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Published: March 13th 2008
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Mobile!
The top half is from an empty capsule-toy capsule. I'd been wanting to put one of those to use for a while now. Well, not too much has changed since my last post. But I do have a bunch of pictures to put up that I think people would get a kick out of.
Things of recent note include a homemade hanging mobile over my bed, a long walk down the river in Higashikurume with Liz during the warm weekend, going to Harajuku with Liz and Aimee (and it being basically their first real look there), and taking a second trip to the Ghibli Museum, this time with Lauren, Aimee, and Liz.
The walk with Liz down the river was pretty fantastic. Near the dorm, and if you go down the river traveling west for a ways (upriver), it's fenced on both sides with an occasional bridge to cross over to the other side if you wish. That being the case, there's no chance of actually going down close to the river. You can only look down over the fencing and look at it from several feet up. When I met up with Liz randomly after deciding to take a stroll by myself, we got some lunch at McDonald's, we explored two shrines in the city, then walked downriver, to the east.
Closer
Made with a handful of glass beads, crimp beads, and black string. After about half an hour or so of walking this way, the fences suddenly disappeared, and the asphalt ground beneath us turned to dirt. We saw tons of ducks and huge carp and many people out walking their dogs. I even got... somewhat of a harmless come-on from an old man in a track suit (on the other side of a fenced section of the river, at least) that left Liz and I red-faced and laughing pretty hard together down the river. The sakura trees (cherry trees back home) are just beginning to bloom here. It was wonderful to catch our first glimpses of the lovely flowers that are opening on them in so many shades of pink. After an hour's walk downriver, the wind picked up and it got cold pretty fast, so Liz and I headed home for the day. It was one of the nicer walks I've had here, actually.
The trip with Liz and Aimee to Harajuku supplied many pictures, at least. It was Sunday, and that's when stuff seems to shake in Harajuku. We went to the crazy bridge and looked at all the crazy people. We saw the rockabillies again, this time in
Top
I poked holes in the capsule with push-pins full force. We went to Meiji-Jingu shrine and caught glimpses of 2 wedding processions. I couldn't believe how worn out I was by the end of the day. Harajuku always seems to do that to me...
The trip we took to the Ghibli Museum was fantastic, as expected. We had bought tickets to be in there as soon as the museum opened, and we spent the entire day there, from open to close. I was so happy to get so much time to REALLY take in all the astonishing details of the museum. I managed to find a handful of things that I hadn't seen my first time, and that's excluding the stuff Daniel and I just weren't able to see the first time, like the cinema and the cafe. And THOSE two... I feel more sorry for not being able to see the first time, now that I know just how amazing they really are. The cinema was fantastic. We ended up seeing the short that I most wanted to see out of the 6 or 7 that circulate, "水グモもんもん" (read "mizu gumo monmon). Translated, it means MonMon the Water Spider. Who would've thought that one 15-minute short
With the Flash On
To show the colors better could show a person SO much. It was detailed almost to an absurd point. It was the cutest little story. I fell in love with that little movie, and I even got a little teary-eyed by the end. Needless to say, I bought a key chain in the gift shop for the movie that you can only get at the museum ^_^.
We ate lunch at a hot dog stand right outside the cafe, and that was amazing as well. Lauren and Liz had ice cream, and Aimee and I had cups of 3-bean curry with a little quail egg on top. It was a great way to recharge and head back into the museum on. After detailed exploration of the museum's nooks and crannies and really taking everything in, we had an early dinner at the Straw Hat Cafe in the museum. All the things I've read about it were absolutely true. This place was jaw-dropping. The best way I could possibly describe it would be...
Imagine a decent sized cottage in the European countryside that got converted to a restaurant. Everyone in town knows this place, and everyone eats there as often as they can. People
Last One
Just an arty shot for kicks. from all over the world are eating here, and even though they aren't saying anything to people outside their own tables, it almost feels like you know everyone already. Even though it's your first time sitting down at a table here, you feel as if you've lived here all your life, and keep looking over your shoulder at the kitchen, expecting some plump, pretty lady in an apron to come out, call you by name, and give you a warm hug, asking where you've been.
The menu had about seven options for the main course, a handful of desserts, and pretty decent sized drink list. The wonderful thing about such few food options was that you could tell they spent serious time making sure that the thing you ordered to have brought out to you was GOOD. And everything was. It felt like sitting down and having a meal at a friend's house. I couldn't imagine a better way to top of that second trip to the museum. It was damn near perfect.
Well, for now that's all I've got. Enjoy the pictures, and I'll see you all next post.
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