End of Term Two & Studio Ghibli Museum

Okay, I'm not going to write about the rest of my Christmas break as the memory has been somewhat bittered by subsequent events...I'll just say that it was really lovely, and seeing everyone was amazing.

Righty, I've just finished my second term at ICU! This one seems to have gone much quicker than the first...and it was a lot harder too! Last week I had my exams and I had to turn in a long paper for my other module, but now I have no class until April! I do have to study lots of Kanji for Leeds though, ugh...

I have no concrete plans for the Spring break as of now, but I'd like to go out of Tokyo. I'm thinking of going up north to Nikko, a really nice-looking mountainous city with lots of shrines and temples, and a stunning national park. It's also the home of the famous Three Wise Monkeys! A couple of friends have been there already, and said it was really good. It'd be nice to see some of traditional Japan!  Other than that I'd like to go southwest to the Kansai region, to Osaka and Kyoto. Naturally I'll keep up with anything I get up to on here! It's been a while since I've blogged isn't it...in fact I haven't really kept it properly since September...hopefully that'll change from now on!

Something I've wanted to blog about for a while was my trip to the Studio Ghibli Museum in Mitaka at the end of January. I'm not a fan of anime, but I do like the Ghibli films, such as Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Spirited Away and My Neighbour Totoro. 

I went there with my friend Amii, and I really do recommend it. To get there you take a train to Mitaka Station, and from there you can either get a short bus trip or walk along the side of the canal for about 10 or 15 minutes. You need to get tickets in advance, which can be bought from the Lawson chain of konbinis for 1,000 yen (£7.80).

You couldn't take photos inside (something that was very strictly enforced), so I guess you'll all just have to visit it to have a look! It's really, really nice. Very hard to describe though...nice and old fashioned, with a big iron spiral staircase, 1930s style lift, and about half of it was a mockup of a studio, with all the different paints and pencils and so forth set out. I'm not doing a very good job of describing it, am I? If only they'd let us take photos! There were little scenes from the different films dotted around, such as the food stall from Spirited Away where Chihiro's parents gorge themselves on food and turn into pigs, and a life-sized Catbus from My Neighbour Totoro! There was also a smaller Catbus for kids to play on, which I wanted to jump on as well but alas, it turns out I'm about ten years too old :(

After having a look around inside we went up to the roof garden, which was small but very, very peaceful and nice (apart from the large group of Chinese tourists getting in the way of almost EVERY photo I tried to take). 

Up on the roof was one of the robots from Laputa! It's my favourite Ghibli film, and the robot was just about my favourite character, so it was an unmissable photo opportunity!

After the roof garden we went down to the inhouse cinema to watch an unreleased mini Studio Ghibli film, about some Sumo mice...which was very entertaining and charming. It was also nice to see how my Japanese ability is just about at the level of a six year old, heh.

Following that we went down into the courtyard area, and I got just a little carried away on the water pump.

As we were leaving the museum we had to stop off at the big Totoro for a photo! He's pretty much the mascot of Studio Ghibli. It's a shame he was behind glass, I imagine squeezing him would make anyone happy.

And thus concludes my trip to the Mitaka Studio Ghibli Museum. I had a really, really fun time and heartily recommend it to anyone. Be careful of the gift shop though, it's insanely expensive, but lots of the things they sell are beautiful. A fun day out, all in all, especially with the subsequent walk through Inokashira Park to Kichijoji for gin and fish & chips.

Goodness, I never thought I'd speak so enthusiastically about anything anime related!

James

Two Months In & Life in Tokyo

I've been here around two months now, so I think I can just about talk about what it's like to actually live in Tokyo on a day to day basis, rather than just as a tourist.

Firstly, Tokyo is an amazing, amazing city, and it should definitely be a priority to come and visit (please come visit me!).  Living here is pretty different to how I, and most other people, expected it to be.  From talking to people back home, I've realised that loads of people expect my daily routine to include things like chilling with robots, using space-aged toilets with built-in sound effects and seat warmers (okay, those are quite widespread, but anyway...), hanging around the neon-lit urban landscape munching on sushi for most of the day, and being stopped by rival teenagers for Pokémon battles on the way home from university.

Whilst some of those sorts of things are perfectly possible to do here, they're certainly not part of a normal day!  My local area, for example, is not the big, shiny metropolis that everyone imagines Japan to be.  The city centre areas like Shinjuku, Shibuya and Ikebukuro do fit that mould, but one thing in particular did strike me about Tokyo as a city.  Almost everywhere you go outside of the big centres, Tokyo has an incredibly town-y feel to it.  It's very low-rise, and seems just like a medium-sized town wherever you are.  The only difference is that this 'town' keeps going and going and going and going...it's almost like years ago there were hundreds of towns dotted around the area, which have grown and grown over time to the extent that they have expanded into each other, with no green areas in between them any more; it's a very strange feeling and quite difficult to explain, so I hope you understand what I'm trying to describe.

A typical Tokyo street

The video below was taken from my balcony during the typhoon season (until the battery ran out...), and shows that I don't live in the top of a huge apartment block only accessible by spaceship. 

That said, the major centres (and there are very many of them indeed) are exactly the frantic, neon-soaked, endless sky scraper skylines we are projected in the UK and elsewhere.  I have been to a number of leading world cities, like New York, London and Shanghai, and I can honestly say that Tokyo rivals them all (don't worry London, you're still my favourite, babes).  Below are a few pictures and videos of the cool central bits.  Despite what it looks like, I wasn't following the girl who walked past me in the last video.

So, in conclusion I guess you could say, Tokyo is a brilliant city, but not exactly what you'd expect...certainly worth a visit though!

Onto more mundane matters, my daily routine goes something like this: wake up at about half 8, have some breakfast, go to university (10:10-12:40 every day, plus 1:15-3:00 on Wednesdays and Fridays), come home, have a bit of food, watch an episode of something or other on the internet, do some work for university, have dinner, do a bit more work, go for a bike ride or jog, have a shower, sit on Youtube or Facebook for a while, then go to sleep.  Exciting, huh?  I guess day to day life is pretty much the same no matter which country you're in.  

Oh, except that Tokyo is very expensive indeed.  Over the past decade or so, it's consistently been ranked in the top 5 most expensive cities in the world, with about half of that time spent occupying the top place.  That'll strike you if you ever come; the sheer price of the most mundane things.  Thankfully, 100 yen shops provide an escape from that.  I'm lucky enough to have a Lawson 100 yen shop about 1 minute away from me on the bike, by the train station, which has a supermarket bit downstairs, and most of the products are the same price (it's actually 105 yen a piece with tax, about 85p).  I do most of my food shopping there, so at least that can be done cheaply.  The following are the sorts of typical things I'll buy whilst there, all for 105 yen; 2 chicken breasts, a pack of green peppers, 10 eggs, pack of 3 noodles, some pak choi, sugar snap pea, a bottle of soy sauce, pepper shaker, and so on...so it's not too bad!  Beer is a bit more expensive, about 200-300 yen for a 500ml can (£1.65-£2.45), but hour long all you can drink bars for under a thousand yen, or two hours for under 1,500 balances that difference out, I suppose.

Transport is one thing that is expensive here, at least on the trains, and clothing, books, and digital media are really pricey too. But I suppose that the overall message is that cheaper ways to live in Tokyo can be found once you get used to everything.

Now, I've rambled for far too long; well done if you made it this far!

James 

Photo of the Day

I wouldn't expect the best atmosphere in 'Cafe de Bore'