küche fliesen modern
my neighbor totoro is one of the most iconicjapanese movies of all time. even if you haven’t seen the movie, you’ve probably seen totoropictures around the internet, or in cameo appearances in other media, like toy story 3. he’s a beloved character basically treated like a giant teddy bear and apparently i’m only person who thinks he’s terrifying. well, there’s one other person. and now in japan you can visit a replica ofthe same house from the movie, where the children mei and satsuki lived.
it’s inside in the expo 2005 aichi commemorative park, the location of the 2005 world’s fair. the fair was heldfor 185 days and had 121 countries participate! did you know there are world fairs? becausei didn’t until i came here! the next one is milan in 2015, by the way. mei and satsuki’s house is on the far sideof the park. the park is free to enter, but visiting the house costs 500yen, about $5. they have pamphlets in english but the tour is in japanese. you’ll have 15 minutes insidethe house where photography is prohibited,
and then 15 minutes outside the house whereyou’re free to shoot or film. unfortunately, there’s no totoro in sight, but to makethings interesting, i took pictures so you can see the comparison between them and thehouse from the movie. inside the house you’re allowed to go throughdrawers and open everything, although you can’t go up onto the second floor. it’squite a small house, but if you want a glimpse of what older houses from 1961 japan may havelooked like, you might find it worth the money. they only had a squat toilet, by the way!the kitchen floor was ground level, as opposed to raised like the rest of the house, andwas concrete. and the bathroom had the two tile tubs just like in the movie!
the items in the drawers all seemed to be truly vintage. they did have an old tin container that remindedme of grave of the fireflies, and immediately ruined my immersion in the magical totoroworld. all in all, i actually enjoyed other partsof the park more. the expo’s theme was “nature’s wisdom†and they had an actual forest school, like literally a school to learn about the forest, which was really cool. i took a video there, so i’ll show that some other time! and they had a waterpark and an ice rink,as well as a large ferris wheel. the park seems like it would be really beautiful inthe springtime,
and i want to go back with jun next year. it seems like it’s not avery well-known spot for foreigners visiting nagoya, so if you’re in the area, thinkabout checking it out! it’s emptier than it was during the expo, and it does feel a little bittersweet to have missed something that seems to have been so incredible, but it’sstill a beautiful park and worth visiting!