We spotted this walking past the toy aisle at a grocery store in Tokyo. It’s weird. There are toy aisles in Japanese grocery stores. They ALSO have all the same confusing nonsensical cheap crap like they do here in the US, but possibly made cooler because there’s Yugioh and Super Sentai cards and action figures mixed in.
Also, not quite sure what this toy is, so I’ll just say it’s a toy so kids can learn about steroid infused pancakes. Or genetically modified waffles. I dunno.
Also spotted in the hidden Kiyomizu-dera Ghibli store…
A giant Totoro that was close to 10,000¥!?! Who would be able to afford that or love a child enough to part with over $1100 for a stuffed doll?
Maybe this is why parents are so eager to get their kids a Duffy bear at Tokyo DisneySea. I’m sure it’s loads cheaper.
Okay, I don’t know if there was just a tear of pop-up stores since the holidays were approaching, but we totally found a Studio Ghibli store THREE times in Japan before we even went on the Studio Ghibli museum tour which has it’s own store in it.
This one is one we found completely by random chance.
We were leaving Kiyomizu-dera in Kyoto, walking back down the main road towards the taxi stand to head back to the train station. My wife was scouring shops looking for stuff to buy for her sister. We walk past one store that randomly has a big Totoro sitting in the back of a display of other tchotchkes, gold poop, and solar-bobble heads, didn’t think much of it. We went inside and saw an unlit hallway entrance, completely unmarked, walked down it and ended up in a WHOLE OTHER store full of Ghibli merch.
I must stress… This was the only entrance into this store. Totally weird, but my wife ended up buying a puzzle and I bought her some finger puppets.
I really wish we’d seen these prints in Tokyo when we ended up going to the actual museum. I totally wanted to buy them then, but we held off since I figured we’d see them again. *le sigh…
She insisted that I post this.
We spotted this at Don Quijote in Ikebukuro on our first day there.
Japan, if you need this done to you that badly, just go to some soaplands. A towel with breasts is not a good representation of this action. I won’t judge.
Just remember, when you visit Osaka Castle, you’re going in through the genitals.
Also, WTF is a Musium? A music museum? Osaka is weird.
You only get to be ironically fat if you’re a size Small, Medium or Large. Otherwise, keep movin’ tubby.
Uh… okay. Condoms it is then.
Spotted in the Glico gift shop in Dotonbori.
Never challenge me in a contest of doing something culturally stupid.
I will win every time.
As proof, I ate french fries with ketchup using only chopsticks. BOOYAH.
If my wife ever puts me in a kilt, I will totally wear underwear to spite her and the tradition.
A long day of walking and touring Osaka does this to newlyweds.
We were driven to excitedly drink cheap beer at Bikuri Donkey! Nothing excuses this behavior, but I thought it was a funny pair of pictures.
This won’t make much sense to a lot of people, but to those that it will…
Brandon…
Dreams Come Ture
Found this way on a display outside of Osaka castle, written on the display like the day prior.
In a country where you can’t walk a 100m without falling over a French pastry shop, for the life of me, I cannot even understand how this exists in Japanese culture.
Prepackaged crust less white bread. Blah.
Its crimes of indifference that hurt when you visit a foreign country, friends.
Fashionistas the world over were jammed into the Dragon Quest exhibit to get their hands on the latest Slime coin purses from France.
My wife and I visited Japan November 2011. We took a LOT of pictures and had a lot of fun. Japan has been in the news a lot this year with a large amount of natural disasters, and we booked our trip exactly one day before the earthquake struck.
I'm going to be documenting our vacation in detail, showing off the life of the Japanese, regions affected by the earthquake and tsunami, and cultural minutiae about Japan in general.
I will also be posting other photos from my prior visits to Japan in 2005 and 2007 as is relevant to the stream of other posts.
