Soul Walkers

Even before I was born, a craze had hit Japan. A craze that will last so long that even till now, it is a widely popular in myriad sorts of form. A craze that would be familiar to many as ANIMATION.
Founded in 1985, Hayao Miyazaki would never expect “Studio Ghibli” to be one of the forefathers of animation. Maybe the name Hayao Miyazaki or Studio Ghibli sounds like a term from outer space but I am sure that you would at least have heard one of the followings

Castle in the Sky (1986)
Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
My Neighbour Totoro (1988)
Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)
Only Yesterday (1991)
Porco Rosso (1992)
Princess Mononoke (1997)
Spirited Away (2001)
Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)

The man behind these would be Hayao Miyazaki and his team from Studio Ghibli. They not only make movies but also manage to set up a museum in Tokyo, a place where every kid will feel like an adult and every adult will feel like a kid both at the same time. (http://www.ghibli-museum.jp/en/welcome/).

Entrance to Ghibli Museum

If you are thinking of visiting this museum, be sure to buy the tickets in advance. When I was there, I was told that they imposed a daily limit each day and on certain holidays, it would not be easy to get tickets. Tickets can be bought at a self-serviced machine in “Lawsons” convenience store throughout japan. It is kinda complicated as all words were in Japanese and a Japanese name and number was needed. However, visiting the site again, I think they scrapped that process and made it easier to get the tickets. More information on obtaining the tickets can be found in the ghibli museum website. Photo taking are not allowed in the Museum.

Queues of people waiting to get in

For the 4 of us, we took an early train to the museum for the first visiting slot. The museum is about 30-40 minutes from central Tokyo. I personally had not watched many of his shows, the only 2 which i watch are Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle so many of the exhibits and decorations were quite foreign to me. However every “Woo”, “Ohh” and “Wow” from the kids and adults alike clearly shows how close to heart this place is. I would highly recommend this place to all and any fans of Hayao Miyazaki, Ghibli and any one of the movies.

Giant Robot from Castle in The Sky

Character from My Neighbour Totoro

Having had a long and hectic week, today we just wanted to let our souls soak in the peacefulness of Japan. After the museum, we headed to a park nearby to walk our souls in the autumn engulfed park.

Pathway to heaven

A Walk in the park

We ramble upon the carpet of fallen leaves, chance upon gathering of kids ransacking piles of leaves as if digging for some hidden treasures. In the backdrop sits several mothers with their picnic baskets constantly keeping an eye on them.

Modern day pirates

Shadow

Marching forward, we heard the whistling of a stream alongside a path and moving further down the path sits several people hidden behind a wooden wall. Armed with camera, tripod and large lens are 3 birdwatcher all focused at the same spot. They told us that the bird would appear soon and invited us to stay and watch for it. They weren’t lying. 5 minutes later, a bird appears at the spot and they proudly thumb their shutter repeatedly. We bade our goodbyes and continue to search for the end of the fallen leaves carpet. We did not find. What we found instead was a lake, a small one with ducks swimming in it and a fountain situated in the middle of it.

Stream

Peeping tom

Array of Equipments

Bird Watcher

Fountain

Throughout the park, we passed by countless other soul walkers, some young some old, some with clutches, some on bicycle, and all of them had one thing in common. They had a genuine smile on their faces, some weren’t very obvious but it is undeniably there. I would rank this place as the number one place to retire and grow old.

We returned to Harajuku in the evening as Rac and Suz did not went there earlier that week. After some shopping , neoprint and arcade, we wandered into an Okonomiyaki Shop. It is actually the Japanese version of Pancake and you are to prepare it on the hot plate fixed onto your table. The end result was pretty good and there were lots of different varieties to choose from. We were given a bowl of ingredients but after futile attempts to prepare it, we decided to engage the help of the staff.

Guess who decided to become maid...

We were given these

Well..all i can say is that we tried

Personally I like the way the whole process of dining in the restaurant and the fact that you could actually cook your own food even having any cooking knowledge. It is a fun way for friends and families to interact while having a meal and Singapore could definitely have restaurants like these. Maybe I will set up one in the future.