Solo Japan Part I: Tokyo + Koganei

Day 1: Hello Tokyo!

I was super excited to start my journey in Tokyo. It was a great central hub to take small trips from and of course, chock full of cutie things to buy! I originally planned on going to the Anpanman Museum, but it was a little out of the way and I was on a budget so I figured it was better to go to an Anpanman store and use what would’ve been museum admission on goodies because I’m an adult and I choose my choices in life.

The store was AMAZING and I wanted to buy EVERYTHING. A little back story on Anpanman:

Anpanman is a friendly superhero whose head is a red bean bun. Often, when he finds someone who is poor and hungry he will feed them his head to give them nourishment. If he’s fighting villains he’ll throw his head at them as a weapon. But it’s all OK because a fairy baker named Uncle Jam will just bake him a new one. He has many friends, like Currypanman (a man with curry bread for his head that shoots hot curry at bad guys) and Shokupanman (a hero with a toast-shaped head that supplies bread to the local school with his bread delivery truck that he sometimes uses in combat). There are a ton of other fantastic characters (many food-related) and the show has the Guinness World Record for the most characters ever in an animated series.

So now that you know a little about the series, you can understand why I love it so much. It’s the most popular character in Japanese history (outselling Hello Kitty) and I’ve watched many kids freak out over the superhero both in this store and in others. I bought a bunch of printed stuff, some hand towels and a coin purse from the store but mostly, I just wanted an Anpanman shirt. The lady who worked there thought it was a funny request (there were literally toddlers playing next to me on the floor/dedicated play zone for small children.) and showed me some socks. I already had socks, so I booed in her face and gave her a thumbs down.

Anyway, here’s the theme song to the show with English subtitles. It’s hilariously heavy for a kids’ show. I hope it moves you.

Day 2: Koganei

Today, I woke up bright and early and took the train to Koganei to visit the Edo-Tokyo Architectural Open Air Museum and Studio Ghibli. I’m going to write a larger post on my adventure seeking Ghibli, so stay tuned for a more in-depth look.

It was a sunny, spring day and the flowers were in bloom and it seemed like everyone was outside enjoying their Sunday.

One of my favorite things about Korea and Japan are seeing people of all ages picnicking. People live quite active lives and really enjoy gathering on a blanket or picnic mat to eat and laugh with friends and family. I know this isn’t unique to these countries, but it seems like people are way more into it here and it makes me happy.