Ghibli Layout Exhibition

Ponyo ponyo ponyo...♪

Today's destination is Ghibli Layout Exhibition!
You can see the map trip below (sorry, only partly..., I was impatient to wait for the GPS to connect).
Not that it's that much of a walk trip anyways.

I love anime. One of my dream is to become a mangaka, or at least doujinshika. I want to try becoming an animator, too. Tough job, but doesn't it sound cool? But to be one in Japan is... really tough. First is the very high average skills people here have, second is the visa thing. But nothing's impossible, I'm sure. One day I'll become one! ^o^/ This Japanese culture is just so world wide already, from time to time I see foreign otaku interviewed on Japanese TV. Though, it's a bit ugh to be stereotyped as gaijin who come to Japan because of anime/manga. ^_^; Though I do can't deny it fully.

First up. The train manner monkey series was at the Osaka-kou Station (大阪港).

And this very cute dog was sleeping... Luckily I went the wrong way, was going through the smaller street, not the main street, a shortcut, I guess.

The ticket is ¥700 for student. ¥600 if I remember to take the voucher...

Outside is a big Totoro board, where you can lay down, pretending you're on top of Totoro's belly. Too bad no one's there to take a pic for me... =/ It was already evening by the time I went out. I was in there for almost 3 hours ^_^;;

There are two long boards for people to put their own stickers. I'm not sure what these creatures supposed to represent. I do remember seeing them somewhere... orz

Mine's somewhere here.

Anyways. I'm not a big fan of Ghibli, actually, sorry. I'd rather see Production IG's or Studio 4C's. But Ghibli is big. And this thing is not something to be missed (ends 12 October in Osaka). The layout exhibition is awesome. From those yellowish ones that are older than me, to the most recent Ponyo's colored layout design.

It just makes me want to watch more Ghibli's anime, and make my own (ahahaha). Bought the book, 400 pages thick for ¥2900 (1 for a friend) and some postcards.

Layout is something drawn after E-konte (storyboard), to picture better how the scenes should look and animated, since it's hard to change once you go into the actual drawing process. Except for Ponyo's exhibition, all of them are only drawn by pencil and colored pencils. Some are just so rough. Some are very detailed. And they have these "technical words" written on them, like "follow" or "pan up". There are other words which are not pure english, but I can't remember them, ahaha. Oh wait, "kumi" which is when the "cell" touches the background. I'm not sure what's the scratch lines (have to see them close enough) doing on the paper, maybe it's explained on the audio tour (¥500), which I didn't get.

It looks like these (from the thick book). The display for Spirited Away one is the best. The castle-ish building is printed big on the wall. And the layout drawings fill up the wall from below till the ceiling. And they're so pretty and detailed... =A=

Afterwards, I went to get something to eat. Suntory Museum where the exhibition's held is just beside the aquarium. These lamps are just so sparkly cute. I don't like aquariums, though... Uncooked real fish scares me, though salmon sashimi is kinda yumm.

This is at a nearby mall. I think there's a similar place in Dotonburi? I've never been there.

Restaurants and shops. I ended up eating a Tendon. Haven't had tempura for a long time.

Next to the mall is this giant ferris wheel. One of the world's biggest. ¥700 for one adult (oh wait, I just see it's having a special price for ¥560). This place really reminds me of Odaiba, on a much smaller scale, though...

And that's the end of today. Two gallery trips in a week. =D
Next coming up is Inoue Takehiko's exhibition, I think... sometime next year?
Most of special events is ending this early October. Hm, well. Summer ended and new semester is beginning soon...

ghibli layout exhibition
Map created by EveryTrail

GPS Tracking

At the last trip to Osaka Castle, I switched between:

- Canon Camera
For nicer quality pictures.

- iPhone Camera
For its auto geotagging ability. It's pretty good just for daily recordings. And the focus on tap thing is awesome.

- Geotagging (by Everytrail -- the actual app called Everytrail wasn't useful for me)

It's convenient when you want to take pics only at certain spots, and not really having the need to fully track your walking path. The photos will be connected with lines automatically on the website. So I took pic twice, one for this path, one to keep. And that's why sometimes I just forgot to take proper pics for this XD

The path and pics are editable online though. But if only it shows up the time the photo was taken, it'd be perfect. They just released a new version of their website not long ago, I hope they'll keep on improving it.

The bad thing is that you can't save the photos to iPhone. =/ And can't set up the accuracy. So when you're at a bad area, it'll keep on trying to locate and won't track.

- GPS Tracker (Instamapper)

The nice thing about it is you can track as often or as rarely as you want, very accurate, or just about, useful when you're at a bad signal area. And it keeps all your GPS recording, you can then choose your point you want to use as your track online. I use the exported gpx file to geotag my Canon camera using GPS Photo Linker.
You can see the time when the points are recorded. Nice.
But I don't think the points are editable, it can be erased, though.

- セカイカメラ

For futuristic anime-ish experience XDD
I'm just worried with my battery, though. I need to get the backup battery pack.

Other useful software:

Run Keeper Free is nice if you're doing jogging. Which I intended to do, but only did once so far... orz

I used Trapster to record the trip in Kyoto, but it's a bit annoying, since it's main purpose is for people who drive and want to be careful with police traps(?). Not gonna use this again since Everytrail turned out nice.

Osaka Castle

hal festival, osaka castle, duck
Map created by EveryTrail.

The photos aren't that clear since I didn't take my time taking them. Just sort of went along.

Went to see HAL-Mode Festival today, and it's at Osaka Castle Hall. They displayed HAL final year students' projects, and most of them really are "game" centered like. They made it look like game centers. Awesome. Didn't get to play them since I was late though. The Mode Gakuen was also awesome. I really like the veggie costumes. They also invited Tsunku, and he sang some songs. It was like a concert.

Afterwards, since Osaka Castle is just nearby, I went to see it. It's been 9 years since I first saw it. I didn't get in it, just passing by. I remember the gates, but can't remember inside the castle itself. The train ride costs ¥200. This one goes to JR station.

You can climb these steep stairs to see the surroundings. It's really steep.

There's a lift to climb up. Hehe, looks so modern.

This is Osaka history museum. Reminds me of Tokyo University.

There are many families bringing their kids to spend the afternoon here. Some are tourists. Some people draw. Some people took pics. And there's one monk over there.

There's a temple nearby. Just outside one of Osaka Castle's gate.

Some food stands outside the temple. Ikayaki (grilled squid) and shaved ice with syrup.

Out of the castle area, there's NHK building. And a park, people jog and sat around. Nice weather too.

See the yellow blob in the middle? (Is walking through the small street) Getting closer...

Ack. It's behind this weird looking Osaka special tourist bus.

Urmm... from the butt! XD People are busy taking pics! And I hear some music...

There's a robotic dragon boat bursting fire and water alternately!

The dragon retires. Putting the big yellow thing to the attention again.

(quack!)

The giant yellow thing is a balloon rubber ducky XD It's his last day in Osaka. He's gonna continue his trip round the world tomorrow.

Comparing with people's size.

If you see from セカイカメラ (Sekai Camera), it's like this... very crowded. Lots of people use iPhone, eh? And that app is really popular. Or maybe everyone who has iPhone has セカイカメラ and post one thing here?

On the other hand, Autumn is coming!

Below is a more detailed GPS track. Ignore the max speed. Haha ^_^; Not sure how it gets that.



GPS tracking powered by InstaMapper.com

Kyoto Trip

GPS tracking powered by InstaMapper.com

My main aim for this Kyoto trip was to see Kyoto Louvre Museum. It was on Silver Week, not only international tourists, but Japanese had long holidays, so people are out for travel. There were long queue for bus. So I decided to take train since I thought it might be faster, but probably not so. And alas, when I finally reached there the museum, the queue was 120min.

Some people waiting at a konbini nearby.

Finished a manga while queuing and spent the rest reading novel, but my eyes were getting tired. When I finally got in, the amount of people inside were scary. Some people pushes (but of course not as bad as when we were in China, my grandma fell down a few times), and one obaa-chan were saying like "yosh, seen, next!". ^_^; So fast? I can't really see the paintings slowly though, tired of queueing and just... too crowded. But they're awesome. How can they paint such details... And the frames are awesome too, very grand, and look ancient. o_o;

Walked through a small path by the river. Awesome.

Anyway. After that I decided to go to Nijo-jo. I was quite sure it'd be close, but decided to go anyway since it's only a station away from my next destination. And yup, it was closed. There were other people taking pics as well, though.

Then on to a station walk. It's not that far, and it's nice to see the surroundings, too. So I like to walk one station distance over here (besides not having to pay one station train ticket, I got to see more places!). Surprisingly, these roads are so wide. Usually the road in Kyoto is so narrow, right? Some are like 1m(?) wide or something...

Next up is Manga Museum. They hold some events and exhibitions here. And that time they're lending iPhones for people to try their software (something like Sekai Kamera). But unfortunately it was too late already... =( And soon after that Sekai Kamera was released, so I'm happy. =)

You can read up any manga you like over there, well, their collection is not updated till recent ones, but at least a few years back. I didn't read much, just seeing around the museum. And sat down at the grass carpet, really nice. Will go spend one day there someday.

Kyoto at night is really quiet. On the wide street during my walk, people across the street must've been able to hear my camera sound. And barely people at the station at 8pm. It's still crowded around Kyoto station though. Maybe because where I walked was office area?

Escalator standing/through side. Which side do you stand in Kyoto? I think it's left. Is it only Osaka who stand on the right? And btw, I can't help laughing and felt happy when I stand on the right in Tokyo escalators by reflect. XD




Kyoto 20090922
Map created by EveryTrail: Share and Plan your Trips

Done by uploading instamapper data and then uploading geotagged pics manually. This takes lots of time and I had to repeat it many times since I messed it up.
Some of them are still a bit messed up. Will fix it.

The Trapster version is here.

EZNabiWalk

The nice GPS function on my phone is the EZNabiWalk. You pick a point where you want to go to, and then say you want to go there from your current position. It will adjust the direction where you're facing is automatically. Though... if you're at a round place with lots of street branches, and it looks all the same, you won't know that you're going the wrong way until after awhile. It updates fast, but not too fast at some times. See the blue dots? It tracked me from GPS and that's where I went out of the path... ^_^;

Love it. Costs 210 yen per month. Maybe I should continue it if I plan to walk around a lot.



Well, the station was very quiet and there were barely people. Pretty confusing.

Run & Walk (KDDI AU)

One feature that I find interesting when browsing for mobile phones was this one. It's like iPod x Nike thing, I guess. Monitoring where you run and measure the distance through GPS. I doesn't seem that good, I seem to be going through buildings... =_=; But not bad. I almost got lost this morning. It was raining and I didn't feel like checking the map. Haha...

You can check your jogging (or cycling, if you pay monthly fee) from the phone or from PC. From the PC website, you can replay your running track. It's fun to see. Actually, I decided to run because I got this feature on my phone =d I forgot to take the pics from the phone. Will add them later.

And luckily, I found a really nice pair of shoes. Puma. Original price was 8800yen. I got it for 3990. I really like it XD

There's another feature that uses GPS that I find cool. Will blog it when I use it again next time. It's not like all of the features are only available in Japan, but still, my phone was much less hi-tech than this, hehe.