私のレンズを通して

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Yokohama, 横浜・八景島シーパラダイス

八景島 Sea Paradise is a man made island on the shores of Yokohama. It houses Japan's largest aquarium, also has a parade of rides, shopping arcades, and restaurants. The train ride from Tokyo took us almost an hour to reach Yokohama, then we had to board a special train that goes to and fro the island only, a bit like the train to and fro Sentosa in Singapore. We saw many groups of youngsters having a fun day out on the island. The aquarium is the usual, but it is very nicely done and what impressed me the most was the schools of fish within the aquarium, I have never seen it before in any other aquariums. For lunch we found a nearby restaurant and thought we would have a quick bite before we head back in and see the live show of dolphins and seals. We were very surprised at the quality of the food in the restaurant, the price was stella too but that is to be expected, super happy with the food. After sunset we explored the rest of the island and headed back to Tokyo.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Ghibli Museum, 三鷹の森ジブリ美術館

It takes a little bit of research before you could visit the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka. Why? because you can't buy tickets at the gate, all tickets are pre-purchased and date specific. We got our tickets from a travel agency that officially sells Ghibli tickets, have my sister pick them up, only then could we visit this magical place. Ghibli and his animations has been a huge part of my life, I loved his stories and drawings and often spend many economic lessons in school fantacising myself starring in one of Ghibli's spin offs. Was a very exciting day for me being there. We arrived early at the gate and had to wait a few minutes before we were allowed in. On our way in the employees explained with some off key English that no photography is allowed within the Ghibli building, what a bummer, but rules are rules.

As part of the ticket, we received some colours film negatives and a movie ticket to a special and exclusive show of となりのトトロ Tonari no Totoro. I was a kid all over again while seeing the show. The showcase displays of anime characters in the musuem is simply amazing to say the least. There is also a replication of Ghibli's room where he created all the great animes. Remember pre-purchase your tickets and go early, it's the best money has to offer.

Mitaka, 三鷹

Walking through the streets of Mitaka, I couldn't help but be overcome by a feeling of familiarity. I paused for just the slightest moment to think, why? I was certain I had never been here before. Then it dawned on me, the streets of Mitaka is identical to the preconceptions I had of Japan. Now how did that happen?

That morning we were on our way to the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, 宮崎駿美術館, as a kid I watched many anime drawn by Ghibli. Walking through these streets took me back to these animes and I could see this magical place where Ghibli got his ideas for his stories.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Ginza, 銀座

Ginza is the heart of upper class shopping in Tokyo. The main streets of Ginza are packed full of humongous department stores and restaurants. Inside the department stores are all fashion and jewelery, but the hidden treasures are in the basements. All basement levels in the stores are for food. Once in the basement, you'll see endless rows of glass showcases all filled to the brim of what appears to be wax models of food, but upon closer inspection the food isn't wax at all but it's actually food, I'm still gobsmacked on how they can manage to massively produce so much delicacies in such a pristine and perfect manner, it was very hard to walk away from it all; the smell, the colours but alas the prices definately helped us to walk away from the basements. We couldn't come out of there empty handed, so we approached a nice little store selling macaroons. Exquisite taste and devine packaging is all I can say.

Also a must visit and pictured left (the giant red paper clip) is 文房具専門店 Itoya, it's an eleven storey building full of nothing but stationery, if your a bit of a stationery collector like myself, then it's a goer.

MUJI 無印良品

MUJI, literally means "no-name brand" is famous for it's line of simple styled products. It doesn't yet have presence in Australia but in Asia it's everywhere. Beige, brown, white, black and simple subtle colours are the usual and their products range from clothing, electrical appliances, furniture, utensils, stationery, snacks, quite possibly everything you would need in a new home.

This however is the Tokyo flagship store which is something entirely different. Apart from a complete and extensive product line available, it also houses a restaurant inside the store itself, quite astonishing and unique.