Recently since one of my friend had a holiday and had a chance to visit me here in Japan, I had a chance to go with her to one of the famous tourist spot in Japan known as Fujiko F Fujio Museum.. or most of us called it Doraemon Museum!!
It was located in Kawasaki Area (about 30-40 minutes train plus bus ride to the place) with Noborito Station as the nearest station from the main spot.
I was astonished by how cute the bus to the museum itself (it was all decorated with all Fujiko Fujio thingy, illustrations here and there on the bus wall interior etc) aaand I forgot to take the photos. Damn sad.
However, reached the place, camera is ready!
The staff there guarding the visitor's flow based on the time of entrance. Since my friend and I visited other place in the morning we picked the last entrance time, from 4 to 6 p.m.
Have to pay attention though, that several points in the museum were closed even before 6 p.m. for example, the cafe last order was on 5 p.m., so have to be very careful on time management since several spots will be very crowded such as their infamous photo spots and souvenirs shop.
When we were waiting for our turn to the main entrance, I managed to take several photos of the figurines that were displayed there.
below is so cute OMFG.
Then before we enter the main museum we were gathered in one spot to be briefed about the do and don'ts. Some spots were prohibited to take photos because several of Fujio's real artwork were shown there. It comes with English subtitle too so no worries :)
The main purpose of the museum is indeed to be dedicated for Fujiko F. Fujio who dedicated his life to create artwork that can be enjoyed both from a kid's POV and from adult's POV.
Doraemon, is just a tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiny bit of Fujio's whole artwork.
That's why some of the tourist were disappointed with what's inside; they expect it will be some kind of museum that really explain all of Doraemon's magic tools etc, but in the end what they see is different from their expectation.
Most of the things showed here (to give you a brief image) are something like sketches of Fujio's art, his technique on drawing his art, his life and his family, etc. (Come to think of it) That gave us another reason why the museum's name is not Doraemon Museum, But Fujiko F Fujio Museum.
However however!
There are so much interesting spots to be enjoyed too such as this beautiful-version-of-Giant well!
All the kids pumping the lever there and the beautiful-Giant will show up for several seconds and before it went down again they took photos! Since the queue were so long I decided to just peek and go.
After enjoyed ourself touring the main hall, we reached the spots which (finally) photo were allowed:
The Reading Hall.
Leisure Hall.
It was just a normal leisure hall with tiny door as a bait for kids!
Next to the leisure hall were the theater. Since we didn't have so much time at that moment we decided to skip the theater. It plays 10 minutes special movie for several times in a day however it came only in Japanese audio which resulting in why my friend skipped it since she can't understand Japanese at all too.
Then we just walk a little bit more and found an open space that leads to the main photo spot!
P-man enjoying life...How nice.
And here are the main spot!!
From here pardon my oily face and hair; its a little bit too humid and hot that day since the week before were always raining quite hard.
The field that Nobita and the gang always play.
The famous pink door hahaha ( didn't go nowhere though.. pass the door arrived on the same field -___-)
And the dinosaur.
Have to pay attention that even though I managed to get some "clean" photos without all the crowd, to be honest, it took me and my friends THAT MUCH of an effort to took these photos. The crowd (and the kids) were running everywhere it's crazy. It was a mental battle between embarrassment and eagerness to take cute photos!!
See this if don't believe me:
See ah. All the parents and the kids. Wahhh.
And it's only one small part of the battle. Small part. *sigh*
Finish with the photo battle (glad it's over!) we went straight to the cafe and ordered meal as soon as possible since the order hour are soon to be finished. We ordered karaage set (fried chicken set meal), the cheese risotto (?, forget the name) and art coffee latte (standard taste. Again, only for the sake of its cuteness!)
The meal's taste is OK, not like WOW but very acceptable. The price ranged from 1.000 yen for standard meal to 2.000 yen the really fancy one, I didn't quite remember. The karaage set is around 1400 yen, forgot about the risotto, and the cafe latte were around 400-500 yen.. memory blur but it was around that price I'm sure.
Satisfied and finished with our meal, we have no other time besides rushing directly to the souvenir's shops.
It was near closing time so the souvenirs shop were so crowded sorry can't take proper photos. I managed to take this photo only! 1.080 yen.. not buying.
All the kids wear this on the museum!! What a hype.
Finished with our shopping marked as the end of our trip here. We went back to the station by the bus and reached Noborito around 19.00. Then from there we went to Shinjuku to go back home.
And this is my shopping spree result for that day! Take a look at it once again I realize it's quite a lot actually (ooppss!)
The blue box and the bus can were cookies for my work colleagues since they know i'm visiting this museum that day and allowed me to take day off so I splurge them a little bit alright. The Dorami Doll for my boss' little daughter. And the rest is for myself hahaha. The coaster are free souvenirs from the cafe though!
Well, for overall, I really enjoyed it a lot!!
Since my expectation about this museum were not THAT high (I didn't expect it to be ALL Doraemon from the start) it was really a fun experience!
Me myself quite enjoyed the moment of when the museum showed me how Fuji's artwork being processed, what kind of tools he used to draw his comics, how did Fujio's enjoyed his everyday living etc. It was worth a visit; seeing how amazing one person can share so many happiness to all the people through things he love the most: art.
The question is, like him, how can I share happiness to people through things that I love the most?
Still, an unanswerable question indeed, but I always believe that I will find the answer someday.
Fujiko F. Fujio, thanks for all the fun today :) You will always be remembered.
See you on next post!
