Let's Lose Our Way Together

Before heading out to Mitaka where Studio Ghibli Museum, 

I had this oishi (delicious) bowl of ramen.

Studio Ghibli Museum Gate

This tour is the highlight of this trip. The main reason for coming to Japan is this. THIS! This is my Disneyland. Having been a huge fan of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli films, this pilgrimage is a dream come true. It is quite a surreal feeling being here...I still haven't come down from the stellar heights of this adventure...

The Studio Ghibli Museum Crest

The entrance to the museum grounds...yonder looms the Robot Soldier
from the film, Laputa: Castle in the Sky

Totoro at his part time job ^_^

Totoro-san, ni mae de onegai shimasu!
(Two tickets, please Mr. Totoro!)

Look! The susuwatari (traveling soot) are trapped!


Trying to out-cute Totoro, failing miserably.

This foliage wrapped twining staircase is very reminiscent of the ruins in Castle of the Sky

Now time to enter the museum! Our tickets included a strip from the film which makes
a really perfect omiyage (souvenir). Mine has the scene with old Sophie and Markl from the movie Howl's Moving Castle.

photo cred: interior shots from postcards from the gift shop.
You can't take photos inside the museum.

The ceiling fresco painting in the entrance hall

The main hall that was inspired by the bath house scene in Spirited Away

The four-dimensional clay My Neighbor Totoro zoetrope, part of the permanent Zoetrope exhibit.
This one has to be seen in action!

Catbus! No adults allowed, only children are allowed to play and scamper around Catbus.

Stained glass windows depicting scenes from Studio Ghibli movies

The Imagination Place where all stories are made...

 Al fresco cafe under the pine leaves...

The Day I Harvested A Star is a 15 minute animation that can only be viewed at the museum's Cinema Saturno. We made sure not to miss it even though there were still so many things we wanted to look at, but this was top priority!

I managed to get the storybook from the gift shop called Mamma Aiuto.

 Castle in the Sky's Robot Soldier found me!

...then Thad tried to fix him

Checking out the Core Stone Key Cube that fell on the roof of the museum.

View from the top

Wouldn't it be nice if all manhole covers looked like this guy?

I couldn't leave this place of wonder and amazement without going through the gift shop. I finally got the soundtrack CD of Howl's Moving Castle (which was a bit pricey) and some other stuff... ^_^

Dusk...

It was already dark when we left the museum. I'd like to think neko-chan (kitty cat, I'd presume from The Cat Returns) ) peering from the window was silently bidding us farewell...

Losing my way physically causes me stress! That's why I hate driving to anywhere most especially to routes unfamiliar. Hayao Miyazaki, lead creator of Studio Ghibli films who conceived the museum design himself lives his life by his words, "Let's lose our way together." I can totally subscribe to this in terms of not limiting one's imagination on anything about the art of living. Coming here is the zenith of our trip. I feel like I have done everything and seen everything. That is not actual truth for there are still myriads of places to go and get lost in. Thankfully, I have Thad, who always manages to get us where we need to be. As I am writing this, I am welling up just at the weight of giddiness from experiencing this. Wherever it is you feel you have to see,  at least for just even once in your life, go do it. You owe it to yourself.  It is something you will always treasure...and when you reminisce about it that is when people notice the twinkle in your eye...
This magic I will carry with me until I'm old and wizened.

Till next time-- our night in Roppongi, holly up!

Kyoto: Gion and The International Manga Museum

We got to Gion by bus after we left Shosei-En. Aside from the very efficient densha (local train) systems, Japan can be commuted by buses that almost swallow up the very narrow inner streets. The bus stop is smack right in the middle of the shopping area. The shops normally sell most things related to kimonos and tradtional delicacies and omiyagi (souvenirs). It is not unusual to see girls and women wearing kimonos rushing in tiny hurried steps, beautifully coiffed and in exquisite make up amidst contemporarily fashionable dressed women and koukou gakuen (high school) girls.

Gion was and is known as the Geisha District. Sadly, there are only about 1,000 practicing geishas all over Japan. They only come out at dusk and since we were there early afternoon, we didn't get to see one. Since they go about their ways surreptitiously and shun people, it is even a treat for Japanese people to see one. It's like a celebrity sighting.

Hailed as the most beautiful street of all Asia, is Shimbashi. A preserved place full of okiyas (tea houses) where geishas used to entertain centuries ago. All left intact. Stepping into it feels like you're stepping back in old world Japan. 

The shrine at the fork of the road

We had quite a bit of a hard time finding it being gaijin (foreigners) and such. Here's Thad excitedly pointing to its location on our map. 

This is my favorite part of Shimbashi. I just love looking at the row of okiyas and listening to the rush of crystal clear river. In the novel Memoirs of a Geisha, this was the stream where Sayuri first meets the Chairman. 

While I pose for photos all demure-like, Thad never loses an opportunity to ham it up. ^_^ 

Although in some Western mythologies it symbolizes death, in Japanese mythology,a karasu (crow) is a mark of rebirth and rejuvenation. The bird to historically clean up after battles feasting on corpses signifies renaissance after a tragedy. I love the way Japanese culture always puts beauty and hope in every facet of life. 

Now we're trotting along, soaking up the sights of these old shops...

  

Thad with his LSU T-shirt-shaped cozy to remind him of home ^_^ 

I love how this tree looked like it's growing out of the house 

This triptych started with me hastily snapping this photo of Thad and then telling him to not pose like a geisha so he regained his manly composure and posed like a samurai.

Since it's such a bother to ask people to take photos, we asked the road-san to take one. 

I did however asked these two girls in kimonos  if I could take their sanshin (photo)

Now leaving Shimbashi to go on what we later realized was a long trek to seek the 

International Manga Museum!

The hotel we're at is only 8 minutes away from Akihabara by foot, known as the otaku ( manga and anime fan) paradise but I bet a few of them have ever been to the International Museum of Manga (Japanese Comics) in Kyoto. Travel to Kyoto is costly and would have to probably be done with a purpose of staying a while and planning one's itinerary... not a day's jaunt. The entire trip cost Thad and I $300 if not for our 7 day unlimited JR Rail pass only available to non-Japanese passport holder and would have to be bought before you leave for Japan...with a price tag only a Japanese can dream of. So, if you want to travel all the other places in Japan aside from Tokyo ( to Kyoto, Nara, Osaka, etc) you will be better off shelling the cost of a JR rail pass. It will pay itself off.

We walked and walked , trying to find the museum. 

We did find another museum for contemporary arts. 

We had walked past it since it wasn't on the main road we were on but slightly off the side.

 But here it is... 

The site was once the Tatsuike Elementary School. Manga fans can come here, pay an entrance fee  and read 300,000 manga in their library. They can spend an entire day here reading with occasional breaks to eat at the manga cafe. There's also an exhibit of rare manga from the Meiji period and fun facts about being a manga-ka (author) and the process to create manga. I was thoroughly educated on that exhibit to a point of it inspiring me and intimidating me. . 

Thad on astro turf ^_^ We couldn't take photos inside, of course. We wanted to take a photo of Osamu Tezuka's Phoenix sculpture as seen inside the building behind Thad and I. Tezuka invented the ubiquitous wide eye manga look drawing inspiration from the Disney classic movie Bambi and Betty Boop. Tezuka aslo created the manga, Astro Boy whose anime

 I have watched religiously as a kid. 

photo cred: Gigazine 

With my love of everything Showa Era manga anime, the galaxy-eyed maidens, I was so happy to find that they had an exhibit of Showa Era popular manga-ka Eico Hanabi whose works I have gazed at from internet websites. So actually gazing at her actual works was like a mecca pilgrimage to me. 

I know we weren't allowed to take photos but Thad couldn't resist my enthralled fascination and bliss at wandering into this pink room of wonder...

When I go to museums, I always try to get a little souvenir from the gift shop of something relevant off of the exhibit I just had the opportunity to see. Much to my delight, they had Eico Hanabi merch so I bought myself a tote and file. Also, worthy to note that 70year old Eico Hanabi wears her hair in a beautiful shade of sakura pink!  

If you are a bonafide manga fan visiting this museum should be in your bucket list. I was tired from the walk and the frustration of trying to find it that I wanted to give up and head back to Tokyo but Thad wasn't going to give up. I am so happy that he didn't...I would've regretted 

it so much if we missed it. 

That was the last leg of the Kyoto day tour. We are thinking of coming back before we leave Japan and explore some more of the shrines and castles. When we got back to the Kyoto Station to take the shinkansen back to Tokyo, Thad saw a Cafe Du Monde shop! Home away from home! 

  

We barely made it to our train (again) but we HAD to take these Cafe Du Monde photos. Aaaah I miss me some beignettes.

So that's it for Kyoto for now! Keep an eye for the next update... Studio Ghibli! Squeep!!!

Shosei-En garden 360°

After the stress of getting to Kyoto. Xiomara needed some stress relief. Luckily, Shosei-En Garden is not far from the station.

Put put your hands in the air, don't wave em like you just don't care. Now everybody meditate and go "ohmmm"...

Photosphere:
http://plus.google.com/117220229319287930142/posts/VtLdzPLWWbB