三鷹の森 ジブリ美術館 Ghibli Museum, Mitaka

9th July 2010: lazy morning before jumping on the train to Mitaka and from there a short walk through the suburban backstreets to the Ghibli Museum - the showcase for the work of Hayao Miyazaki and his スタジオジブリ - STUDIO GHIBLI.

I've always wanted to visit, but discovered on past trips that tickets are extremely hard to obtain! There are some international ticket agents, but most of us need to buy at a Lawson's outlet once in Japan. The problem is that unless you are in Japan for some time, the odds being able to get tickets at Lawson's are not good .. and you also need to struggle with a Japanese touch-screen system;-) Luckily, this trip I was able to get my Uncle to buy tickets in advance.


The museum is one of the very best I've ever visited. I absolutely recommend you put it on your itinerary when visiting Japan!

Whether you are a Miyazaki fan or not, this place can't fail to enthrall. The exhibits are fascinating, many using stroboscopic effects to produce live animation. All have clearly been designed, constructed, and maintained with loving care. This is not your typical two-blocks-of-wood-knocked-together-by-a-work-experience-student-and-probably-not-working-today kind of museum.


There are many hours to be enjoyably lost simply browsing the huge collection of paraphernalia from Miyazaki's life and work - sketches, paintings storyboards, models, research folios, books, books and more books.

Although Totoro is perhaps the most widely-known character created by STUDIO GHIBLI, I think Porco Rosso remains my favourite film of all. What's not to like in a movie about a seaplane-flying pig who fight's off air pirates and rediscovers his secret love?



Walking back to catch the train from Kichijōji turned out to be a good choice; found lots of places for a late lunch near the station. I must have had pigs on my mind, since we ended up at Tare-Katsu where they soak the katsu medallions in lovely brown sauce straight after frying. Yum! Note what they stamp on your loyalty card;-)



Blogarhythm for this post: War Pigs(Black Sabbath cover) - Faith No More from the album Real Thing

NB: I am retro-blogging Tokyo which is why this post is a little delayed

How to Draw Nothing

It's not a cat, it's an echidna!

How To Draw Nothing

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Rocket Ship Galileo - Apollo 11 40th Anniversary

Houston, Tranquillity Base here. The Eagle has landed -- 20 July 1969 The 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing has been getting quite a bit of coverage, but the coolest initiative has got to be the addition of the Moon in Google Earth. Quite coincidentally, I just read Robert A. Heinlein's "Rocket Ship Galileo" (well, actually listened to the audio version brilliantly narrated by Spider Robinson ).

Heinlein packs this atomic moonshot adventure with just about every Boy's Own plot twist possible and tells a rollicking ripping yarn. What's amazing is the detail of the hard science throughout the book - especially given the fact it was written in 1947.

All the shucks, gee willikins is quaintly pre-baby boom, while the embracing of atomic power with such wild abandon is frightening in retrospect. Altogether, it's a great - if dated - story; a true testament to Heinlein's genius and imagination.

On atomics: it is possible the tide of opinion may be swinging back to nuclear. The ABC Science show just featured a story on the safer and cheaper generations of reactors coming online (transcript, audio). Today's generation III reactors, and the generation IV on the horizon offer even cheaper, safer and cleaner power (literally eating the waste products of earlier designs). All well and good, but it would be a concern if "new atomics" became the quick and easy fix that sabotages the head of steam building up behind the true clean, green renewables (like solar nanopillars).

Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll

Heard that the movie Sex & Drugs & Rock & Rollhas just started production. Probably shouldn't hold my breath, but I can't wait to see it.

It's based on the life story of Ian Dury, IMHO the best lyricist/poet who ever got a gig. And Laughter was the best album I ever bought as a teenager. I still have the cassette tape at home, even though the ferrite oxide has long rusted and worn away.

In what could turn out to be a masterful bit of casting, they have Andy Serkis playing Dury in the movie. I can well imagine Serkis doing a great Dury. Having done mega-blockbusters with Peter Jackson, Andy seems to be picking up quite a number of intriguing, not-so-mainstream roles. I guess he can afford to;-)

I also realize there's an obscure connection between Dury and Serkis. Dury is well known for having created and performed a version of the Bus Driver's Prayer, which ends with the line..

For Iver and Iver ... Crouch End

Which is - at least according to wikipedia - where Serkis now lives. So Andy is picking up from where our dear departed Ian Dury (RIP) left off...

OK, so that's a stretch. Time to reminisce over the Blockheads and wait for the movie to come out..

The largest LEGO battleship in the world

The LEGO Battleship Yamata has now been launched.

Morning Skies in Singapore

24 Season ... 7?

Props to Sophia for finding me the Jack Bauer quotes at 24 wikia. It's a curse to be reminded how long we've been waiting for Season 7, but great to find out that a two-hour Season 7 prequel, 24: Exile, will air in the US later this year on November 23rd. Hmmm ... time to break out the 1-6 box set again and go sleepless for a week. That will be the longest week of my life;-)

The (original) Office

.. but Slough is still my favourite office.

Spy Game / That's The Way I Like It

Just started watching Spy Game and got a surprise to see Adrian Pang playing a minor role. He's a pretty big celeb in Singapore, mainly as a funny guy but also done his share of drama. Probably best know for co-hosting Yummy King (好吃王) with Michelle Chia. But by far the best thing I've seen him do is a little-know movie called That's The Way I Like It. It's an hilarious transposition of Saturday Night Fever into a Singaporean context. Get it if you can (found at Library@Esplanade if you live in Singapore). Here's a teaser: Disco hits Singapore. Hock, an ordinary underachiever, discovers disco when his favorite kung fu movie is replaced by a low-budget "Saturday night fever."

Free Nelson Mandela - The Special AKA

For no reason in particular, I get The Specials' Free Nelson Mandela spinning in my head every so often. It's wierd, since I guess the last time I actually heard the song was in the late 80's. This time I googled it, and happily YouTube comes to the rescue!

CandyMinasTirith

Behold, the White City of Minas Tirith is under siege by one of the largest, and certainly the tastiest army ever to walk Middle Earth. For two days the evil host, under the brutal licorice fist of the Witch King of Angmar has bombarded the ancient city with stone and fire...

Wow, this is some awesome holiday project. Build the Battle of Pelennor Fields out of candy? Why not! See more pics and commentary here
If they ever re-release the LOTR DVDs, they should add this as a special feature (the baking of..)!

Nosejob

The guys from Miracle Denmark demonstrate how Oracle Database installation is so straight-forward, you can do it with your nose.

Exit .. Stage Left

Cranked up Rush's Exit .. Stage Left the other day for the first time in years. I'd forgotten about the classic drum solo on YYZ. Magic. There's a few versions available up on YouTube..

The Warden

I've had Anthony Trollope's The Warden in my iPod for a while, and finally listened to it last week. This is the LibriVox recording of the 1855 novel. It's a great story that deals in part with the unexpected ethical dilemmas that often attend foolhardy idealistic pursuits. A nice dab of dry wit, to whit: ..but in matters of love men do not see clearly in their own affairs. They say that faint heart never won fair lady; and it is amazing to me how fair ladies are won, so faint are often men's hearts! Were it not for the kindness of their nature, that seeing the weakness of our courage they will occasionally descend from their impregnable fortresses, and themselves aid us in effecting their own defeat, too often would they escape unconquered if not unscathed, and free of body if not of heart. I couldn't help thinking that if you notch up the drama a bit and don't take it too litterally, the story would make a great "romantic-comedy-drama" movie. I can't dislodge a feeling that there's a stuffy British 1950's B&W version, but I can't find a reference to it. I did discover that there's a BBC series of The Barchester Chronicles from 1982 with Donald Pleasence playing Rev. Septimus Harding (perfect casting). The Warden is one novel in the series.

The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Burglar

I recently finished listening to the Librivox recording of The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Burglar. Librivox make it available as a free podcast, but I notice the book is also available from Amazon. This is Maurice Leblanc's classic. The Sherlock Holmes/Hercule Poirot who took the other path in life! I first encountered the character in the Japanese anime Lupin III by Kazuhiko Kato.