Monday, February 21, 2011 at 12:31AM
Today, we bring you Kuchidoke Almond flavour, and mini Green Tea KitKats.
Yes they are.
Green.
Japan, food, fun, travelling Monday, February 21, 2011 at 12:25AM
Today’s fun was planned well in advance. I’d read about the Ghibli Museum before our last trip but tickets are scarce and not exactly easy to buy. This time, I managed to think ahead and applied for them from MyBus in London a couple of months ago. We were lucky and secured admission for our first choice date and hot footed it yesterday, passports in hand (not needed) to exchange our vouchers for tickets.
The tickets are actually bits of filmstrips and some rather more picky visitors were viewing them before accepting, presumably to acquire them from a particular film. As it was, we were simply happy to be there and already enchanted by this magical place.
The museum is situated in a leafy park, near the Tokyo Zoo, and about a kilometre walk from Mitaka Station. Though there was a bus connection, we chose to get our exercise – it was an easy, flat walk along a well signposted pavement.
It doesn’t look much from the outside and the ticket collector looks a bit fierce. Look what’s happened to a few unlucky souls in the porthole!
Totoro was one of the characters already familiar to me, so I knew he was only scary in that cute way that the Japanese animators do so well.
Fortunately, there wasn’t much of a queue so we went right inside, where, sadly, no photos were allowed.
But have a feel of the style from this poster of the “cat bus” and imagine a delightful world of charming characters created from a vivid imagination. I scribbled madly about the wonderful atmosphere – quiet with tinkly piano music and no screaming children because they, too were captivated by the exhibits. There were zoetropes featuring Totoro and the Cat Bus, bats with smily cat-type faces, huge machines with cogs and wheels which were cranking out film shows and little dioramas from the animation scenes. Everything was carefully considered, from the beautiful stained glass windows to the child-size doorways and staircases.
Even the fire extinguishers were cute!
Our tickets entitled us to a screening of a specially produced film in the theatre. “The Egg Princess and the Dough Man” was the theme of one of the exhibits, so we were already curious about the story, which featured this bird-witch (Baba-Yaga) as the baddie. Collecting eggs for her supper, she finds one which doesn’t break and pulls one of the bows from her hair to dress the egg in a small skirt and the little character which appears is the main focus of the story…yes, I know! A little weird. However…
The animation was first-class. The dough man walked like – well, dough! The bird-witch was super-evil, keeping her disguise in the form of a large hat down her ample bosom and flying around in a bucket and steering with a stick.
We loved it, as did everyone else in the theatre, children and adults alike.
We spent a couple of happy hours wandering through the various rooms upstairs which focus on the studio and how the animations are produced. Here were artists desks – there was nobody at work, for these were installations in themselves with fascinating collections of drawings, watercolour paintings and transparencies on the walls. In each room here, too, were small touches of cuteness; little models of characters, little creatures reading books, jars full of crayons and racks of paints. We browsed the storyboards from Spirited Away and Howls Moving Castle and could have spent a whole day there alone.
For once, it was no hardship to exit through the gift shop! A few small treasures and a book with photographs and stories from the museum were great souvenirs, though we left the large, furry cat bus behind.
One last place to see - up in the roof garden, we found the iron man and waited patiently as small groups of friends posed Japanese-style to have their photo taken.
We left with smiles on our faces. What a grand way to spend a morning and how lucky we were to be able to visit this terrific place.
Japan, fun, travelling Saturday, February 19, 2011 at 12:01PM Though I listened to my Japanese podcasts a couple of times during our flight in the hope that some of it would stick in my mind, we don’t get much further than this. Oh, we can manage “Domo arigato gozaimazu” (Thank you very much) as well as “Sumimasen” (Sorry!) but much further than that and we are totally and utterly lost.
Anyway, we are here in Tokyo and the Saturday afternoon shoppers were out in force. Having arrived around midday, we showered and changed before going out to mix and mingle and get ourselves tuned in to a totally different pace from the one we’re used to.
It’s been a little overcast since we arrived and a little on the brisk side of seasonal temperatures. As usual, I dived straight into Tokyu Hands which wasn’t Edward’s idea of a perfect Saturday afternoon – but hey, did he have a better idea?
His reward – and ours – came later, in the form of a yummy meal of Udon noodles with duck meatballs. I settled for a bowl of tempura prawns and vegetables which was delicious.
Each of the tables in this delightful small restaurant had an induction hob in the centre – though none seemed to be in use. That was a shame, because I was rather curious to see how it would be used!
As usual, we smile at the quaint and sometimes totally peculiar English language to be found on packaging. Above, on a small package of postit type notes designed to sit vertically on a keyboard
This rather profound statement on the front of a notebook I bought left us all scratching our heads.
As usual, I had fun opening many small packages this evening – a few packets of small paper stickers for bookmarks etc and some new washi paper tape designs because this has really taken off since we were last here. I immediately put the “elastic belt” into my basket – not for me, but for my holiday journal, which always ends up bulging and in need of some gathering in.
Another funny little statement on the paper stickers – the girls will love these but I’m not sure they’ll get the message!
We spent a short time in Kinokuniya, where I was organised enough to have the ISBN number of this new book by Suzuko Koseki. Having a helpful assistant find it for me was useful, because he also led me to the Quilt books – not always easy to identify. I must write the ISBN of the Boro book too in the hope that it might be a yen or two cheaper here than elsewhere. We’ll see.
Finally, no KitKats tonight ;-( There was one, 70% dark chocolate KitKat in the local shop, but since I don’t care for such dark chocolate, it’s still there. Instead, we bought home (and ate) a box of Pocky, some Galbo Mini strawberry sweets (odd, cross between chocolate and a kind of powdery honeycomb inside (but nothing like crunchie…) We’ll look for KitKats in earnest tomorrow. I wonder what weird flavours we’ll find this year?
or should I say おやすみなさい。!
Rachel, the earphones were comfortable and though I didn’t wear them for the whole flight (I watched the films using the aircraft ones) I didn’t have to take them out once because of discomfort. Not only that, but they didn’t “leak” much, I was told.
Japan, craft, food, travelling Monday, February 14, 2011 at 2:05PM
I don’t like having things in my ears. I’m not altogether sure I like things on my ears and were it not for the fact that a thirteen hour plane journey is coming up, I’d be quite happy to forget altogether about such things.
Much as I love music, I don’t need it 24/7 and can happily enjoy some peace and quiet from time to time. My entertainment on public transport comes from people watching rather than creating my own personal sound bubble and so my ipod and associated paraphernalia usually lurks at the bottom of my bag amongst the stray polo mints and old pencils.
Shortly after I got my ipod, I decided I couldn’t bear the earbuds any more and splashed out on some B&O earphones (or “high tech jewellery” ?) They sit comfortably on my ear and don’t need to be stuffed in to stay in place. However, shortly after I bought them, the rounded rubber tip was lost from one of the curved pieces and try as I might to get it replaced, it wasn’t possible. It doesn’t affect the sound at all, but from time to time I need to push the whole thing together again. A minor irritation but a constant reminder that however much one pays for such things, the smallest component can fail.
Still, I was fairly happy with them until I read of a new alternative.
I saw a review of the new Bose IE2 earphones in one of the papers, so hot footed it into a local hifi shop to see what’s what. With a promise of a full refund if they didn’t suit, I didn’t linger and am pleased to report that I’m happy with my purchase. The earpiece doesn’t fit right inside the ear, but sits just on it, supported by the soft gel-like piece shaped to fit the curve outside. The sound is good, though the young man in the shop offered to adjust my ipod sound settings to maximise the potential of the earphones when I’m next in town.
Will I still feel as happy with them after prolonged use next weekend?
Watch this space.
In the meantime, when it all gets too much, I can snuggle my alternative speaker to my ear instead.
life, music, travelling Friday, February 11, 2011 at 8:26AM
I didn’t quite expect to travel so far today. We’ve got exciting travel plans on the horizon but today was to be spent at home mostly. It was only as I settled down in the late afternoon with a crochet hook in hand that I realised how far I’d been.
I began here. Somewhere in Yorkshire. Aaah.
A couple of hours passed but that lovely crochet scarf/shawl wouldn’t go out of my mind. I returned to my desk and pinned it to my Pinterest board in the category “I could do this – could I do this?” – because as some will know, I am not the most confident of crocheters.
I returned to Yorkshire and followed the link to France. An interesting tour followed en francais before l hopped over a few countries to Japan, to find the book.
Finally, I found myself in the USA, because my linguistic skills do not match my aspirations when it comes to crochet.
The result?
That strategically placed ball of yarn hides all kinds of sins. But hey, who’s going to be examining it closely?
48 more flowers to crochet.
Of course, I had to come home via Bristol, to buy yarn, too.
Gill Thomas
I was taught well.
Look.
;)
