Sarubobos are not supposed to have a face, but this one did. What is a sarubobo you ask? I had to ask our waitress in Takayama the same question as we saw them all over the place. Her answer was pretty similar to what you will find on wiki.

Posted on August 26th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: ellie, ryan, takayama. Comments: None

There are plenty of reasons to visit Inokashira Park near Kichijoji. The reason that took us out there a week ago was the Ghibli Museum.

I saw my first Miyazaki (宮崎駿) movie way back in 1989. He was virtually unknown outside of Japan at that point, but I was in Japan. In fact, I was living in the setting of his current movie at the time, My Neighbor Totoro (となりのトトロ), on the edge of Tokorozawa in Saitama Prefecture.

Ellie and Ryan also became big fans, as well as most of the rest of the world, so we have been wanting to check out the museum for a while. Tickets aren’t easy to come by if you want to go on a weekend. With Ryan and Ellie in school on weekdays we finally landed some Saturday tickets by purchasing them within a day of their going on sale more than a month in advance.

Shown above is a picture from the top of the museum. This is one of the robots from Laputa: Castle in the Sky (天空の城ラピュタ).

Posted on May 15th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: anime, ellie, ghibli, inokashira, museums, ryan. Comments: 1

For over a year (back in the late 1980s) the Bandit Roller Coaster (バンデットローラーコースター) at Yomiuri Land (よみうりランド) was the world’s tallest and fastest roller coaster. Many are now faster and/or taller, but this is still a great ride. Ryan (on the right) and Ellie (in the black and white) rode it about seven times last Sunday.

There is a sign saying that you can now see Tokyo’s Sky Tree from it on a clear day. Spot the Sky Tree and you are supposed to have good luck. I don’t see it in the above picture, but I still feel lucky.

Posted on April 28th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: amusement parks, ellie, ryan, Tokyo. Comments: None

The line to get into the Tokyo International Anime Fair is absolutely insane. It starts near the train station (300 meters away), continues through monster-sized buildings, and once you turn one corner, when you think you are almost about to enter, the line turns into an amusement park style line, back and forth, back and forth, etc. Turn the corner again and there is more of the same. Some say it took three hours to get in. I wouldn’t know. Both times I have attended we have bypassed the mega line completely and walked straight in via the “Family Entrance” (ファミリー入口), which you can use if you have someone with you who is 11 years old or younger.

The crowd peaks at about 11:30. If you don’t have a kid to bring along and get in via the Family Entrance I recommend arriving between 2 and 3 p.m. There are no entrance lines at this point in the day, and the booths inside are far less crowded than they are between 11 and 1.

Did I mention there are lots of people to deal with while you try to see what you want to see?

Posted on April 2nd, 2010 under Japan. Tags: anime, Japanese Manga, ryan, tokyo international anime fair. Comments: None

As promised, I took some cherry blossom (sakura) pictures of the Kanda River this morning. In the above photo some people are staking out a spot for flower viewing (hanami). Blue tarps are always used for some reason.

We sat on one of the blue tarps this past weekend at a hanami we were invited to attend. There weren’t many flowers yet, but the food was great, the company much more pleasant than the non-smiling faces above indicate, and we played loads of tennis with them too.

Everyone (except those suffering from allergies I suppose) loves sakura, but there are three groups who really love the cherry blossoms. They are the photographers, …

… the kids, …

and especially the (old) ladies (with a camera).

Kansenen Koen (甘泉園公園) has only one cherry tree. What it lacks in numbers it makes up for in magnificence as that one tree is really spectacular.

Basho’s hermitage is in the background of the above photo. The river is once again the Kanda.

Watching this guy try to get a picture of his bulldog along with the cherry blossoms brought a bigger smile to my face than the blossoms themselves. Everyone is happy when the blossoms are out. It’s a great time to take a walk and see everyone smiling, even if you can’t get your pet to grin.

Posted on March 30th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: cherry blossoms, ellie, people, pets, ryan, sakura, 甘泉園公園. Comments: None