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Published: November 19th 2011
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Well! What a big day yesterday was; and our last in Tokyo. Adventures in a Japanese Post Office, Sanrio Puroland and then taking the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto. We got up early and packed up our room at the Shibuya Tobu Hotel, dumped our bags and then raced for Shibuya station and the train to Keio-tama-center. A shout out to Deki for all her research and help with our Hello Kitty adventure (amongst other things) - the Keio train map was very very helpful!
Within a week we had bought enough to be able to send a big box home (Butters: I always wanted a huge package from Japan! Koh-neechy-wah!) so we hit the post office to get rid of it before our next major move, ie the next time we had to lug our packs around for extended periods on Japanese mass transit! Took a little while but we got it posted in the end, although not before the post office lady got out her giant phrasebook and pointed at "Could you be a little more specific about that?" in response to Tess' somewhat lax approach to filling in the forms.
But back to the important part.
SANRIO PUROLAND! Hello Kitty Land. Land of Dreams and/or Nightmares, depending on whether you are in Camp Aisha or Team Tess. Ummmm....it's kinda hard to describe. Probably the closest we can get would be...
PURE. UNBRIDLED. INSANITY.
It's so kawaii it hurts your brain a little (Aisha: or a lot). And what Tess found refreshing/endearing and Aisha found confusing/disturbing was that it's all done with a 100% lack of irony. Hello Kitty, My Melody and various other characters are wandering around and little kids run up to them, beaming, to give them a big hug and get their photo taken. But so do adults. Really. We saw grown women squeal, with the biggest grins of joy on their faces, as they ran up to Hello Kitty (IE A HUMAN BEING WEARING A HELLO KITTY COSTUME) waving hysterically, hugging and hugging her, before excitedly posing for X-thousand photos.
Because it's indoors (there's another Hello Kitty land somewhere else in Japan which is outdoors, which obvi Tess will force Aisha to attend next time), the atmosphere is heightened, like you're in a giant Cave O' Kawaii. There was a stage show on, which was an adequate simulation of being
on some fairly severe psychotropic drugs. Also, lots of little school kids were there on excursion, which was pretty impressive, as were their matching hats and the military operation that was them eating their lunch in the food hall.
Of course, the highlight of Hello Kitty Land is Hello Kitty's House. Again, pretty sure LSD was involved. She's evidently a pathologically narcissistic individual as everything in her house is shaped like her or looks like her. Wallpaper. Dining chairs. Fireplace. Bath. iMac (the original orange and white egg shaped one...really, Kitty?). Car. Handbags. Windows. You get the idea.
Before you leave her house, you can pose with Hello Kitty for two photos. Ahead of us was a grown man, there by himself, wearing a Mickey Mouse in Fantasia hat and carrying Mickey's wand (I think he'd already been to Tokyo Disney Resort?) who was obviously VERY into the whole experience and insisted on dramatically lunging forward whilst waving his wand at the poor girl having to take his picture. He did some practice lunges and waves while he was waiting in line too, just to make sure he had it down for his big moment with HK herself.
When it was our turn, they decided Tess' blue t-shirt wouldn't show up on the green screen, so (obvi, what other POSSIBLE solution could there be), they gave her a SATIN VAMPIRE CAPE to wear over the top. Yes. That is what happened. It could have been totally cool to wear a vampire cape while having a photo taken with Hello Kitty, but because Tess wasn't allowed to have any t-shirt showing, she had to hold it tightly closed so now it just looks like she was wearing a daggy parka for her photo with Hello Kitty. Less awesome.
The final highlight of Puroland was getting our portrait painted, kawaii style! The guy was actually a really good artist, it took about 20 minutes but was so worth it. We both burst out laughing when we saw the end result, it's uncanny how he was able to turn us into cartoon characters and yet still make them very obviously 'us'. Although Aisha thinks he looks like a white Barack Obama. Kinda true.
After departing Puroland, we grabbed our bags from the hotel and took the train to Shinagawa, the departure station for the Shinkansen to Kyoto. Now,
when they say 'a brief stop' they aren't kidding. We barely had enough time to race to our car (about 3km up the platform it seemed!), jump on and find our seats before the train started moving again. The Shinkansen deserves full credit for being an insanely fast way to get from point A to point B without ANY of the mucking around, waiting and cramped conditions that are air travel's stock in trade. While we'd hoped to see some of the countryside outside Tokyo on the trip, thanks to the VERY short days here (seems to get light around 8am and twilight starts at about 3:30pm) we didn't see much, but every time we could see out the window we saw lights and signs of habitation.
Just two and a half hours and two stops later we were in Kyoto, without feeling like we'd even left Tokyo. After a good navigational fail by Aisha and subsequent help from some very obliging Kyoto natives, we managed to find the Capsule Ryokan. The room is small (like 10m2 small) with a tatami floor, and a folding bed/storage/couch area that pretty much fills the whole room, but they've managed to fit
in just about everything you could need (including a space age monsoon shower and a disturbingly automated toilet that lifts the lid when you open the door. We think it might almost qualify as sentient. After a quick trip up to the closest cheap noodle joint for dinner (got to love any country with a Buddhist tradition, you never feel ripped off picking vegetarian meals) we retired to bed, absolutely wiped!
After a fairly reasonable night's sleep (not always the case in Tokyo - who fills a pillow with twigs and grass?!?) we have woken to find the rain is absolutely HAMMERING down in Kyoto, so today may prove somewhat more restful and recuperative than previously anticipated. Aisha has already been soaked to the bone once this morning when he very chivalrously did a solo breakfast mission as Tess is pretty tired today. We are hoping to at least get out to the massive Kyoto Handicrafts Centre (a craft co-op - an INDOORS craft co-op!) at some point today. Tomorrow bodes better in the weather department though, so our plans to visit a few temples/shrines and ole mate Sayuri in Gion will hopefully be a bit less damp than
they would have today!
Love to all
Tess & Aisha
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Amy
non-member comment
vampire capes
ie, why are there no photos of this? PS "Amy, can you look at this work related thing?" me: "no i'm busy reading about my cousin in hello kitty land"