STUDIO FREAKING GHIBLI MUSEUM, YEA!

To start, go back to post 1 (one), numero Uno, Ichi Ban...
Sorry, I get a little excited about Studi Ghibli but if you have gone back to the first post (before I left England) then you would know this. And this post is about the day we went to Ghibli. Which was great.

If you have STILL not watched any Ghibli films, like i suggested, then go and watch some coz they are really good.

Or I am just a bit of a child.

Or both.

Whatever.

To get to Studio Ghibli is quite simple, you just catch the train (again) to Mitaka, which is about 30 minutes from the centre of Tokyo, then you walk through Mitaka (follow the signs, they are everywhere and don't take the bus, its a beautiful walk) then get to the gates and BAM! YOU are not allowed in, coz you didn`t read the info on the website to find out that you have to book in advance. While you stand at the gates disappointed, I waltz past with my reservation ticket that I booked a few MONTHS in advance because I DID read the info and found that there are only a few tickets given to foreigners. I was really looking forward to this museum.

So we get to Mitaka with out any trouble, trains are running on time, and get the gates and then start getting more childish than we already were and start taking lots of pictures, untill we get the entrance where we are told "Please, No pictures inside the museum". GUTTED! Ah well.

We go in and there are kids everywhere so we have to fight the little ankle bitters to get to the exhibits but there are loads so thats Ok too.

Man I wish i could show you some pictures.

There were these little models of the characters in various stages of a repeated movement that spun around and then stobe lighting would make it look like they were animated.
And then these film reels that were in a huge loop so that you could see the film twisting around in this giant spagetti muddle and in three or four places the film was projected out at differant places around the room. And blown up pictures, and layered pictures used for filming that you could move yourself to get an idea of how the animation process works.

and this was in the first room!

After a while of crawling through child sized doorways and up spiral staircases and flicking through animators scrap books and the like we found our way to the small cinema room they have for the specially made short animation film only shown in this museum (I feel so special!).
It`s called "Mai and the Baby Cat Bus" and it is a further adventure about some of the characters from the film "My Neighbour Totoro".
It`s really cute and we were laughing along with the rest of the audience (It is all in Japanese but it`s very easy to follow and you dont need to know any Japanese to enjoy it).

After that a couple of photo opportunities (outside the museum) which I have put up here...


Eventually we leave Studio Ghibli and have a Bento Lunch in the park which is right next to the museum and as beautiful as the rest of Mitaka.


GO TO STUDIO GHIBLI!

Shibuya scramble crossing

New day, Same subway, and it`s still mad but it`s slowly beginning to make sense.
you start to get used to the throngs of people and just go with the flow. Subway maps are a blessing!

Today we go to see Ami, a Japanese friend we met through Tom Gibbs (cheers man!) who lives in Tokyo and is currently a university student with two jobs. The Japanese work HARD (gambata Ne!)

We meet her at the Hachiko Dog statue at one of the exits from Shibuya station. It comes out directly onto the famous scamble crossing and the statue is a popular meeting point for people going out with friends in Shibuya.


The story goes that there was a man who lived in Shibuya who owned an Akita dog named Hachiko.
Every day, when the owner went to work, Hachiko would see him off at the station and every day, when the dogs master came home on the train, Hachiko would sit waiting for when he returned at the same exit.
Until 1925 when Hachikos master died of a heart attack at the university where he worked.
Hachiko was given to a new family but everyday the dog would escape to be found waiting at the train station for his master, and he continued to do so until his own death 10 years later.
In his honour a statue was erected by the locals which is now known as chūken Hachikō "faithful dog Hachiko".


Ami quickly takes us to a Starbucks overlooking the Shibuya scramble crossing so we can take some pics and enjoy a coffee as we watch the cars and people taking it in turns to pass by.
Watching it now looks like masses of people but we go back to Shibuya later in the week and there about three times more people that time than the first!
Its nice to take a break and people watch but there is too much to see to just sit about in Starbucks so we move out into the street.

One of the first places we head into is a games arcade. If you think you know a games arcade then you are mistaken! these places are amazing! They have all the games you are used to and so much more! We have a quick go on a Mario kart game (I win, WOOP!) and play about in a photo booth that you can play with the pictures after.
But then it starts to get weirder and better.
In England we have Football cards and pokemon cards, they're nothing to write home about, but with the Japanese cards you go into an arcade and they have tables that read where you place your cards and then your formation comes up on a big screen and then you play a video game with them! And then there are these booths that sit in and its like a cockpit in some futuristic space ship thing and theres a massive wrap around screen in front of you but you cant play unless you have the card! They look SO COOL but i couldn't play! NOOOOO!

here's a pic inside...


and outside...


Lauren wasn't so thrilled about the big games :P

These pics were taken a couple of days after we met with Ami, but you get the picture.

After the awesomeness of gaming we head to some HUGE shops that have everything and buy a couple of little prezzies and souvenirs and then to Moss Burger.

Moss Burger is just a Japanese fast food burger chain but Tom Gibbs raves about it so we thought we'd give it a go. It's not that good Gibbs...

We meet with some of Amis friends and head to Takeshima Street. Apparently quite a famous shopping street and it certainly was full of people! and lots of stuff. It is far too easy to find things to spend money on in Tokyo.
Then on to more shops, we pass by Condomania (you can probably figure that one out) and spend a while in Kiddieworld. toys, Toys, TOYS. lots of em. Finally we have to head, because Ami has to go to work. We follow her coz I think it will be funny to see her working (Japanese restaurant and shop assistants have to act very politely, lots of bowing and thanking you and stuff.) but shes really busy so I dont get to take the mick.

Japanese school girls at Imperial gardens.

Firstly, sorry this has taken me so long to write but the internet is strangly expensive in this country. Anyways.

Second day.

We woke up at around seven, good and early after all the sleep the night before (about 12 hours or more) and we couldnt get back to sleep so i decided to have a shower and try out the outdoor shared bath. The shower rooms are split male and female but then they are all in a shared room with about 5 low set showers with little plastic stools. After showering you can use the baths (they are for relaxing and soaking in, not for washing!)
After a couple of minutes of me soaking in the tub another guy comes in. At first it is a little strange bathing with another guy but after you get over yourself and just accept it it is really nice just to relax in this huge tub. (these aren`t your average size bathroom baths you get at home, they`re like big deep paddling pools that you can stretch out in and the water comes up to your neck when you sit down so we`re not scrubing each others backs or anything).

After a good soak and another try at the laberinthine Tokyo tube system we turn up at the Imperial Palace Gardens.
This place is great for a relaxing first day. Plus they`re free to get in! Which when you see them is amazing. They`re impecibly maintaned by an army of blue uniformed cleaners, which we got the pleasure of seeing at work while we were there. Below is a picture of them, I know its a little small but all those little blue people is a worker (most of them are up the hill to the right).


As soon as we get past the entrance into the gardens we have our first encounter with a gaggle of Japanese school girls. Seeing Lauren they immediatly start excitedly pointing and saying "Kawaii!" (Cute!) and then to Lauren "You are very pretty!" as an after thought I apparently am a "nice guy" and "Kokoi", which i asked my Japanese friend Ami about and it means "Cool" so not so bad.
Lauren says she wants to take some home.

We walk around the garden for a while taking plenty of pictures and getting a lot of greetings in broken English. Lauren finds an old man and a small child that she also thinks are cute and wants to bring home. At this rate we are going to come back to England with an entire Japanese family!


We leave the Imperial Gardens and stumble on a science museum which looks fun so we go in and pay the couple hundred Yen for entry. As soon as we get inside another gaggle of Japanese school girls starts pointing and "Kawaii"ing at Lauren. Every time this happens she goes bright red and mumbles "Arigato" which just makes the girls Kawaii even more.

So far Lauren is averaging a couple of Kawaii`s a day on this trip and not just from school girls! Loads of old women on the street stop to Kawaii and a few at shop counters. You`d think I`d get some kudos for traveling with a girl who deserves so much Kawaii but they just tend to ignore me! Ah well. anyway.


The Science museum is good for a couple of hours of childish entertainment and there are lots of toys to play with. At one point there are some cool Mecha type full size robot models and one "greeting Bot" which looks really creepily human!

planes, trains and jetlag in chidori-cho

hello all! this is the first post I'm writing to you from lovely sunny Japan and its about flights and stuff so sorry about that but I'll try to get it out of the way in a summarized not-too-boring kind of way. So here we go:





England - 5 AM


We wake up and i have a shower, its only been a few hours since i packed and we went to the pub where i had a couple more than i had intended (Not to say I've got a handover, I'm just not as fresh as I'd like, then again who is at 5 in the morning?). Have a cup of coffee then shift on out at...





6AM


Jump in the car. My mum [bless her for getting up and driving us to heathrow] drops us off at the terminal. No fuss, all good.





7.30AM


We're at the airport and go through without any fuss. make some phone calls, send some texts untill we have to turn off our phones "and all electronic devices" when we get on the plane for take off at...





10.30AM


We take off. The plane is small and there is no entertainment whatsoever. I dread to see the next plane we have to catch in helsinki airport for the long leg of the flight. The trip to Helsinki is only 2 hours. The one to Tokyo is about 10 [still, better than the 13 we thought it was going to be.





[have now lost track of the time]


We land in Helsinki then get on the next plane soon after.


All our fears were unfounded. Everyone, FLY FINNAIR! THEY ARE YOUR FREINDS! Films, TV shows, Games and lots of leg room. The only downside is that i now have stomach cramps from the beer the night before and the plane food a few hours ago and so have to serrupticiously drop gas every now and then for reasons of comfort and my own sanity. luckily we are sat next to the toilets,which did not smell at all but hopefully everyone else assumed they did.


There, i admited it, it was me, I'm sorry. But Ha.





8.30 [Tokyo time] [About 12.30PM British]


We land, thank god! No sleep since we woke up on the 14th it's a confusing time in the morning, we're shattered and Lauren is NOT HAPPY! Oh, no.

We`ve had no sleep on the journey so far, which sucks. I cant sleep on planes and I dont think Lauren even tried, and we still have about an hour and a half on the Tokyos trains before we get to our hotel [Ryokan really but I`ll get to that].

The first train is fine except it is the first really comfortable seat either of us have sat in in hours so both of us are now struggling to not fall asleep after so long of struggling for it.

Between long blinks we can see tree covered hills and small groups of houses and paddy fields glide past until the scenery changes gradually to an urban landscape.



We arive in Kamata train station over an hour later and stumble through the crowds trying to find the right place to buy a ticket for our next train.

Westand for about 10 minutes staring at a board trying to match the Kanji symbols on our maps to those on the wall before an American stops and tells us that we are at the wrong ticket point! Durr.

Japanese train stations can be VAST, I mean HUGE. In the main stations you can walk down what start to look like entire underground streets to get from one platform to another, and they have shops and cafes to match. So the ticket stations are split up so that if you want to buy a ticket for the Chou line you have to walk to the gate first. This is the first time I`ve been in a Japanese train station and it is nearly 24hours of travel since sleep! :P



Ryokan Kangetsu:

To get here go to Chidori-Cho station.

The first train here is a bit of a blur for me and we quickly found our way to the hotel with a map I had printed in England (I did SOME research, yay for me).

The hotel, if a bit out of town, is really veryu pretty. it has a small, well kept garden with some old looking trees, small stepping stones leading to our room over a little pond thing, small bridges and seating areas and an outside bath (seperate baths for men and women).

As soon as we get into the room Lauren falls asleep but I head for the shower and it soon wakes me up so i decide to have a little walk around the town to see what its like.
It turns out quite quaint, the train station is small and has a level crossing, the streets are on hills but there is no view because all of the buildings are close together and some quite tall.

Later on, when Lauren finally wakes up, we decide that its time for food so we go for a drink in a local bar called `The Dauphin Bar` (thats Dolphin to you and me), which turns out to be a tiny room with a bar with stools and three tables, but no food.
I find this out when I get my limited Japanese muddled, wanting to ask "do you have food?" instead I simply blurt "I want Food!" to which a bemused bar man passes me a bowl of Pistachio nuts and backs away.
While sitting and drinking Lauren decides that she wants to own a bar just like this.

After a drink and still hungry we decide to get something from the convenience store (combini). It is like any other 27/7 anywhere except the food we take to the counter is heated for us.
The man at the counter is extreamly polite, chattering in Japanese shop talk and bowing everytime he scans an item, packs anything into our bags and as we leave the store.

We head back to the hotel, eat and promptly fall asleep.

And so ends our first day in Japan. A lot of planes, a lot of trains, a LOT of people and some garbled language.

sorry i took at lot of time to tell you about not much at all :p

Japanese:

Introductions:

I am (Matt) - Watashi wa (Matt) desu

This is (Lauren) - Ko chira wa (Lauren) desu

What is your name? - O-namae wa?

Getting ready to leave.

Heya All!

So, we're leaving the shores of Ol' Blighty in less than a week from now so I thought I'd get a blog ready before we get gone.

And so begins the journey to the land of the rising sun, like so many great adventures, in a very average and mundane way; I'm trying to decide what to pack. Well, I'm actually avoiding packing (because i cant really be bothered yet) and writing this blog to you instead!

So, rather than bore you with an itemized list of my luggage I will instead tell you a couple of the things that we plan to pack into the short trip we have planned in Japan. (One month by the way)

Studio Ghibli Museum! ohmygodohmygodohmygod!

Mitaka

www.ghibli-museum.jp/en/

Anyone who knows me well knows that I love Anime and I LOVE Studio Ghibli films. If you are one of those who has never watched a Studio Ghibli film then SHAME ON YOU!

Go away and watch 'My Neighbor Totoro'(One of Laurens favorite films), 'Howls Moving Castle', 'Spirited Away' and 'Tales From Earth Sea' then I will welcome you back.

This Museum is dedicated to everything Ghibli so i know that we'll love it.

Tsukiji Fish Market

Tokyo

An amazing looking fish market through which most of the best fish are sold and sent to all corners of Japan, the most famous being Giant Tuna.

For a while foreign tourists were banned from attending this market because of "hygiene risks" after many were caught 'riding' the giant tuna for photo ops! Cool.

Hakone National Park

A beautiful looking national park, this is supposed to be one of the best places to see Mount Fuji (or Fuji-San). So worth a look!

Fuji-Q Highland Themepark

Yamanashi Prefecture

This place has the longest walkthrough Horror House in the world! Plus all the other rides you would expect from a theme park but with the added danger thrill that we can't understand the safety instructions! WooHoo!

Nikko National Park

Nikko

For a little Zen time after Tokyo this place has some beautiful Shrines, woodland and Onsen baths. Time to get Nekid!

SUMO! YEA!

Wherever

Who DOESN'T want to see two fat guys in nothin but their pants giving each other wedgies and throwing each other around?! Seriously!

Sony Building

Tokyo

The Sony Building is Huge. With shops, see and play Showrooms, Restaurants, pretty much everything to keep you entertained for a good few hours, or so I'm told.

Kamikochi National Park

Nagano

They have Monkeys! Snow Monkeys! They chill out in the hot spring baths all day! and they're Monkeys! I think you get the picture. Just in case you don't; heres a picture!

So there you go.

Just as an added bonus I thought I'd end each post by teaching you a useful little japanese phrase or two. So here's todays lesson class:

Greetings!

Hello - Kon-nichi-wa

Good Morning - O-haio-gozaimasu

Good Evening - Kon-ban-wa

Much Love and Sayonara,

Matt (and Lauren) X