I’m going to wrap up my posts on Tokyo by sharing some of our favourite pieces from the Pixiv Festa exhibition we ran into in the Design Festa galleries in Tokyo! I’m copying and pasting the artist’s names, and linking to their profiles on the Pixiv website, which I hope is sufficient attribution :)

「もふもふカプチーノ」/しぶぞー	「心強い僕の友達」/tomape
「送電線鉄塔越え」ー飛ぶ犬ーより」 /[perro perra]	「カンニバルリンゴ」/まみな

You can see all of the pieces on the Pixiv Festa website. Lots of anime inspiration, and so much precise execution!

Finally I’ve caught a moment to unpack and photograph some of my treasures from Tokyo :)

1. Papapanda from Studio Ghibli’s Panda Kopanda (aka Panda Go Panda). “Good bamboo!”

2. Totoro in a tree, from Studio Ghibli’s My Neighbour Totoro. It is hollow so Totoro can pop in and out!

3. A bear from The Bear’s School which as far as I know are a series of Japanese picture books. I just liked his yellow onesie-pyjamas with butt-flap, and slightly sour expression.

1. Sonny Angel! I have been admiring this guy online for years and was so pleased to find one for sale, especially as I only saw him in one shop. JSR is totally mystified as to the appeal of a nude baby in a mayonnaise bottle, but he has charmed me. If you loosen the lid he smells like baby powder, and his eyes wibble back and forth when shaken. Hee!

2. Playmobil “Crazy Cat Lady” set. That is probably not the official name. It comes with four cats!

3. San-X Mamegoma, the softest little seal (I wrote whale to start with, I am losing my mind!) you’ve ever touched.

1. Two tiny Rody figurines.

2. A green man. I am not sure who he is (can anyone help me out?) but there were lots of them in the Ghibli Museum. I’ve since removed the keychain part.

3. A tiny tin with a boar from Aranzi Aronzo.

4. Cow keychain, also from Aranzi Aronzo.

5. Kapibara with apple pool, from a blind box. I wanted the llama, but of course the chance is only 1/6. It is OK, I like this guy too!

6. Monkey enamel pin from Aranzi Aronzo, and Totoro enamel pin from the Ghibli Museum.

7. Pig in a watermelon costume, from a blind box. Again, I wanted the pig in a sheep costume, but I have no luck with blind boxes.

Stickers and stationery including Chi’s Sweet Home, Rilakkuma, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Aranzi Aronzo and the somewhat odd Hello Kitty & h.naoto collaboration.

Stickers including Kutusita Nyanko, Rilakkuma, Lilla spöket Laban, Moomintrolls and Kapibara.

Here’s a selection of photos of the places we went in Tokyo. I kept forgetting to get the camera out because I was having too much fun, but we did take a few pictures here and there :)

The area we stayed in is often described in accomodation guides as "a bit boring, with not much going on". Here’s what that looks like in Tokyo. This is the view from the nearest station exit.

Snow falling in Ikebukuro station. I am still excited thinking about it, ha! It snowed a second time a few nights later, after we were already tucked up in the hotel – we looked out the window and it was like Christmas.

The path leading to Meiji Shrine in Yoyogi Park.

One of the small streets next to the Design Festa galleries in Harajuku.

Omotesando in Harajuku is pretty, even in winter.

If I remember my dates right, the shogunate had these trees planted on one of the main roads in the Hakone region in 1618. A couple of kilometres remains and makes a very pleasant walk.

The cable car we took from Gora to Togendai in the Hakone region gave excellent views, including Mt Fuji.

This valley is about 1km above sea level and has lots of tiny villages.

Totoro shows you the way from Mitaka station to the Ghibli museum.

The Ghibli Museum building is really interesting – that domed staircase takes you to the roof garden!

Alright, the real ticket window is around the side, but this is the first view of the museum if you walk from Mitaka Station. I wanted to sneak in and hug Totoro so much!

The famous roof garden robot.

Of course, JSR and I had to get our picture taken :) He is lovely and sprouts grass here and there!

This guy set up a whole street food stall in the back of a miniature van! Impressive. He was parked near our hotel in Ikebukuro.

I will do another post about things I bought soon, once I have unpacked them all!

After resting our legs with the trip to Hakone we entered the city streets again on Tuesday, this time visiting Shinjuku and Daikanyama.

Just a day or two before we left for Tokyo an article popped up in one of the feeds I read about a brand new Blythe store, just opened in late February! It turned out to be in a newly re-fitted department store in Shinjuku that was a shining monument to youth culture and we looked through the other floors as well. The sixth floor had all of the Gothic Lolita brands I’ve heard about in one place – Baby the Stars Shine Bright, Metamorphose, Angelic Pretty and others – you’ve never seen so many petticoats and aprons :) The actual Blythe store was fun, lots of girls and outfit sets and accessories, plus some gorgeous customs in glass cases and a mini art gallery. I saw some Jam Fancy dolls and thought “Hee, I know her on the internet!”

Another exciting stop in Shinjuku was the food hall in the basement of the Isetan department store. Many department stores here have food counters in the basement, with bakeries and confectioners and prepared foods of all kinds, all top quality and super fancy. We were on a hunt for macarons from Pierre Hermé, supposedly the best in the world. He only has stores in Paris and Tokyo, so I had to try them while I have the chance! We bought one each of the eight flavours on offer. Then when passing the Sadaharu Aoki pastry counter my eye was caught by some of their flavours and we bought four more.

We scoffed them gently over two nights, and I can happily report that with the exception of caramel (which we did not enjoy from either brand) macarons are amazing. We liked Pierre’s best, as they seemed a little creamier and more substantial, but the Aoki ones were almost as good, and it would be hard to tell the difference unless I had both in front of me. My favourite flavours were Chocolate and Vanilla from Pierre Hermé, and Violette from Sadaharu Aoki.

We popped into a couple of other stores in Shinjuku as we wandered the streets, but we were getting hungry (especially after all the good smells from Isetan!) so we headed back to the curry house we had enjoyed so much last week for a repeat of their Tonkatsu Curry. Equally delicious the second time!

After resting we headed into Daikanyama to visit the Aranzi Aronzo boutique. They are independent character designers, so they’re not in the character goods sections of stores and most of their products can only be found in their shop (or online). They make stationery, bags, fabric, stamps, plates and glasses, pins, stickers, assorted little bits and pieces, and their shop is an adorable little green-tiled oasis. It was wonderful. I’ve known about their work online for ages, but seeing it all in person was so special. They are my heroes. I came out with wide eyes and told JSR that I want a Nut and Bee shop so much! (Sadly, Auckland is not the place for it.)

Yesterday we wrapped up the last full day of the trip with a visit to the Ghibli Museum. It had been some effort to arrange tickets (which must be purchased months in advance!) but… oh my goodness… it was an amazing visit. The museum is not very large but every part of it is enchanting. The building is full of nooks and crannies, the exhibits were marvellous, the short film we watched was beautiful (sadly it was not the one featuring Mei and the Catbus from My Neighbour Totoro, but they rotate four films so I did not have my hopes up), the Laputa robot on the roof looked down on us all… but my favourite part was the area about how animation is made. All of the walls of the rooms were covered with sketches and watercolours and matte painted backgrounds, with work desks and reference books and all kinds of ephemera piled in. I had to try really hard not to cry because it was so wonderful. No photos were allowed, but I remember it well, and we will definitely visit again when we come back!

Today is our day to pack up and go to the airport, which is quite sad. This has been the best holiday ever, and I am so pleased that JSR loves Tokyo as much as I do! We will be home early tomorrow morning, and I will post photos as soon as I can…

Yesterday was Sunday, so of course we went to Harajuku! Unfortunately there were no lolitas or Elvises or anyone else hanging out :( I understand that the authorities try and sweep loiterers out of the area every now and then, so perhaps that was the reason, or perhaps it was just too cold – though I’m seeing plenty of miniskirts and shorts and other outfits that would give me hypothermia!

Harajuku was still great fun though. First we looked at a few shops, including Kiddyland, which I remember as being the best toy store I visited last time I was here. It came through again with five floors of fun, and a couple of things I’d been looking for but hadn’t found yet, including a sweet kitty-face wallet to replace my current, half-disintegrated one. I also bought some stickers from a vending machine, just because I’ve never done that before and was curious about the mechanic. (It’s quite simple really, the stickers come out in a little cardboard sleeve when you pull a handle.)

After the shops we had lunch at Shakey’s Pizza. I don’t mind eating Western food some of the time because I like to experience the Japanese versions. It’s common to hear about how weird and horrible Japanese pizza is, but you know what? Some pieces I ate had seaweed, and some had squid, and many had corn, but they were all really tasty. Ha! Plus, I learned that a “viking” meal means all-you-can-eat.

We spent some of the afternoon looking in the Design Festa galleries. These offer lots of small spaces that can be rented at reasonable rates for self-hosted exhibitions, and judging by the website they are usually full of fun and light-hearted work. We ran into the Pixiv Festa, a large exhibition of work from illustrators and artists from the Pixiv website, and it was the most fun art event I’ve ever been to. On entry we were given a sheet of star stickers, to stick next to our favourite pieces, and there were other stickers and tables all around to write messages and comments. I’ll probably write a post later about my favourite pieces, as I collected business cards for lots of the artists. We both really enjoyed seeing a glimpse of a visual art scene very different from what we have at home.

Later in the evening we finished off the day with a trip to the laundrette. YAY! I’m not being sarcastic, I like to do ‘normal’ things like laundry when travelling.

Today we took a break from the inner city and headed out to Hakone, a region about two hours out of Tokyo by train, with several small towns and natural hot springs nestled into the mountains. Once you reach the first town in the area you can take a ’round trip’ course consisting of a scenic train through the forest; a funicular to the top of a mountain; a cable car partway down the other side; a cruise across a lake; a walk along an ancient cedar avenue planted by the shogunate in 1618; and finally a bus to take you back to the start of the loop. Obviously it’s set up for tourists, but on a winter Monday everything was nice and quiet.

My favourite part was the cable car, which offered beautiful views of Mt Fuji. Luckily today was the first clear day we’ve had, with blue sky and sunshine, though still very cold. Mt Fuji isn’t really that different-looking to local mountains, but seeing it is so exciting for Japanese people that the feeling rubs off :) The fresh air and nature provided excellent variety, and my feet appreciated a rest from constant walking.

Time is flying, and I can hardly believe we only have two full days left here…

As gleefully noted here it snowed yesterday (!!!) so we wrapped up in extra layers before heading into Shibuya. This is one of the big shopping areas of Tokyo and we had several stops in mind, particularly Loft – imagine a department store, where all the boring things are taken out and replaced with awesome things – and Tokyo Hands – imagine a store where you can buy anything. Seriously, anything. Theremin? They’ve got one. Beakers and other labware? Yep! Fourteen different types of thing to separate your toes while you paint the nails? No problem. It’s pretty amazing, though it makes me a little sad not to live near an everything-store.

We stopped at a Japanese curry house for lunch, and I can barely communicate the deliciousness. Perhaps it was just that we were cold and wet and hungry, but the tonkatsu and rice with curry sauce seemed to be the best thing I’ve ever eaten.

Spoils for the day included a large, soft body pillow in the shape of a disgruntled monkey, who will be excellent for taking couch naps with, and some “Breath Palette” toothpastes. They offer 32 flavours! Having learned my lesson with the cheese chocolate we did not get the curry or soy bean options, but I’m looking forward to brushing with grape, orange and pineapple.

Today we checked out Nakano Broadway, which is an amazing mall that is the hub of vintage, retro and second-hand toys and figurines in Tokyo. There were so many stores selling amazing wares you’d never find anywhere else (except maybe eBay), including “cube” spaces where people can rent a portion of a glass case and run their own mini shop. Some of those had hand crafted toys and accessories, and I’m sure some were professional dealers, but most seemed to be collection overflows. I’m nosy so I love to see people’s focus and what kinds of things they were selling. The other interesting type of store that I haven’t seen elsewhere were those that opened up lots of capsule and blind box toys, repackaging them into clear bags and pricing according to rarity. I would like to run one of those shops!

We also stopped in at Nekobukuro, the “Cat’s Playland” in Ikebukuro. After paying an entry fee you enter a series of rooms with perhaps 20 cats running, climbing and sleeping. You can pet them as much as you want! We petted a lot. There were lots of different kinds of cats, but our favourite was the biggest cat we have ever seen. Sitting in the normal cat stance he must have been at least 45cm tall, and I bet when he stretches out he is over a metre! We thought Mr. Kitty had been a big cat, but this guy was easily half his size again. We couldn’t read the sign but I looked him up on the website and Google translation confirmed that he is a Maine Coon – I think there may be one in our future…

We’re suffering quite a bit from sore feet, after days and days of walking, but hot baths and resting at night is keeping us up and about. Tomorrow we will visit Harajuku!

We’re sitting in the cafe at the entrance to our hotel, having breakfast and using the wi-fi, and GUYS, IT IS TOTALLY SNOWING!

This is super exciting – it doesn’t snow where we live, and I’ve only experienced it three or four times before in my life. It’s very light and melting as soon as it hits the street, but there are little flakes wafting hither and yon. Snooooooow! It doesn’t even seem that cold, but it’s been coming down steadily for the last half hour or so.

Best. Trip. Ever.

Tokyoooooooo!

We’ve been here for two days now and it is AWESOME!

The flight and trip to the Sakura Ikebukuro Hotel on Tuesday both went very smoothly. Our room is nicer than I imagined, given that it was the cheapest one I could find that still had a private bathroom (albeit one of space-station-worthy compactness), and the bed is surprisingly comfortable. The pillow has a regular smooshy top, with a layer of beans underneath that forms to the shape of your head, and I really want to buy one for home…

Yesterday we started off by visiting the Ginza and Marunouchi areas. Ginza is a high-end fashion district and wouldn’t generally be our cup of tea, but I wanted to visit Hakuhinkan Toy Park, and JSR needed to stop by the Apple store to buy a new charger for his laptop. The Apple store was full of clean young people in brightly coloured t-shirts, and met our shiny white requirements. I was slightly disappointed by Hakuhinkan, which didn’t have anything I wanted to buy, but I knew there would be other toy stores on the trip.

We ate our very first macarons from Dalloyau in the Mitsukoshi department store. Nobody sells macarons in Auckland and I’ve been dying to try them after reading so much online. They were delicious, with a lightly crispy outer shell and a soft chewy center, and now I know what they are meant to be like I’ll try and bake my own at home.

Trying to get lunch in Marunouchi was mildly disastrous, with lots of wrong turns and renovation work in stations changing the exit layouts and confusion about whether landmarks were above or below ground. We finally got to the conveyor sushi place I had been recommended – conveyor sushi is excellent for skirting the language barrier, and even the cheapest kind is amazing. We also visited the Meiji 100% Choco Cafe, who make 56 varieties of chocolate. We bought little blocks of six kinds, two of which we’ve tried so far. “Maple” was yum, and “Cheese” was, um, not so much. But who could pass up the opportunity to try cheesey chocolate? Four more to go, including “Black Pepper” and “Lemon Salt”….

Today we headed to Yamashiroya in Ueno, another large toy store. This one was much better than Hakuhinkan and I made several small purchases – some San-X stickers, tiny Rody figurines, a blind-box toy of the Capybara character who amuses me so much, and a couple of presents. I also succumbed to a gashapon capsule machine (no doubt the first of many), again for the Capybara, and ended up with a little plushy. Capsule machines are a lot of fun – they’re cheap, and it’s kind of like a game, but you’re guaranteed to get a prize. Whee!

We spent the rest of the day in Akihabara. This is the district famous for its “Electric Town”, and it has all the geekery you can imagine, from alleyways of tiny, absurdly specialised outlets for various types of electrical component to enormous multi-story anime and manga stores. JSR was entranced! We don’t need any more gadgets, so it was pretty much browsing only, but we each went for another capsule toy.

Tomorrow we will be visiting Shibuya and I’m really looking forward to Loft and Tokyu Hands! The promised internet access in our room has not eventuated and we have to go down to the lobby to use the wi-fi, so I may not blog again for a little while, but I’m still checking my email at least once a day.

P.S. Photos will be coming once we get home – I forgot to bring the cord to connect our camera to the laptop! Oops! I could buy another one but it seems like a needless expense as we already have two at home, and our memory card is large enough to store a trip’s worth of pictures.