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Report 1 – From East to North 20 September 2004
Having abandoned all of my senses, I found myself setting off on a journey of several thousand miles, 12 hours and 8 time zones, eventually finding myself in cultural (and to a lesser extent lingual) Terra Incognita.
With most of my 12 hour flight spent practicing my German (don’t ask!), it was with no small amount of trepidation that I approached the customs official at Tokyo Airport:
“Hello” he said (typical, in English)
“Ohayo Gozaimasu” I reply and, relief floods through me, I autopilot my way through why I’ve come to Japan and what I intend to do here followed by thanking him for saying that my Japanese was very good.
So there I was, and all had gone well (so far).
Tokyo then, about an hour’s journey away by train (Tokyo-Narita, kind of like London-Oxford). But it was a fascinating journey in a pleasantly air conditioned carriage (take note South West Trains!), with remarkable views as the countryside, rife with bamboo thickets and rice fields (I kid you not), gradually gave way to first two and three storey housing, then larger blocks, and before long the sky was visible only as a thin blue strip that danced in and out of view from between sky rises (and we hadn’t got anywhere near the “really” tall buildings yet).
A day and half, and what wonders I have seen.
Exploring a new city is not a task to be undertaken lightly. And while excitement prompted me to haste, there is still so much more for me to see. I’m glad I’m going back in a month. For those of you blessed with an imagination picture if you will: buildings, giant shopping malls towering overhead, dressed head to toe in bill boards, signs, television screens and posters. A visual feast of colour and text all wonderfully illegible yet screaming their messages out to all nonetheless. Picture alleys filled with vendors, a man selling paper lamps out-shouting a woman pedaling the latest mobile phones. Suits and ties for the business man who didn’t have time to dress before rushing out that morning and steamy restaurants, their clientele obscured from the torso up by the drapes separating outside from in. And that was just Shinjuku!
It was all over too fast as I was…
On to Sapporo, and a city so different yet so much the same. Huge shopping malls and department stores have sprouted here too, but unlike Tokyo there is no feeling of oppression from their height. Shinjuku Station is the busiest in the world and it’s outside reflects this, but I defy it to match Sapporo Station for it’s style. Five shopping malls and a 38 floor hotel sit atop, about and underneath it, yet it presents itself as one seamless whole, resplendent in it’s modern design and silver and glass trim.
Well here I am, two cities and four days down, the surface barely scratched with so much more to do (and the hard part definitely still to come).
Report 2 - The Last Homely House (North of the Mountains and South of the Sea) 29 September 2004
Let me pose you a question.
Would you be willing to let a complete stranger enter your house?
Not just that but would you also be willing to make said stranger feel like a member of your family?
Would you bend over backwards to make them feel at home? To keep them fed and happy?
I am constantly surprised and embarrassed by the kindness and hospitality of Ando-san, my host family's mother. Let me take a moment to explain, I am staying with a Japanese family who have agreed to let a foreign student, about whom they know very little, with only the assurances of a few teachers 12,000 miles away, into their home. Not only that but I have been treated as a family member from the moment I set foot in the house (naturally I had to remove my shoes first, but you get the picture).
I am staying not three minutes walk from Hokkaido Kyoiku Daigaku (University of Education), where I have classes for four hours each day (I'm certain that even another year of preparation won't be enough for the work placement). The University and Ando-san's house are in a town called "Ainosato" which is a little to the North of Sapporo, about 30 minutes by train. Built on a plain, with few buildings over two storeys, all views are dominated by the sky, which, on clear days, is a brilliant pale blue at the horizon deepening to a near navy straight up. Speaking of the horizon, it is formed of "Mountains" (the inverted commas are necessary, what we English would term a mere hill, the Japanese, quite correctly in my opinion having walked over three of them, call them "Yama" or mountains) in almost all directions. Some close to, with their forested slopes in easy view, a dark green quilt spread over a huge ripple in the land; others further away, a hazy indistinct outline in the distance, the green fading into a dark blue.
But once again I find myself drawn back to describing Sapporo. From Mt. Moiwa's peak, the determined hiker (or the lazy tourist who used the cable-car) has the magnificent view of the city of Sapporo, stretching out across its river valley as reward. A patchwork collage of browns, reds, greys and white, with skyscrapers clustered in the centre around the truly enormous JR Tower of Sapporo station. Further out, houses stretch in neat rows, following rivers and mountain contours, nestling in amongst untouched and developed land. And in the East, the polished metal Alien Mothership glinting in the sunlight, the ultra modern "Sapporo Dome" stadium, dwarfing everything around it with its size and resolutely daring to stand out in a nation that prides itself on it's conformity.
Well, week two is almost over, and next stop is my work placement. Two weeks with JTB; Japan Travel Bureau, followed by two weeks with NTT; Nippon Telegraph and Telephone corporation.
Sore Ja.
Report 3 - I'm gonna kill that cat (I’m having too much Fun!) 7 October 2004
Where to begin?
These last seven days have been…
Busy?
Eventful?
Fun?
How about all of the above and more besides? So let’s get the easy bit over and we’ll see where that leads.
My Work placement.
I am currently working with JTB (Japan Travel Bureau), in a section of seven people currently engaged in organizing and promoting an important event, taking place in a little over a week’s time. The event - a daylong series of seminars, talks and Q&A’s aimed at students who wish to learn a foreign language (like English for example!) – is aimed at offering them advice and the chance to study abroad in the country of their choice. JTB along with a whole host of other companies are sponsoring and organizing the event and part of our job is to get 2,000 people (students) signed up for it. (I’m still a little fuzzy on this though, it’s free and you can walk in on the day…?)
So in the last four days I’ve visited Universities, Colleges, High Schools, Trainee Colleges and Schools (and no doubt been part of the sales pitch - apparently foreign is cool???). I’ve not seen the insides of more learning institutions since applying to University. That’s not to say it was anywhere near as draining and laborious as that process though, quite the contrary. I have enjoyed every minute of it. No doubt partly due to the nature of the work, constant and ever changing (nice oxymoron), but without a doubt, greatly due to the people I’m working with. I am even now dreading finishing work, as I will miss all of them after I leave, so welcome have they made me feel. Despite not understanding more than one word in five that Tanaka-kacho says, he’s so accommodating and patient that he’ll happily repeat himself and simplify where necessary ‘till I understand. And Norisue-san, words fail me, such a lovely lady she is.
I could go on for many pages extolling their collective virtues, but I shall settle for naming them here and on the off chance that anyone learns enough English to read this, and comes across it online in the future, thanking them once again for all they have done on my behalf.
Tanaka-kacho,
Sato-kacho,
Yokono-san,
Norisue-san,
Iwata-san,
Takai-san,
Kojima-san,
Morikawa-san.
Thank you all.
On to the Extra Curricular Activities of the last week:
“Onsen”
Since I’ll assume most of you reading this have a passing knowledge of Japan, I won’t go into great detail about the ins and outs, but let it never be said that I am not liberal and open to trying out new things (on a related note the same can be said in regards to me and “Sashimi”, and what I was assured, but didn’t believe, was raw horse!). 43 degrees is a perfect temperature to bathe at, but changing from the Bath to the Steam Room to the Open Air Bath to the Bath again, takes a lot out of you.
“Okonomiyaki”
Bears a striking resemblance to an omelette I made a few years back as a student, at 4:30 am, while highly inebriated, from anything I could find in the fridge at that time on a Sunday morning. Though whilst my creation was clearly unfit for consumption (or would have been if I hadn’t been as drunk), the Japanese equivalent proved surprisingly edible and remarkably tasty.
“Welcome Party”
Thrown by my workmates, in a successful attempt to get me to loosen up, speak more and louder, eat too much and become thoroughly drunk. All in all, a pleasant way to spend the evening, flanked and fed by two attractive young ladies (though avoid the “Raw Horse” if offered. I still don’t know if they were kidding or not!).
I have to cut it off here, I need sleep. I’m off to watch a Baseball game on Saturday, followed by playing in two football matches on Sunday. Maybe I’ll get Monday to rest; it’s a National Holliday after all…
Report 4 - I'm running out of interesting titles!!! 13 October 2004
Maintaining an air of calm amidst a see of madness.
Aahh, Week 4. And like all writers before me, I have come under some criticism.
“What!” I hear the cries of disbelief, some philistine has had the audacity to disparage or find fault? However, like water off the proverbial Water Fowl’s back, my spirit remains unbroken and continue unabashed I will.
(In fairness, “criticism” is too harsh. I have been asked to steer my observations this week in a particular direction. One I had previously neglected. But where’s the drama in that?)
I shall not however fall for the trap of ignoring my critics, and I shall indulge their whim and wax lyrical for a short while on the subjects of Roads and Drivers (I will issue this one warning though, it probably won’t be very short). Hokkaido in general and Sapporo in particular remind me a lot of my trips to America, long straight roads stretching off into the distance, punctuated by towns and villages, and TRAFFIC LIGHTS at every intersection. From the Crow’s eye a town or city would resemble a page of graph paper, a grid of roads and blocks of buildings, with TRAFFIC LIGHTS at every intersection.
Did I mention the TRAFFIC LIGHTS?
Do I give the impression that I don’t like them?
Good!
Seriously, while a block system makes excellent use of available space, the number of times I have watched (or been part of) traffic being unnecessarily halted…!
Other than that, I find no fault whatsoever with the roads, they are on the whole meticulously maintained and exceptionally clean.
Now, what about Japanese drivers? I think I can say without fear of contradiction that, should any of the drivers I have observed in the past few weeks drive anywhere in England, they would be dead within 20 minutes. Not through an accident, oh no. On the whole the drivers are slow and careful. It’s (how can I put this?) their habit (for I assume it is not taught) of deciding (usually while stationary at traffic lights) that they are in the wrong lane, so change it! Into the next one. Usually into a queue of traffic with a smile, a nod and an apologetic look for the driver they’ve just cut up…
Did I mention I was playing a couple of football games with the office team?
Well this Sunday I leapt at the opportunity to see Japanese “Sakaa” firsthand. So at 5:30am I rolled out of bed and collapsed into Iwai-san’s Toyota, and was whisked away for what I was dearly hoping was a pair of 5-A-Side games to be over by 11ish. Suspicions to the contrary were initially aroused when we arrived at a sports stadium with no pitches small enough for 5-A-Side. As the other 11 members of the team joined Iwai-san and me I had to face facts, my heart was going to stop at some point anyway, so why not today instead of in 50 years time? I just had to hope someone knew CPR (and that it was one of the attractive young ladies accompanying them, rather than on of the players themselves).
To put it bluntly, we lost, both games.
in the first game, in which I played as a striker for the first half and sat out the second (where we conceded).
8-1 in the second game. Tragically, central defense was my position. Suffice to say, shame was added to that day’s sufferings and it made itself at home alongside a groin strain, bruised shins, aching limbs and a heart and lungs that were trying to convince me they were made of some sort of solid fire-like substance.
As a consolation however, we did go out to eat “Jingiskan”. An experience to say the least, sat around a table with a large fry-plate in the centre, onto which marinated lamb was liberally dropped, fried and then eaten. For those with a hanker for something a little greener, bean sprouts, onion, potato and ramen (noodles) were also there to be fried to one’s heart’s content and eaten along with the pickled “Daikon” (think pickled uber-radish). Entertaining, and endless, for whenever we finished one platter, another was brought to replace it.
From one sport to another, for the very next day I was invited to play “Park Golf”. Now I can only assume it is a Japanese invention, for I have never heard mention of it from my brother (who will eventually turn pro if he can get enough practice in the next few years). So yes, “Park Golf”, bring to mind Pitch-and-Putt with a Croquet Mallet and Ball and you won’t be far wrong. While still stinging (both metaphorically and physically) from the previous day’s excursions, I was forced to uphold the good name of English (Park) Golf amid a group of 20, 55+ year old Japanese Ladies and Gentlemen. I feel a score of +11 on a par 66 course is not that bad (I can hear my brother groaning now), it did put me towards the rear of the “Gentlemen” section of the results and almost in amongst the “Ladies” section. A fact a lot more would have been made of around the lunch table had I not been the only player to score a Hole-in-One! On the Ninth, otherwise a wickedly sloped, 34 yard, par 3.
I must sign off now, I think I’m getting longer in my rambling each week (it’s not getting to use English at any other time) and next week promises even more…
Oh, and I found Bear Curry for sale.
Sore Ja.
Report 5 - I'd be able to see the light at the end if this were a tunnel.
20 October 2004
Three major events to mention along with a fun day out to reminisce over.
Shall we go in chronological order?
That would seen to be the most correct.
So, JTB's "Big Event" on Saturday.
Target 2,000 students to sign up for the "Working Holiday" JTB were promoting.
Saturday morning started early and busy for me. I moved out of my second home stay and carted my luggage (which is a considerable feat I might add) to the "Weekly Mansion", just to the North of Sapporo Station. Signed in, dumped my luggage in my room and jumped on a bus to "Sapporo Factory", where I was just in time to watch the end of the preparations. (A quick note, Sapporo Factory is a huge shopping centre/11 screen cinema
complex/Toys R Us/ convention centre. It apparently used to be a factory but I could find nobody who could tell me what it made.)
Tables set, brochures ready, representatives from all over the English-speaking world were awaiting the rush of eager young minds. (A special mention goes out to the man with the "Study English in Paradise" table in the Hawaiian shirt and a sales pitch that had me wanting to jet off to Honolulu to study English!)
A minute-by-minute guide to the day I shall not write, it was eight hours long after all. Alas we missed target by 929 students, but we got more than 50% of the way so I feel pats on the back all round.
Highlights of the day included:
A live radio interview with Kreva of the "Kick the Can Crew". (no I've never heard of him either)
Being invited to Vancouver by a lady who's promised to take me to her favorite spa/sauna.
Having to give advice to two students on what to expect in London, as well as the day to day living in England (I ended up giving them my email address and telling them to contact me when they arrive)
Fun times…
Next, the "Weekly Mansion".
A conveniently situated block of around 200 one-room apartments between Hokkaido University and Sapporo Station. Each room has a bathroom, fridge and cooker and communal laundry facilities round out the package (I see restaurants and cup noodles in my future).
On to the Fun Day Out. I spent all of Sunday with Norisue-san and her friends. First off we went to see a rugby match (note, "see", I didn't have to participate in this one. YAY!) played in a bitter wind that chilled to the bone. Akiyo-san's boyfriend was the poor unfortunate member of our group who was running about getting hurt playing as number 4. This was followed by a trip to Otaru for Ramen to warm everyone up. Otaru is a seaside, tourist town that for some reason reminds me a lot of Scarborough. After heating our insides with hot broth and noodles we decided to heat our outsides by blowing glass. Yes Otaru is famous for its glassware, and I made a vase while there. (Glass is made from liquid sand, a granular type of rock. Working with liquid rock is hazardous in the best of circumstances, doing it while being instructed in a language you have not been raised with is foolhardy to a catastrophic degree.) But I am still alive, not burned in any way and have glassware to show for my troubles!
I didn't mention it before but two of Norisue-san's friends are English Teachers and I spent the day being periodically quizzed on points of English Grammar. The uses of the word "Like" for example are many and varied. Think about how many situations you can use it in. including in comparative phrases, as a verb etc. Now try explaining not just how, but why, in a second language.
We finished off the evening with a meal in a French-Japanese restaurant and my first beef in nearly five weeks! (though I've had raw horse). All in all, a marvelous day.
Final “Big Event” then, my new work placement.
This will certainly teach me to ask rather than assume in the future.
What am I talking about?
Well Monday morning I started working at NTT-Telemart, until then I had assumed this was part of NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s largest telecommunications company. How wrong I was. (So was everyone else I told, as they all assumed it was telecom too)
NTT is a Sapporo based Travel Agency, affiliated with all of Japan’s large travel companies, with a branch in New Chitose Airport, where I am working. Daily arrivals to Hokkaido (from the rest of Japan, Korea and a few other countries in the region that don’t solely fly to Tokyo–Narita or Kansai-International airports) come here to arrange travel, accommodation, mobile phone rental, internet use (there’s an internet café here) among other things. Working with the public means a slightly more varied job than what I was doing with JTB, but it also brings long stretches of inactivity, when no incoming flights have landed (Typhoon number 23 is currently affecting air traffic, and number 24 is on it’s way too!).
On a real plus side, they speak English here, and it’s hard to resist the temptation to just use that rather than practice my Japanese. In fact Mori-san’s husband, Paul, is from Leeds. They met in Australia, so she’s extremely accomplished at interpreting my accent (My accent is apparently “like Hugh Grant’s”, and is very English.)
Just one more thing to mention before I finish. I’ve found a showroom that sells Lancia Delta HF Integrale’s! I’ll be spending a lot of money next week as I try to buy one and get it shipped back to England.
Sore Ja.
Week 6: Temples, Teahouses and Time. 31 October 2004.
It was with a heavy heart and tears in my eyes that I bade farewell to Sapporo on Thursday. Six weeks flown by, places seen and people met, one week of study, four weeks of work all over in a flash.
It ended in much the same way as it began - they had a party waiting for us. We three SOAS students and people from our Home stay families, work-placement companies, the Hokkaido University of Education and the Hokkaido Economic Federation gathered in a small Italian restaurant nestled in the centre of a block, next to Odori park. I had prepared a ten-minute speech for the occasion, naturally. And it was with no small amount of relief that I found out that I only had to talk for three minutes (truth be known, I could only drag my speech on for six minutes, and that was with long pauses). Though at the same time finding out that I would be talked about the people from my work-placements was a bit of a shock.
While the official party ended at 8 o'clock, my evening continued to 10:45, and I have the people from JTB to thank for that (9:30am flight the next day!). No, I joke, it was very thoughtful of them, and I'm glad I got the chance to say goodbye to everyone. The presents were a nice touch, though the cuddly Howler Monkey (complete with battery operated "Howl") may unfortunately be "lost in transit" by the airline, but as they say, it's the thought that counts.
So once again to Tokyo. I got to see Mt Fuji as my plane made its approach to Haneda airport. For almost a minute I was entranced by the serene beauty of its snow-capped cone before it was lost in the brown smog haze hovering above the heavily industrialised region around the airport.
Quick as a flash, on to the Shinkansen. Showed my rail pass at the Midori-no-Madoguchi (green window), booked my seat (on a train? Madness!) before stopping for a coffee.
As I was standing on the platform, waiting for my train I watched two others come and go. The sleek design, the brilliant white finish, everything about the "Bullet Train" shouts "Speed!". I was staggered, if the designers of Concorde and the Space Shuttle got together to make a train, the Shinkansen would be the result.
Inside it's laid out like a Boeing Jet (if half the seats were removed for the comfort and leg room of the passengers) with large oversized windows through which the adventurous can attempt to watch the countryside fly past while periodically fending off the lady selling drinks.
Kyoto then, Japan's former capital. What can I say?
My guidebook says it was build according to a grid. Now I don't know if grid has been incorrectly translated or something but, Sapporo has a grid layout, Kyoto has half a dozen straight roads leading outwards with a myriad of smaller ones connecting them, often not a right angles. Grid?
Kyoto puts me in mind of London, old buildings put to modern use because no one wanted to demolish something with so much "history" to it. These line the streets and are periodically interspersed with large modern department stores and towers, and six-century old wooden temples and teahouses. The casual walker had better beware for one minute you can be strolling alongside a row of music and fashion stores to find yourself confronted by a statue of a priest standing outside a shrine adorned with incense and candles. (Obviously there are a few differences between Kyoto and London)
Just on initial impressions the City is fascinating and I realise I don't have enough time to see even a fraction of what it has to offer, a busy week awaits me.
Sore Ja.
Week 7 - (I think?) T minus eleven and counting...
5 November 2004
I shall begin my account of my time in Kyoto with Sunday.
I had the incredible good fortune of having a guide. Akiyo-san, whom I met in Sapporo, has a younger sister currently studying in Kyoto, so she offered her sister's services as a guide for a day, for when I visited Kyoto. Now pulling a hardworking student from her studies and making her lead a tourist around for a whole day was almost too much for my gentleman's pride to take, but the prospect of being shown the sights by a cute 19 year old girl was too good to pass up. I reluctantly agreed.
Megumi-san (my guide's name) and two of her friends were friendly, kind and all spoke English (I knew from the beginning it was going to be a good day). We started off by meeting at Kinkaku-ji temple also known as the "Golden Pavilion". An absolutely beautiful golden temple on the side of a large pond filled with Koi (goldfish, the big ones), surrounded by pine forests.
This was followed by Kyomizu-dera and the surrounding "authentic old Japanese" shops and streets. If Kinkaku-ji impressed, the sheer scale of the structures, the magnificent forested slopes of the mountains and the all-wooden (no nails!) temple of Kyomizu, took my breath away (at least that's my story, the breathlessness had nothing to do with the temple being on a mountainside and the long and winding route up to it!)
With one hour of daylight left we gave up on seeing Nijo castle and instead took a trip to Kyoto station to climb Kyoto Tower and look over the city lights after dark. As you'd expect, the streets, bathed in the headlights of cars, streetlamps and neon signs really impressed, but the red light of a Shinkansen speeding out of the station below was also wondrous, especially as the lights blurred into one line after a few seconds, as it picked up speed.
The evening finished with games of Bowling (Megumi and my team won) and a meal, thoroughly great fun and mainly due to the company.
I was a little concerned the day would prove boring for Megumi-san and her friends but she admitted to never having visited any of the places we went to before, despite living in Kyoto, so she also enjoyed the opportunity to "see Kyoto".
After the previous day's excursions I was a little more reserved on Monday (also being alone) so I only visited Nijo castle. More of a palace than a castle, there are neither towering buttresses nor crenellations. Just beautiful gardens, sombre corridors and rooms and very, very thick walls.
Tuesday, my ambition fired from the previous day's successes, I decided to extend myself more. Starting the day with Ninna-ji and Ryuan-ji, the first famous for it's five tiered Pagoda, the second for it's Zen Rock Garden. And following those with a trip to Fushimi Inari shrine (on the other side of Kyoto).
I won't go into too much detail here except to say that, after walking further than I had intended to, to reach Fushimi Inari, I found it to be ten mile long series of giant red gates on the side of a mountain, littered with little shrines to fox spirits. I gave up after about two miles; my legs having not stopped moving for about six hours, gave up. I took the train back.
Wednesday and only one thing seen. But it was Himeji castle, the most famous and best surviving example of Japanese castle design currently in Japan. It's white walls and slate blue roofs dominate the views over the city of Himeji and look splendid set against a backdrop of pale blue sky. Inside it's grounds were even larger than I imagined them to be and I spent two hours wandering in a state of wonder before sleeping on the train back to Kyoto (the travel was beginning to tell).
Thursday, where had the time gone? I could swear I had more than this scheduled when I set out. I wandered around Arashiyama and it's various shrines and lakes before walking into Kyoto city centre for lunch (I will learn to use public transport soon, really).
The evening however was something I'll never forget. A group of Wadaiko drummers called "Bachi Hollic" were putting on a free show that I had missed the previous day and made sure I got to this time. Wow. All I have to say is Wow, I was a little upset I couldn't go and see the Kodo drummers on the trip before, but after Thursday night...
Where can I buy their CD?
Anyway, Tokyo on Saturday, meaning I have to buy souvenirs on Friday (no time, too much still to see).
Sore ja.
Week 8 - All Good Things...Final Report 12 November 2004
Tokyo, what can I say?
To be honest, taken as a whole, I don't like it here. But strangely enough I love Shinjuku, Akihabara and Shibuya. The three places that embody what makes Tokyo so different from the other Japanese cities I've visited. Sapporo felt new, young unsure of itself as it sprawled across its valley, Kyoto had history, culture, a sense of centuries gone by unchanging. Tokyo feels more immediate, it's here and knows it, it feels almost embarrassed by it's past and unlike Kyoto, tries to hide it away. This more than anything else both endears me to it and makes me dislike it.
The past week has been, interesting. I had no clear plan of what to do in Tokyo save for one day so I've been free to wander at my whim. I've seen sights and side streets, towers and temples, trains and…. you get the idea.
But it all felt disconnected, I think it may be me, the trip is drawing to a close and I'm retreating and becoming retrospective and it's influencing how I look at everything.
But enough of this aimless chatter. For the Wednesday this week was arguably the best on the trip. Why, you ask?
I went to the "Ghibli Museum" in Mitaka.
For those of you to whom the words "Ghibli Museum" are new and/or meaningless, I shall take a moment to explain. Studio Ghibli is Japan's most famous animation studio, and its founder Hayao Miyazaki has been making awe inspiring, breathtaking movies since 1979. You might have noticed he won an Oscar recently for "Spirited Away" or to give it it's proper title "Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi". Regardless, about 3 years ago, because he really wanted to, a museum, designed by Miyazaki-san himself, was constructed in Mitaka.
Reading the opening line of the guide pamphlet, which encourages the visitor to "get lost quickly" in order to see everything, and looking at the hand drawn rendition of the museum in a side-on cut-away, I knew I was in for something special.
From the outside the building is an eclectic mix of architecture, seemingly taken at random from Ghibli's films. Walking down the winding staircase into the main hall I was stunned, I cannot do justice to the three floors on view from the bottom, the spiral staircases, the portals too small for an adult to walk through but perfect size for a child, the murals, the stained glass windows depicting characters and scenes from more of the movies, I could go on. But I dragged myself away through doors on the right, to the room celebrating animation, from flicker-books and simple spinning apparatus to the crowning glory, a huge strobe lit carrousel in which hundreds of character models went through a delightful series of actions before it stopped for a brief respite, to show all that no animatronics were at work, only the magic of animation.
From there to the animators’ studio, not a space on a wall was free from sketches, studies and paintings. From the simplest facial expression doodle to magnificent watercolour backdrops, I was enchanted. More so because of the setting, a table lined with picture books, strewn with worn out pencils and brushes sat proud in the centre, lit by little windows to allow sunlight to grace the room.
The third floor boasted the gift and bookshops as well as the "Catbus" room, complete with signs telling you to give way to small children in the queue.
Outside was the "Straw Hat Cafe" and a courtyard complete with water pump (no I don't know why, but it seemed so natural for it to be there) and log pile. Back inside again to go to the roof garden and the life-size statue of a robot from "Tenku no Shiro Laputa", and I do mean life size, I'm tall and I didn't reach it's waist! Before final stop, the cinema, showing a 15-minute short original animation, made especially for the museum.
4 hours had gone by and I hadn't noticed.
Oh, did I mention the gallery displaying all of Pixar's work?
From concept sketches to computers showing how the CG animation was accomplished?
Well that too.
I finally managed to tear myself away, but not before comparing the map in the guide pamphlet, to the museum itself. Despite my early misgivings as to its accuracy, I found it to be a perfect representation of what was on view, right down to the hordes of happy, smiling children. Though a six-foot Englishman grinning like a child, was sadly, not clearly drawn anywhere.
One could only hope.
I only have a couple more days to go, I'd like to thank everyone who made this trip possible. To my Japanese teachers, the people at Reuters, the wonderful people I met and worked alongside and to Hagio-sama whose prize enabled me to come in the first place, thank you all. And to those who've read this far, who've persevered through all of my ramblings, thank-you for taking the time, I hope you liked what you read.
Sayonara.
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