Sanrio Puroland: The Cutest Place on Earth

Brace yourself. It's the Disney of Hello Kitty. Everything inside is whimsical, sparkly, and/or cute and cuddly. And probably lights up.


Just inside the front gate


The escalator moves down a level and this whole world opens up.







Totem pole at the entrance to the boat ride.


Even the bathrooms were whimsical!
I hope you appreciate these, because it was kind of weird to be taking photos of the ladies' restroom, even if nobody was in it at that moment.




We saw two shows. The first one was in the main area, but we didn't have a good enough spot to be worth taking photos. But now we know where to stand when someone comes to visit and we go see it again. The costumes alone were something to see. It was all the magic of forest animals, acrobats, cupcakes, and Cirque du Soleil rolled into one surreal parade and show with Princess Hello Kitty dropping from the ceiling.


The second show we saw, which we were allowed to film/photograph as long as there was no flash, was Hello Kitty's Adventures in the Magical Land of Oz. I can't even guess if they paid any royalties at all, the plot was that far away from the original Wizard of Oz.

The stage:

It starts with a birthday party for Hello Kitty and her twin sister (whose name escapes me). They got cell phones! And books.

Kitty wanders off to read her book, and a tornado takes her by surprise and whisks her away to Oz!

Some dwarves (played by normal-sized people through clever use of large skirts and rolling stools) hook her up with silver shoes. Poor Kitty has no cell phone reception.

She meets the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion more or less as you'd expect.

Then they trot off to meet the Wizard. Who is fabulous.


Instead of the Wicked Witch of the West, it's the Wicked Witch of the Junk Food, who appears to have kidnapped delivery girls from the pizza place, burger joint, doughnut shop, hot dog stand, and ice cream parlor and forces them to constantly serve her large plastic food.
Kitty and friends are brought to the castle by punk monkeys, the witch takes a look at Kitty's strawberry phone charm and eats the whole digital contraption in one bite. And blows up. Kitty gets her phone back, all the trapped wait staff are released, they see the wizard again, and live happily ever after.

Then, for reasons I don't quite understand, there are a series of dance numbers with fancy dresses and ostrich feather fans.




The entire show is available on DVD in the Sanrio Puroland gift shop. I was tempted, but it's just not the same thing as seeing this craziness live.


There's a section called Kitty Lab. The idea is that Dr. Kitty is researching the Essence of Cute to better connect with her people, and you can participate. The lab is full of little stations modeled after a cafe, hospital, police station, travel agency, college, stuff like that. Each station has a challenge, half of which we failed because we couldn't figure out what we were supposed to be doing until it was too late. But it was still fun.

I just liked the little doctor-mechanic bears scattered around. They're so little!

This is inside the hospital station. Note Kitty's X-ray. Evidently the bow is part of her skeletal structure.

Yes, the travel agency has a Hello Kitty UFO on the roof.


I just wanted my picture taken with Mocha because I've never seen a mascot costume with someone inside who was so small. So small!

And that was our visit to Sanrio Puroland.


Having a free evening, we ate at a burger joint (observation: when the Japanese do American food, it's way better than actual American food) and got some phenomenal crepes from a street vendor that cooked them on the spot.

Pineapple and whipped cream in a sweet, ultra-thin pancake and topped with sprinkles? Hell effin' yeah. The Mew got a coffee crepe (it looked the same on the outside or I would have taken a picture of that, too) that had as much whipped cream and delicious crepe-ness, but where mine was pineapple rings, his had a blob of black coffee gelatin. Not necessarily my cup of tea, so to speak, but he was pleased.

An Epiphany, Keys, and the Biggest Nan I've Ever Seen

I had an epiphany today.
It might not be The Way It Is, but it makes sense to me.

We took a nap this afternoon. I've seriously considered a nap almost every day this week, and it's not jet lag. We've definitely adjusted by now. No, we realized when we got up at 5pm that it's because the sun rises here at four thirty in the morning. And that's when the sunlight spilling into our hotel room is the brightest and the birds are at a volume that can only be described as "elementary school field trip to Candyland."

Is this why Japan is called the Land of the Rising Sun? Hmmm?
Four thirty a.m. Sweet jujubes.


Topic change!
We signed the paperwork and got the keys to the house!
Americans are have just one key for all their doors. Slackers.


Another topic change!
Tonight's culinary adventure was to a small Indian restaurant. The host/waiter was trilingual, so I was already impressed. Then we ordered food - I could order a vegetarian dish from the menu that had pictures, Japanese, and English descriptions! It came with a piece of nan (you know, that delicious bread stuff) that was as wide as my outstretched fingers and as long as my forearm. It looked like a deflated weather balloon draped across my vegetable curry and chana masala, and it was delicious. The Mew, ever on a quest for food so spicy it makes him sweat and/or cry, accomplished his goal. We both agree that the restaurant deserves to be much busier than it is (we were the only ones there) and will be spreading the word.

The portions were bigger than we expected (free mango dessert was a nice touch), so instead of going out afterward, we decided to go back to the room, snack on some antacids, and be fat for the evening.


Happy Birthday, Mew!

We are Going to be Very Busy Mews for a While

Housing
Konban, (this evening) we sign contracts and drain our bank accounts to cover the up-front cost of renting a house off base. No wonder Japanese people typically live with their parents until they start their own family - renting is no joke! We're lucky because the Mew gets a cost-of-living allowance that alleviates a lot of the pressure, but the up-front cost is about 6 months rent. Security deposit, pet deposit, first month rent, key money, agent's fee, and renter's insurance.

Ashita no gozen, (tomorrow morning) we have a meeting with the realtor and the housing department on base to make sure everybody has originals of everything signed and work out any details. Then we pick out what furniture and appliances we're going to borrow from base housing. We'll definitely need a refrigerator and washing machine (houses typically don't come with either of these), hopefully a convection/microwave oven (houses will have a fish griller, but not an actual over as we think of them), bed, dresser, something soft to sit on, and anything we can find to put between our desks and the nice unscratched hardwood floor.

Rokugatsu tsuitachi, (June 1st) the guy from the housing office will do the home inspection before we move in. The next day, furniture/appliances and our express baggage will arrive, and it will start to look like a place where someone lives. Pictures to follow.

Cats
The cat import process is long and annoying. They've already gone through the microchipping, first rabies vaccine, second rabies vaccine, blood test to make sure the rabies vaccines worked, six month waiting period, and 40-day advance notification to the airport. Now they need three forms filled out (two health certification forms and an import application), which we should be able to do soon.

Someone who is here that will be taking a trip back to DC has graciously offered to escort the cats back. I'm not sure exactly how one can say "thank you" for something as great as this. I feel worlds better knowing that someone who has done this before will be able to keep track of them and make sure we can get them through the airport without pissing anyone off.

Speaking of the cats, apparently Crooked has adopted his foster mom's mom. Foster Grandma moved in while he was missing, so she's a new friend, and she doesn't particularly care for cats, but Crooked doesn't mind. I understand he's recently been banished from the upstairs while they're sleeping because he has that habit of sleeping on her head and kneading her hair into tangles.

Mona is the indigenous cat. Aria, my sweet little girl, turns into a raving b*tch around other cats for no good reason as far as I can tell, and has Mona cornered in the master bedroom. Hang in there, Mona, 39 more days.

He is One Doraemon Pancake Taller

Sometimes we get stupid things from vending machines. Sometimes we do something else (like a theme park mirror maze) and somehow end up with a prize at the end that has nothing to do with anything. But hey, who doesn't like presents? Anyway, here are some of the ridiculous things we've accumulated for no good reason.

A cat bracelet. Possibly meant for an actual cat, since it fits around my finger and doesn't come anywhere close to fitting around my wrist.


Lilo and Stitch-related keychains.
I'm not sure what Stitch (and friend) have do to with Crocs. I'm fairly certain they don't wear shoes at all.


This is one of my favorite things. The polar bear on the left is, I'm guessing, Grocery Bear. The polar bear on the right is clearly wearing a bear suit. Yes. A bear in a bear suit. It makes no sense and I love it for that. The little brochure shows you all the kinds of bears you could have gotten if you wanted to keep feeding yen to the machine.


This is another favorite thing and our newest unit of measurement. This is Doraemon, who is a pretty popular character. Evidently an earless robot cat from the future, but has the staying power of Sesame Street (first episode of the TV show was in the late 60s). This pancake is made of foam rubber and the only thing we've been able to gather about it is that it is 10cm in diameter. Therefore, we refer to as many things as possible in units of Doraemon Pancakes.

For example, we discovered through clever use of pancake and mirror that the Mew is exactly one Doraemon Pancake taller than me. Therefore, when I buy heeled shoes, the heel should be less than one Doraemon Pancake in height.


This episode's New and Bizarre Beverage: Fanta Zero Cider. I couldn't tell you what it tastes like other than "Fanta." Take from that whatever you like.


I have no idea what store provided this plastic bag, but it cracks me up. Click the image to embiggen.


We went to Yokohama this past weekend to pick up the cheongsam I ordered the weekend before.



In the tradition of Sad Panda Food, the Mew got some Lumpy Pig Food. There's a chunk of pork in the middle of this soft bread. Below is a photo of the billboard above Sad Panda Food Stand. Behind SPFStand is probably a store, but I wasn't there for anything other than breaded goodness, so I wasn't really paying attention.

After picking up the dress, we took a trip to the observation level of the Yokohama Landmark Tower. It is on the 69th floor, reached by the fastest elevator in Japan. It takes about 40 seconds go to from the fifth floor to the sixty-ninth. It isn't a glass elevator, but there are digital readouts that show both what floor you're passing by and how fast the elevator is going. Top speed is 750 meters per minute.

Remember how tall that giant Ferris Wheel is? And the Yokohama Tower with the scary window in the floor?

The Landmark Tower is so high it makes said Wheel look like a toy.

It's just amazing how much you can see from that height.

Can you find Yokohama Tower in this picture?

I couldn't find it in the viewfinder. (Click to see the larger version)

We looked down upon some helipads. And those wee buildings across the street? Ten stories tall.



Of course we picked up dessert on the way back to the room last night. His choice (both are filled with either custard or vanilla pudding):

My choice:
It came boxed up with a small fork and a cold pack to keep it chilled on the way home.
Cake, whipped cream, fruit (cherry, kiwi, peach), and custard. Holy crap.


One more random favorite thing:
It's a solar-powered Maneki Neko (luck cat). It's one of the cutest things ever invented and I love it even more because it has no rhythm.




Update on the finding-a-place-to-live situation: we found one! The landlord accepted our application and we have a meeting on Friday with the housing office on base to complete the official paperwork. Move-in date is June 1. Yay, place to live!

It's a good-sized house with a reasonable commute to work and pretty darn close to Tokyo. The real estate agent that showed us the place is about four feet tall (we felt like such huge clumsy creatures in comparison) and a fast enough walker that I almost had trouble keeping up. She's wonderful. She speaks excellent English and was very gracious in explaining things and helping us fill out the application (no English on the form) and offering to help with communication between us and the landlord if needed.

Finding Housing is a Special Kind of Adventure

We wanted to buy a house. Finding a bank that would grant us a loan to buy a house in Japan under our circumstances is difficult at best. The sticking point right now, though, is that with the loans we might qualify for, we can't afford the down payment and the closing costs. Putting down 25-30% on a house when the dollar isn't terribly strong and land is expensive just isn't something we can do right now, even if we could afford the monthly mortgage payments.

So we decided that our best course of action is to rent for a year or two and re-evaluate. This is its own animal. Up front, we will need to pay probably 5-6 month's rent in deposits, key money (unrefundable thank-you-for-letting-me-rent-here money), and agent fees. Expensive, but not as much as buying.

We would like to get a place within our budget, between the Mew's place of work and Tokyo, within a 15-minute walk of a train station. One of the big factors is the Mew's commute to work, which we'd like to keep under an hour.

This is complicated by two things: two cats (most places will not allow pets) and the need for a particular lease agreement that is different from the normal Japanese lease. The terms for the landlord aren't as favorable, so I can completely understand why most won't agree to them.

We looked at a house that was enormous (larger than our place in Arlington) and amazing - it was designed by a German couple with lots of open space, a fireplace, outlets built into the living room floor, bay windows everywhere, innumerable storage shelves/cupboards/closets/nooks/crannies, and next to the bathroom was a sauna. We were blown away. It was within our budget, pets were allowed, it was literally across the street from a park, down the street from two shopping malls and a ferris wheel(!), it was a 7-minute walk from a train station and our iPhone app said that the train time was under an hour.

After visiting with the realtor, we went back that evening and timed the train ride. Realistically speaking, the total commute would be about an hour and a half. What the software doesn't calculate is the time between trains (in one case, the walk between train stations), and even if he had a bicycle, he couldn't shave off enough time between house-to-train and train-to-work to get it down to an hour. Driving would be an hour at best, probably more with rush hour traffic.

Sigh.

I'm not upset about not jumping on that house, to be honest, I'd be just as happy there as somewhere else, but I'm a little apprehensive about turning down a place we know we can get in the hopes that we can get something closer. We still have two more months we can stay in the lodge, hopefully something will come up.

I've had ongoing email dialogues with two real estate agents unassociated with the base housing office that started when we thought we could buy a place, and even after we said we had decided to rent for the time being, in every single email they try to convince us that we should get a mortgage instead of renting. One of them speaks excellent English, the other one doesn't speak at all and probably runs his emails through a translator before sending them to me. The former is getting on the Mew's nerves and he's ready to cut all communication, the latter hasn't been as pushy but hasn't been as helpful with suggesting properties, either. I don't know if it's a cultural behavioral difference or something lost in the translation between languages or if they're just more concerned with their own interests than ours and are being pushy. They make a ton of money on a home sale - if they sell two in a year, they're probably doing all right for themselves.

I'm increasingly frustrated with my lack of language and reading skills. I can't research much of anything because I can't read the sites that have that information or call Japanese businesses to make inquiries. Being able to sound out Hirigana, while noteworthy to me, is only a third of the written words out there and usually not the important ones. I can ask someone how they like their red necktie or comment on how delicious the dessert is or ask for two hot coffees please, but that has limited application in this situation.

Argh.

Grab Some Popcorn, This is a Long One

First Things First
Crooked Head has been found! He meowed up to some girls in the neighborhood, presumably saying, "Helloooo, ladies! Come over here and pet me. Now FEED ME." They called Tiff, who collected him and brought him for a vet checkup and gave us a call to let us know he's okay. He was gone two days shy of a month and has lost some weight, but otherwise he's doing well.

Sigh of relief!


Saturday:
In Japan, there are things called love hotels. They offer rates for a few hours or overnight; it sounds very seedy and un-classy, but consider that young people don't typically get their own place after school (high school OR university), they live with their parents until they get married. The intent behind this style of lodging is for couples to enjoy some privacy that they aren't able to get at home (in their 800-square-foot 4-bedroom house that they share with their siblings, parents, and grandparents). Most offer hot tubs, big screen televisions with gaming systems, and room service. Some have crazy themes but most are geared toward being a quiet place to hang out.

My understanding is that it's not completely uncommon for tourists and traveling students also frequent these places because they are often less expensive than a hotel chain with better amenities and you don't necessarily need to speak the language to make a reservation. This site has a pretty good overview.

We decided this would be an interesting Japanese experience and went to check out the area where most of them can be found. This was almost a complete waste of time - most of the places we found, when anything was available, looked a lot like the hotel room we're already staying in. In addition, we were asked to leave from a few places because we aren't Japanese. It was hard not to take that personally. The Mew had "be discriminated against" on his To Do list, but I just got my feelings hurt. We gave up and got some mojitos at an outdoor cafe and the day improved from there. This is when I discovered that some restaurants will offer blankets to their patrons if it's getting chilly.

We also saw our first vending machine featuring a TV screen, showing an endless loop of Coca-Cola commercials.

Not to disappoint, I found some bizarre new drinks to try. This brand, Calpis, was changed to Calpico for sale in the States (Say it out loud to find out why. If you don't get it, say it to someone else and ask them to repeat what you said slowly or post a comment and I'll explain.)

This particular beverage...I have no idea what it is. It could be coffee, it could be tea, it could be tea made from coffee beans, I haven't the foggiest.

THIS drink, on the other hand, is strange but in a pleasant way. It's aloe and white grape flavored, and it's near the top of my list of Interesting Drinks that I Will Definitely Get Again. It has chunks of aloe floating in it, which are not as disturbing as you'd expect.



Sunday
New and interesting soda flavor found on the way to Yokohama. It's labeled "Sakura" which means "Cherry Blossom" and my best characterization is that it tastes like pink Runts. You know, the candy that has bananas, oranges, strawberries and unidentified round pink blobs.

My favorite part of this could be that I can actually read "sakura" on the label. Progress!

Yokohama is a happy place. We started with the theme park. It's small by American standards, but they have a lot of things, well designed use of space, and it's an all-around good time. One of the most intriguing things we did was go through the cheesy haunted house and the "scary" track ride and note the differences between American and Japanese versions of the same concepts. There was also a mirror maze that was kind of cool.

We took a ride on the ferris wheel, which is a pretty big local landmark.


This pink roller coaster is called something like "Vanishing Coaster." This is why. (More photos of this later.)

You'd think that such an enormous wheel would feel unstable because of the winds at this height. It's not. It's so stable you could put a wine glass on the floor and it would still be full at the end of the ride. It never stops, it just moves slowly enough for people to get on and off, so there's no jerking to a halt every ten feet. The car is spacious and completely enclosed by glass (and air conditioned).

Check it out - mini golf on the roof of the next building over!

Looking down at the roller coasters and the flume ride.

Here you can see some of the office buildings and some other rides.


The top view of the Vanishing Coaster. The pool is also the end point for the flume ride.






Looking down at the other cars on the Wheel.

Me playing something like the drum set from Rock Band in the arcade. I couldn't read any of the screens, so I accidentally went from Ultra Easy to Not Quite as Easy as I Would Have Liked with a couple errant drum taps, but it was still fun.

We crossed the street and found a wine event with street vendors, and got some Sakura ice cream, which in this case, is vanilla ice cream with bits of cherry mixed in.

Then we found Chinatown!

The official name for this type of food, fluffy dough around filling, usually purchased fresh out of the oven or steamer or whatever they use to cook with, is anpanman (filled with sweetened bean paste) or nikuman (filled with meat), depending on what is inside. I refer to this in particular as Sad Panda Food. It was the bean stuff inside, and in the name of all that is good and pure, it has no right to be that delicious. Something that has THAT expression on its FACE (it has a face for Pete's sake) shouldn't make me so happy.

Amusing billboard just above the booth selling Sad Panda Food. I have no idea what it says.

If there's one thing I took away from Chinatown, it's that they're obsessed with pandas. Seriously. We saw a store literally named Panda-ya (panda store) and in the window was, among other things, a stuffed panda wearing a panda hat.

If there are two things I took away from Chinatown, it's panda obsession and cheongsams. I ended up ordering a short sleeved dress in black with subdued-hue chrysanthemums for a great deal. The woman spoke excellent English and even taught me how to pin up my hair with a single hair pin. I'm no good at it yet, but I get the concept. I'll go back next weekend to pick up the dress after tailoring, photos to follow.

Then it was off to the other major landmark, Yokohama Tower.

The viewing rooms were on the 29th and 30th floor.


They provided a map showing what you can see from wherever you're looking from the tower, which I thought was a pretty neat way to make a map.



They also have the scary window in the floor. Gives me the willies.


After dinner, we walked along the waterfront back to the train station, and at dusk everything starts to light up.
This is the last picture my camera took before the battery died.


We stopped at the Ox again for half price sushi (have I mentioned yet how much I love late-night half-price sushi?), and an apple.

For scale, (after I changed the camera battery) I put it next to our hotel coffee pot, but it's both a small coffee pot and a big apple, so it's comical but not terribly helpful.


Conclusion: Yokohama is one of my new favorite spots.

I've babbled enough for now, next installation will likely be an update on our living situation. Stay tuned!