Usagi Yojimbo DojoBoard

I had posted earlier about my Japan trip, but it occurred to me today that I did not post why I'm going to Japan. I've been under tight deadlines recently.

I will be one of two traveling artists with 20 students from the Savannah College of Art and Design. The other artist is Bernard Chang. Every year SCAD takes a small group of students to Tokyo (they also have an annual European trip). Each day we would do a few hours of class time, then there will be an outing in the afternoon--to the Miyazaki Museum, Akihabara, Kamakura, Asakusa, etc. I used a connection I have at TMS, an animation studio, to arrange tours to their studio and to Studio Ghibli which I am really excited about.

The formal tour with the classes will be about a week, but I will be staying another week to travel down to Hiroshima. I also want to take a day trip to Nikko National Park. I was in Nikko in a February when the temperature was -8 C, and Kegon Waterfall was frozen over. This time I would like to see it in fall colors.

It has been about 11 years since I have travelled to Japan. Any advice you can give me is greatly appreciated, especially about Hiroshima.

Now I am sad. SCAD is the art school I wanted to go to for my batchlors, but could not afford and then I thought about going to it for grade school but I have not been able t figure out how to fund that. Man I would have loved to been taught by you sir, and to have had a chance to tour Japan and Studio Ghibli.

Unfortunately I do not have anything in advice, but I do have a friend over there teaching English in Osaka. He is living in an apartment complex behind the national Bunraku, or was it Kabuki? theater.

Anyway have a great time, take lots of photos for us back here!!!

Sorry Stan to answer so lately.

Ghibli museum is a wonderful place. It is great you have planned to go there (since you have to buy in advanced tickets, and there are several sessions a day to enter...). They play a short animated movie that they change time to time. One was about Totoro, I saw one about the dog Goro (?)

It is great you will have time to go to Nikko National Park, I unfortunately only went to Nikko that is so beautiful but didn't have time to do the park...

Well I have nothing in particular to say about Hiroshima. I refound my Japan trip notes, and the Dome is to see at day, after work when young make music, and at night. There is the castle too to visit, where you can wear a samurai armor. In the shop alley, there was a "ghibli" liked store named FanFan that was worth to see.
If youare interested and if you have enough time, of course there is the museum.
And probably Hiroshima is the best town to do bicycle

About curiosity there was a "patisserie" in the gare station, where you could buy terrific cakes (hello kitty cake, totoro cake etc...) that was really good. But is it still there?
We slept in a ryokan, and i pretty like ryokan.

If you have a JR pass i do remember boat to miyajima was included (but not sure)

About Miyajima, I spent a long day there. Perhaps it is worth to see O Tori at the sunset. Time to time I understood there was music festival, perhaps it would be interesting to know if there is one when you go.
Well, it is worth to go everywhere, some people don't want to walk but there are so beautiful temples with so many folkloric items, that a day is not too much to spend.

A good source of information here :
http://wikitravel.org/en/Hiroshima
Touristic info :
http://www.hcvb.city.hiroshima.jp/e_navigator/
http://www.gethiroshima.com/

I must confess Stan that if i had free time I would have come ! (I think time to time to go back to Japan)

Fanfan wrote:
I must confess Stan that if i had free time I would have come ! (I think time to time to go back to Japan)

Yes, I remember the time we traveled in France. You are a wonderful traveling companion.

Thank you for all the information.

I'd love to see Studio Ghibli up close. PRINCESS MONONOKE is probably the closest existing representation of how I'd personally want an USAGI YOJIMBO movie to turn out.

Enjoy the trip, Stan.

Yeah for a fall trip! Have a great time and I hope you get to see some lovely color for the trees.

I haven't been to Hiroshima, but as for the Tokyo area....I'm guessing you know about most of these places and features. I'm just commenting on some things I saw or enjoyed at them.

Asakusa is great shopping fun. The stalls all around the temple are full of wonderful things at good prices. My fellow iado students about cleaned out one woman of ia obi--they were much better prices than anywhere online in the US.
It's also the temple with the famous gateway, and the small bronze Buddha who's belly you're supposed to rub for good luck, if I recall correctly.

Kamakura has one of the two giant bronze Buddhas. (I saw that on my first trip, and the other one in Nara on my second trip.)

Nikko is fun, yeah for Kegon falls, which had a little ice when I was there at the end of a March, but it was flowing. I'm guessing being up in the mountains it's always colder up there. The drive up to the lake on that curvy road is crazy.
And of course the Toushougu Shrine is certainly worth the visit to see. Even if one's opinion is "sooo gaudy" it's amazing craftsmanship.

If you have more time, a visit to the graves of the 47 Ronin is a small site to visit, but has an interesting impact when you stand there....

Also, I enjoyed the park in Ueno. The statue for the real "last samurai" is there, among a few other fun things.

While I don't know about shopping in the Ginza, seeing it in the early evening as the lights are coming on is worth walking around.

Shinjuku has the large Kinokuniya, and some large department stores if you want that bit of fun.

I'll be back in Japan again next spring for our sword classes' third trip.
We'll have a few days for Nikko and Tokyo, and back to Kyoto.
So I'll look forward to hearing about the places I haven't been to in Tokyo, just in case I get a chance on this next trip.

The only things off the top of my head are:

1) Hunting down the Godzilla statue in Shibuya (SE of Hibiya Park)

http://shibuya1oh9.blogspot.com/2007/12 ... tatue.html

(I actually found it using Google Maps "satellite / street view" feature a couple of times)

2) The Kure Maritime Museum ("Yamato Museum") in Hiroshima. Noted for its artifacts from the Battleship Yamato (including a 1/10 scale model of the ship) and other items... According to the following review, there is a general lack of English language translations for the exhibits, which could put a damper on things...

http://apike.ca/japan_kure_yamato.html

Have a good trip, Stan!

hi stan,
it's great to hear about your upcoming trip to japan. like most vacations, you'll wonder where the time went. in tokyo, you'll wonder where your yen went..........
i've been lucky enough to make over a dozen trips to tokyo and i've got a few suggestions for you.

If you are travelling by rail to Hiroshima, get a Japan Rail GREEN pass before your trip (it's worth the extra money). The GREEN car on the Shinkansen is a much more relaxed/pleasurable experience than the regular car. Keep your eye out for Mt. Fuji............
In Tokyo, get a Suica card. This will allow you to travel on any transit line, be it JR subway or Metro subway without having to purchase each ticket individually.

Travel spots: i strongly recommend visiting Tsukiji Ichiba (before they move the market to the Haneda area). Favorite stores in the world: Tokyu Hands (Shinjuku store) and Yodabashi Akiba (Akihabara).

#1 suggestion: wear comfortable shoes................

Ken

Hi Ken, Thanks for the suggestions. Fortunately, all our travel will be covered, but I doubt it will be with a Green pass. I know we are going to Tsukiji and Akihabara. We will also have a few days on our own in Tokyo, or we may opt not to join the group in sightseeing on any particular day. We did get to see Mt Fuji the last time we were there as we traveled the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto.

khyron82 wrote: 1) Hunting down the Godzilla statue in Shibuya (SE of Hibiya Park)

We did find the Godzilla statue the last time we were there. The funny thing is that we were not looking for it, and did not even know there was one. We just stumbled upon it by accident as we were walking around the area. Too bad it isn't life-size, as the new Gigantor in Kobe is.

I wonder how big a life-size Godzilla statue would be since his size seems to be a little bit flexible in the movies (sort of like King Kong in the original 1933 film).

If I were in Tokyo, I think one of the first things I would want to see would be the Tokyo Tower. Seeing it for real after seeing it destroyed in pretty much every Kaijyu movie ever made would be a bizarre experience.