Roadtrip to Anpanman Museum

During our last stint in Japan in 2013, we managed to travel around a little but were quite busy with the residency schedule so didn't get loads of time to wander further afield than Ikumi Beach in the next prefecture (county). This time, we knew we wanted to see more of the island, this breathtaking, mountainous, rivery, sinewy swath of forest and jungle called Shikoku. 

We had been checking weather forecasts and hotel options and found a perfect sunny window to hop in the Cube and head southwest to the beach in Shimanto but first, a little detour for Hopper-chan.

No trip through the area of Kochi, about 2 1/2 hrs drive, can go without visiting the shrine to all things Anpanman: The Anpanman Museum in Kami, the hometown of the creator Takashi Yanase. The whole area looks a lot like Kamiyama, and there is very little around, well except breathtaking views and windy roads. Of course.

Anpanman is beloved by children and adults alike, he's a super hero whose head is made of bread (with red bean jam filling!- like almost every freakin desert in Japan) who saves creatures from his nemesis Baikinman (and when they're starving, by offering them bits of his head, only to return to his creator and baker Uncle Jam who bakes him a new head and makes him whole again). He has lots of friends and foes, the list of characters is astonishing (1768 to be exact), but his biggest enemy is Baikinman, who is always up to dastardly deeds. 

Hopper was introduced to him a couple of years ago so knew him by name. But now that he's a fully cognizant nearly-4 year old, and fascinated with "super heros" and super powers, he's really into it and knows quite a few of the characters names. (This is all without having seen a single cartoon, just flipping through books, seeing them on "healthy" cookie boxes, toys, shirts, dolls, toothbrushes.) We were excited to go but mostly overjoyed at seeing the excitement in his eyes in the car.

Then, we were off to Kochi, a lovely little city beach hamlet with a taste for superb fish and a big Sunday market. Stay tuned...

Anpanman with a map of Kochi Prefecture on the Southern coast

beautiful setting, and free parking!

There he is!

Baikinman, poke him in the eye

A little bit of the story, with glorious translation

The old guy on the poster is the creator, Yanase. He died in 2013.

A few of the main characters, prints of Yanase's original oil paintings

probably the best part of the museum, the paintings were fantastically psychedelic

a wall with all 1768 characters, def too much attention required from a 3 year old

merchandising: a history

diorama of the land of Anpanman and co, it was massive and moved (see video)

Uncle Jam's bakery

more cute characters, Japanese really have the market cornered on 'cute'

theater showing cartoons

play nice...

oh no it's baikinman!!!

Of course he's too afraid to actually say hello to his favorite super hero!

outside was a fab playground with different parts for different ages, and an ice cream shop

but sometimes the best part is the grassy field for running around playing silly chase games

Yamandu & the Kobe Roadtrip

We did so much talking up of Kamiyama over the last year and a half, so on this trip we got a taker. Yamandu, a good friend from Amsterdam, decided to come visit for a couple weeks!! We were so excited that we hatched a brilliant plan for him to get a little acclimated into city life before chillin' in the mountains.

In all our trips to Japan, we never stopped in Kobe so we decided that would be a perfect place to meet up. It has some interesting neighborhoods and is home to the most delicious beef in the world. Mandu could get the rockstar ferry to Kobe airport across the bay from Osaka Kansai, and we could arrive a day early to run around and get the lay of the land.

Of course no good road trip gets off without a hitch, we realized in Ishii about 40 mins into our 2.5 hr drive that we left our entire suitcase in the house! So Hopper and I hung out in the Fuji Grand mall while daddy went to retrieve it. Gah!

Driving in Japan is super fun, especially when you got all your addresses programmed into the GPS and an ETC toll membership. (Keiko saves the day again, a million thank you's for both these things!) Not having to worry about signage and correct change is the way to go! And we arrived into Kobe, stashed the car at the airport where we would collect Mandu the next day, and headed into town to settle in and walk around.

Kobe is quite compact and charming. It's small enough to be able to walk around but big enough to harbor some good city stuff. And it turns out people have money there as witnessed by the impressive sports cars on the roads. Lamborghini, Maserati, Lotus, Porsche. Hopper was in heaven!

So we basically ate all over that city, trying snacks in China Town, drinking hipster drip coffee in the Motomachi, and eating lots and lots of meat. Kobe beef is famous for a reason, it's a big O all over in your mouth. Every delectable bit of juicy meaty goodness, all tender and tasty. We're all pretty foody so even though we did manage a shrine in there, it was all about the food.

Then we packed the bags, jumped in the car, and headed off to Takamatsu!

Portliner train from airport car-park to Kobe city center, sits by himself now

fancy restaurant courtyard spied from the street

KOBE! after lovely afternoon of walking around

view from our very tiny apartment

the small alley/lane leading to our apt, came alive at night

stairs lead to loft bedroom, and that's all folks! (I'm standing on the balcony, small kitchen is around the wall)

just strollin

coffee break

The dudes hanging around here scattered when I got the camera out. Shame, it was like A Hipster Westside Story.

Ikuta Shrine

Mandu needed a nap. The cable car up up the mountain was closed, so took a walk...

Azalea madness all over this land (our apt is just down there somewhere)

... to the Shinkansen station!!!!

Trainspotters can buy a "platform ticket". Genius!

Nozomi 700 Series. This sucker can hit 320 km/h = 200 mph!!! Then off to buy a train at the giftshop of course.

No joke. This wild boar was in the freakin city!! About 2 blocks from our apt. WTF?!?! And it knew how to cross the street. We watched it wait for cars and then gallop off to the alley across the street. This is a 4 lane city thorough fare! Hopper still talks about it a week later. So we get to tell him he has to look both ways like the wild boar!

Kobe beef extravaganza!!! 

so effen tasty. Hopper is a fiend just like the rest of us!

and he got to man the grill

which made him extremely happy

Mandu approved

morning cuteness, holy moly, I get to wake up to this

good morning jetlag!