 so it is entirely possible that the sounds have changed.
There is one thing that truly amazed me while listening: the timing. Most of the time it was accurate on the second, especially the timing of the closing of the doors and departure. In the beginning it was entirely in sync with the actual train, at some point it started to have a slight delay, but only by a second or so and considering the fact that a one way trip is about 25min, that is quite an achievement. (It is also sort of amazing that the timing is still the same after 4 years).
Conclusion:
For most of the CD the content of the CD and what you are actually seeing match, and the timing of the CD was way more accurate than I expected. It was a lot of fun to listen to this while actually riding the train. I managed to keep a straight face during most of the ride, but failed near the end. Not that I really cared, I was enjoying it way too much.
So if you feel like doing this: I can recommend it.
Odaiba is a nice for sightseeing anyways (the beach is nice too!) and the Yurikamome line is one of the easiest ways to get there (and leave) so you don't really need to go out of your way for it either.
I had a lot of fun doing this, and if I get the chance I definitely want to try and do something like this again.
Bonus remark: The cover of the CD is a simplistic rendition of the area around the Tokyo Big Sight station. The real thing is prettier, but this gets the image across (^-^)
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