Japan 2024 Part 1: The Adventure Begins...
Travel
One of the countries I’ve always wanted to visit is Japan. Then in college, a couple of friends and I promised one day we’d go together.
And we finally made it there! It’s definitely a trip that’s been years in the making… and one year delayed.
In all honesty, I’ve wanted to visit Japan ever since my dad talked about the years he and his family lived on Okinawa, one of the islands in south Japan. My grandpa was in the Air Force, so they moved around a lot and ended up on the air base there. So many stories, plus a growing enjoyment of manga and anime, grew a desire to visit and explore the country one day.
I didn’t get to explore a lot of the country (this time), but we did cover a lot of ground in Tokyo.
Sydney, my college roommate, and I flew out of Los Angeles so we could pass the long flight together. We got good food, and spent most of the flight chatting and catching up on life. When we arrived, both of us were fairly tired, and we headed through customs and such pretty quickly.
Then we got to meet up with another friend, Alecia! It’s been a long time since we’ve seen each other, and it was so nice to have a week to catch up and explore the city together. Alecia works for an international school in Tokyo, teaching students English, so she was our guide for the trip—and we gave her a chance to do/explore some things she hadn’t gotten the chance to! 💙
She even got us all Eki (Train) Stamp books, so we could commemorate our time in Japan by collecting stamps from each of the stations we traveled to on our adventures around the city. It was so much fun to do, and it’s probably one of my favorite souvenirs.
**I’d like to note here, at the beginning of all the wonderful pictures, that I cannot take credit for all of them. Many pictures were taken by both Alecia and Sydney as well.
The First Two Days
Sunday
After a good night’s sleep, we headed over to the station to meet one of Alecia’s co-workers and went to the Akibahara area, looking for a place we’d heard of: “Anime Street.” We didn’t really find what we were looking (or hoping) for, but Alecia’s co-worker led us to an amazing and huge bookstore full of discount books, manga, games… so many wonderful things! We had a fun time looking around until Alecia’s co-worker had to leave, and then we headed for Asakusa—a large tourist spot.
Guys, there were so many people and it was a super warm day (probably our warmest). My introverted self cringed (I was in no way prepared), and it’s not a place I’d want to spend a lot of time. 😂 But I survived the crush of people, and we made it to the end of the street where the street food vendors were located, which was a lot less crowded. This spot was definitely a great place to begin the souvenir shopping! So many things to look at, and so many stalls! (I was entertained by how much merch I saw for the LA Dodgers baseball team too. 🤣)
Before we headed out of the Asakusa area, we found a cute cafe and sipped on iced lattes and teas to cool off. Sydney and I got strawberry milk teas, while Alecia got an iced green tea. Once we’d cooled off a bit, we headed for Tokyo Skytree—on the other side of the Sumida River.
After making it to the 340th floor of the building, we explored and took pictures. I can’t even begin to put into words how cool and eye-opening it was to see Tokyo spread out on every single side. We glimpsed the ocean and Tokyo Disney, and even found a photo spot set up with sakura (cherry blossoms), though the sun made most of the photos silhouettes. 😂 Next we headed to the 450th floor, and Tokyo just kept going. On all sides. As someone who loves the countryside and prefers not to live in town, it was definitely a good look at just how many people live in Tokyo. (Ghibli movies don’t really do this justice at all.)
Once we had our fill of looking, we headed back down to the lower levels and found an Indian restaurant to eat at—and got curry. And, color me surprised, the Japanese don’t like their food spicy. Who knew? My first time eating curry and naan, and it was delicious. Needless to say, I’m going to have to find myself a good recipe for both. Then we explored a bunch of the shops at Skytree—including the Kirby Cafe Store and the Pokemon Center.
Monday
One of my most anticipated days, we headed out early toward a cute storybook cat village—Kichijouji Petit Mura. We spent most of the time we had there in the cat cafe, where we got to pet and engage with the kitties, grabbed a snack lunch, and just enjoyed the slow morning. We got there right at feeding time, and if we hadn’t, I never would have realized there were so many cats! 😻
Then we headed to Mitaka Station to meet our tour guide for the Ghibli experience. When our group was all accounted for, we headed off toward the park next to the museum, Inokashira Onshi Koen. Once we got inside the museum, we couldn’t take any pictures, but I absolutely LOVED it all! The short film, the tributes to so many of my favorite movies, the different mediums and mechanisms, and the early art.
The video short we saw was Chu Zumo (A Sumo Wrestler’s Tail), and although I couldn’t understand the language, it was entertaining and fun. 😄 I honestly spent so much time looking at everything. The little references and details from movies built into the building itself—railings, stained glass windows, and so much more. But even more impressive? Seeing the storyboards for Miyazaki’s most recent movie, The Boy and the Heron, and many of his early sketches of beloved characters and movie scenes.
First, the storyboarding. I saw The Boy and the Heron when it released in theaters in the USA last December and absolutely loved it. Honestly, it was a movie I needed to see at the time. And then seeing all the storyboarding displayed? It’s like I was watching the movie all over again. Color and all, it’s remarkable what the animators are able to do in the transfer of color and angle and just everything. I was completely blown away.
The other section I spent quite a lot of time in is known as Miyazaki’s Study in the area “Where a Film is Born”. Here, the walls were absolutely papered with his sketches. From the evolution of characters like Kiki and Sophie to scenes from Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Castle in the Sky, it was so cool to move through the room and examine where there was evolution and where characters or places didn’t seem to change at all. To be honest, there were a few drawings I had trouble identifying, but most were recognizable. It’s here I realized that somewhere out there is a Ghibli version or retelling of the Nutcracker, and now I need to find it. 😃 Here, they also set up a replica of Miyazaki’s office and showed a bit of the methods used for paint pallets and color choice during storyboarding. It was absolutely fascinating.
Once we finished touring inside, we headed up to the roof where we knew we’d find a life-size replica of one of the Castle in the Sky robots, and it definitely didn’t disappoint. We got to take pictures here, and I’m so glad we could! It was super cool. After spending a little time exploring the roof area, we headed back inside and to the gift shop. Check the pics for a look at some of the amazing things I found there. I even saw merch from some of the studio’s older or lesser-known works.
We spent hours in the museum, but honestly there was so much to see. I absolutely recommend it to anyone visiting Tokyo—especially if you’re a Studio Ghibli fan!
For a couple of final adventures of the day, we ate at an authentic ramen place—something I’ve always wanted to do! It was fascinating and fun, and I’d absolutely do it again. Then for dessert, we picked up some taiyaki (I got the chocolate filled)—delicious!
