Sailor Moon Exhibit at the Mori Art Museum

Living in Japan is awesome for a lot of reasons, one of which being that no where else in the world would I have had the opportunity to go to a Sailor Moon art show.

Sailor Moon + Art Gallery? Sign me up!

Of course we all know Sailor Moon. It was one of the 90’s biggest cartoons. It wasn’t one of the more influential television programs of my childhood, but I certainly remember watching it and thinking it was awesome. (Those magical girl transformation sequences, man. Top notch.) It actually had a bigger impact on me much more recently- one of my newer and most important friends, Paloma, also had fond memories of the show and we bonded over watching the new series last year.

Sailor Moon is such an iconic character in Japan and worldwide, it’s such a lovely story and the art is gorgeous. So I’d have gone to see this regardless, but this post is particularly dedicated to Paloma. (Girl you’d have DIED.)

How beautiful is the ad?!

This was incidentally my first time visiting Roppongi’s Mori Art Museum. The floor containing the special exhibits had an absolutely phenomenal view of Roppongi through huge windows making up the walls.

This first room of the gallery took advantage of the brilliant natural lighting to set up huge posters as a backdrop to the central display.

The central display was a round table of various merchandise from throughout the years, and a nice model of the Sailor Scouts for a photo-op.

Obviously we went for the photo-op

And of course, had a look at the merchandise.

Like, there was a lot of merch

So much merch

(If you listen carefully, you can hear the sound Paloma weeping gently from Canada.)

There was a really great selection of other pieces and props, as well as art and posters and the like, but of course a lot of it wasn’t allowed to be photographed, as tends to be the case in galleries.

A lot was okay to capture, though! So here’s a taste.

I loved the character design sketches and this wall of panels from the show. It was a beautifully put together exhibit, really.

With no shortage of cardboard cutouts to pose with.

As we left the exhibit, we got free soda! It was tremendously sweet and maybe something citrus-y. I really liked it. Thanks, Sailor Moon!

We then went to the themed restaurant that was set up in the museum and waited in line for like two hours. Spoilers- it was so so so worth it.

Look at that menu! Look how pink it is! Look at all the adorable SNACKS!

Took a picture of the prop Tuxedo Mask spaghetti because I can’t stop laughing. It has rose petals on it. I wish I could have ordered everything, but my eyes were on the prize.

The pinkest hamburger.

Maybe it was because we didn’t get our food until like 3:00 and I hadn’t eaten yet that day but I swear this was the best thing I’ve ever tasted.

For dessert, I got a gloriously aesthetic fruit and jello parfait.

I might need to go back again to eat more at the cafe. And maybe buy more at the gift shop.

I really do think Sailor Moon is super cool. I probably appreciate it a lot more now than I did as a kid, but looking back it did have a lot of great lessons. It taught kids about the power of friendship and not to give up on yourself. To fight what you believe in. That you don’t have to be perfect to be a strong person, it’s okay to rely on others, and it’s okay to fall down if you get back up. And that sometimes it’s the prince who needs saving and the princess is absolutely capable of kicking ass.

Kyu Furukawa Gardens

Sakura season in Japan has long since passed and summer is already almost upon us. Luckily for me, there are still lots of other flowers to enjoy. And I certainly intend to enjoy all the flowers Japan has to offer. (I really have a thing for flowers. I’m my mother’s daughter, I guess!)

Last week I went to another of the Metropolitan Cultural Heritage Gardens in Tokyo. This garden was a little different from the other ones I had been to. Half the garden was in the usual traditional Japanese style, with a large pond and beautiful stone walkways through surrounding trees and plants. The other half was done in a western style, with a large stone residence and a beautiful rose garden.

The Japanese garden, as usual, was beautifully lush and tranquil (especially on a spectacularly hot day).

While walking around the pond, we spied some ladies having a tea ceremony in a tiny teahouse out in the trees. Of course we wouldn’t disturb them, but we did find it interesting that there was no visible path to access the teahouse.

We didn’t spend a ton of time in the Japanese part of the garden because really, I was there for the roses. The park was having a rose festival to celebrate the flowers being in full bloom, with lots of stalls selling memorabilia and treats.

Like this ROSE FLAVOURED ICE CREAM ❤

And without further ado, here are lots of pictures of roses.

Some roses were beginning to look a little worn, so we made it just in time! We didn’t get a chance to go inside the old building (which I think was a cafe now?) so I’ll certainly have to go back to see the garden’s other flowers throughout the year.

I think that’s my new signoff: “I’ll definitely have to go back!”

Golden Week: Days 6-8

After the Hakone adventure, it was back to lounging around Tokyo for the remainder of the week. (Plus one more day off, since my usual day off work added on to the end of the vacation period very nicely). Unfortunately my phone was a bit on the fritz during these last few days, so I didn’t capture a ton of pictures of my scuttling around town. (Or maybe that’s fortunate?)

On Wednesday I went all out and around the city to enjoy an absolutely perfect sunshiney day. I started off wandering in Harajuku, sitting in cafes as I tend to do. I then went over to  Kameido Tenjin Shrine in Shitamachi to see the Fuji Matsuri, or wisteria festival. Although I’d heard that wisterias are in their fullest bloom in late April/early May, it seems at this temple they were already past their prime. Still, the garden was gorgeous and the shrine had plenty of fun stalls and live performances, so it was far from disappointing!

After that we went down to Marunouchi to see if we could find any free music performances for “Marunouchi Music Week”. There was a neat classical performance happening inside the Marunouchi Building but we didn’t see much else going on. Really I just enjoyed wandering the area- I’d never been before and it really reminded me of the ritzier side of Toronto.

After that we went to Nakano to explore the izakaya area and ended up at a really nice sort of Japanese-tapas bar. It was delicious and delightful and I couldn’t take any pictures. Guess I’ll just have to go again! 😉 For you, dear readers.

---

 

On Thursday I got up pretty early to hustle out to Chiba so I could check out the Doki Doki Flea Market. I seriously love flea markets. And this one spectacular. There were THOUSANDS of vendors selling recycled goods and handmade crafts. It was the last day of the three-day market as well, so it was really busy.

See the size of that room? There were four of those rooms. People had tables or sections of floor piled up with all kids of things. It was impossible for me to look through every single person’s stash in detail, but I ended up staying way way longer than I had planned to, trying my absolute hardest.

Some rooms had people selling out their cars, which was awesome.

There was also a room with a stage and live music performances, as well as some food stalls and games and activities for kids.

Now, I love knick-knacks, but resisted taking pictures of every pile of cool trinkets I saw. Here’s a picture that basically sums up my time, though:

Just a pile of cards and stationary chilling on the floor. I spent a good while literally half an hour sifting through the cards with the other grandmas and I’ve never been happier. I got some really nice cards to send to people who’ve requested mail from Japan!

Here’s what else I bought:

adorable tiny scented candles FOR A DOLLAR

adorable tiny scented elephant candles ALSO FOR A DOLLAR

this ridiculous keychain of Kathryn’s favourite character (pretty sure she’s not up to date with my blog but just in case SURPRISE, KATHRYN! GOT YOU A PRESENT <3)

these fabulous earring EACH FOR FIVE DOLLARS

and volume two of the One Piece Colour Walk, found in a box of random books for a dollar.

What is this, you may wonder? It’s an art book by the author of One Piece, a story I’ve very seriously been following since I was 12. That’s 12 years. Half my life. And it’s still going.

I’ve actually wanted this for a while, it’s so pretty! (Also, HA at everyone who thought I wasn’t a huge nerd.)

All in all, I definitely should have bought more, but there was simply too much to see at the flea market! Impossible to find every treasure. But I’m pretty happy with my finds!

---

 

And that brings us to Friday! My last day of a long and eventful vacation. This day was much much more laid back, so I really don’t have pictures. It was a cool and rainy day, so Pearl and I went cafe hopping in Shimo-Kitazawa.

Rain and cafes make a really nice and cozy atmosphere for catching up and sipping coffee. We both had lots of Golden Week stories to share, so we had a very relaxed time sitting around and chatting.

And also I ate red velvet waffles.

We wandered about, I picked up some second hand books and some other nonsense, and then I headed back home in the afternoon. And for the first time in a while, I did nothing exciting. I lazed about, I doodled in my journals, and did some household chores, I wrote the other three Golden Week blog posts. I was extremely happy to have one lazy day before heading back to work!

All in all, a great holiday. I loved all the new areas of Tokyo I got to explore, and loved getting out to Hakone, and really just loved having a week to fill with anything I wanted to do, following no agenda. It’s nice to be back at work, of course, but Golden Week was very appreciated.

Hakone Open-Air Museum

Hakone is a beautiful and tranquil little grandma town of onsens, cafes, and museums. In other words, Katherine Paradise. Really considering why I don’t live there. My little getaway to the mountains only really involved one exciting outing, since most museums surprisingly closed at 4 and I was only really there for one day. Fortunately during that one day a lot of time was spent at the Hakone Open-Air Museum. It’s really more of a sculpture park than anything else, and it’s absolutely gorgeous.

Beautiful green gardens with beautiful artistic pieces of all shapes and sizes woven in to the scenery. Even though it was a public holiday, the museum wasn’t extraordinarily busy and I got to stroll around in an uninterrupted happy, tranquil daze.

This was my favourite sculpture in the museum, and this kid came to photobomb at the perfect moment. It makes my shot so much better.

I feel I relate to this piece especially.

There was a little Picasso exhibit in the museum as well, displaying a number of his sketches and paintings and other various works. No photos were allowed, of course, but it was very interesting

There was also a tiny foot bath with oranges floating in the warm water, making everything smell like beautiful citrus

Also there were big awesome egg seats/sculptures for children/us to play on.

If you’re going to Hakone, I really recommend this place. Callum was hesitant to come with me because he’s “not an art person” (what does that mean even) but he admits he still really enjoyed it. The walk is well worth the admission fee.

 

Golden Week: Days 3-5

Alternatively titled- MY TRIP TO HAKONE!

Hanging around Tokyo for the week was obviously not going to be boring, but I really did want to take the opportunity to get out of the bustling city for a little while. So it was decided rather last minute that I’d go on a nice little grandma getaway with the wife (my roommate Callum) to Hakone.

Hakone is only a few hours out of Tokyo by bus but is a completely different world. Everything is a little slower, a little more relaxed, and absolutely overflowing with greenery. It’s a pretty famous mountainous town popular for lots of onsens (bath houses) and is a popular getaway spot. Although maybe not for foreigners, because although we stand out a bit in the city, people were THRILLED to see us in Hakone. They were pointing and gasping and waving through passing train windows, I felt very celebrity.

I mentioned that this was a “grandma vacation”, because that’s really the best term to describe every aspect of the trip. Callum and I are grandmas, and everything about the trip was grandma- nice, relaxed, slow, and peaceful. For example, after taking a train to Odawara, we got on the local grandma train like through Hakone. It was the slowest moving train I’ve ever been on, and moved through gorgeous scenery (although we were a bit early in the season for the famous hydrengas).

We finally got to the end of the line, and opted not to take the cable car further up the steepest part of the mountain and to walk up to our onsen.

Fun story about finding our onsen, though: Websites didn’t have the right address. The site Callum booked our room on had an address, of course, but when we tried to open the link it was invalid. So we used some other sites, which had our onsen’s name attached to different buildings. See below: TripAdvisor shows the building clearly. We go to it, are confused by the exterior not looking like the photos on the booking site, and lo google maps reveals that it is not in fact the onsen but a landscaping store.

      

And it wasn’t just TripAdvisor that had a wrong address. This actually happened three times, walking around the mountain with our heavy bags until we finally found it. The real address on google maps wasn’t in English so it took us a while to figure it out. But at last, we made it!

Now to be sure, this was not the most high class establishment in the world. We booked last minute for Golden Week and there wasn’t a lot of options available in our price range. Callum was convinced the place was haunted because the hallways were a little cold and the lighting was, admittedly, very murder-y. But I loved it.

We got a traditional Japanese-style room, which was actually enormous. There was a nice entrance area connecting to a large bathroom, toilet, and closet, followed by the incredibly spacious main tatami room.

Beyond the sliding screens we had a cute little reading nook and a nice balcony.

There was also a maybe not so traditional television in the room, so we spent some time being baffled by Japanese variety shows.

And also the balcony view was lovely.

And of course, the hotel had small public baths! Both times I went down I was astonishingly the only person there. Since there were no strange naked ladies and only a naked Katherine, I could shamelessly take my phone in to snap pictures without feeling like a criminal.

The indoor baths

and the (much preferred) outdoor bath

The onsen was SUPER relaxing and nice. There’s something to be said about open, mountain air bathing. And the men’s bath was just over the wall, so Callum and I could almost hold a conversation yelling back and forth at each other (but mostly we just relaxed in peace). We also had great timing for private bathing- Sunday and Monday were quiet and deserted, but by Tuesday when we checked out the place got really busy.

We were pleasantly surprised to discover that our booking included dinners and breakfasts at the onsen! (Shows how on the ball we are). The first night we got a gorgeous spread of tempura, sashimi, and the makings for sukiyaki. When we arrive the waiters light the fire of the little burner to boil the broth, and we put the big plate of veggies and meat into it to cook and it’s GORGEOUS. The second night we had a very similar spread but with shabushabu as the main dish.

The breakfast spread was also quite similar. I was never in it enough in the morning to remember to take a picture, but it involved grilled fish and pickled vegetables, a little japanese style omelette and some mystery mash. Eating a lot first thing in the morning is a little hard for me (breakfast was at 7:00) and Callum doesn’t eat seafood so I regret to admit that we didn’t eat a ton of the breakfast. However, while we were wandering the mountain looking for our hotel we passed a great looking cafe that we ended up going to for breakfast both days. We appropriately dubbed the cafe “Grandma’s House”.

There were puppies who lived there. PUPPIES.

It’s actual name was paSeo, and it was the most beautiful little place. It was a cafe/flower shop, so behind the balcony with the doggies was a huge open window looking in at the room with all the flowers and a friendly lady cutting and arranging them. Behind that was the little cafe.

Everything was beautiful and the lighting was so pristine I took a ton of pictures of food and coffee.

We got the breakfast spread that came with coffee or tea, potato soup, freshly baked bread, sausages and eggs. It was perfection.

There was a lunch menu as well that we didn’t really get to try. We also discovered on the last day that paSeo owns the neighboring building and is a B&B. So I’ll be back. (Mom? Kathryn? Chelsea? Anyone else who’d like to come visit me? We’re going to Hakone.)

All the little streets around our hotel on the mountain were adorable and lush, and we enjoyed walking around as well as riding the cable car up and down the mountain.

We took the car down to explore the town at the bottom of the mountain on Saturday, and it was the perfect little Grandma-town.

Gnomes = Grandma Town

This place was playing “You’ve Got a Friend In Me” really loudly as we walked by, which was amazing. We didn’t go in though, because there was a highly acclaimed gyouza restaurant that we had our hearts set on.

It did not disappoint.

How whimsical is this place?! All the staff seemed to be little old men and the decor was stunning.

Oh and the gyouza were phenomenal.

Since we went down the mountain on Saturday, on Sunday we tried to go over the mountain. Unfortunately, there was some volcanic activity going on and part of the ropeway was shut down.

A helpful diorama explaining the situation.

But we managed! We were put on a bus to go around the mountain, which was a lovely ride, and then rode the ropeway around the safe parts of the track.

There was a very nice view of the lake and the ghostly Mt. Fuji, which is not at all well captured by taking photos with an iPhone through tinted windows.

And that’s about the gist of our trip! Lots of leisurely strolling, lots of eating, lots of lounging, lots of reading. You know, grandma stuff. It was lovely and relaxing and I left feeling very refreshed. We took a local bus through the mountains and a few tiny villages engulfed in forest to get back to Odawara, and I just sat listening to “Rivers and Roads” on repeat feeling magical. Green Japan is really, really something.

The one other big thing we did on our trip was see the Hakone Open-Air Museum, which was absolutely astounding and I’ll make a post dedicated to that with all my pictures next!