Japan Trip 13: Kyoto Animation

Day 13 was a continuation of the siteseeing in Kyoto with Ronald. Although before I went off to meet up with him, I popped into a sign writing shop to request for a Shitajiki (signature board) to be made for my Jujitsu instructor back in Australia. I asked the store owner to write the name of the dojo on it for me. The sign writing shop is located in one of the small side streets closeby to the Business hotel Nissei in Osaka.

It was my first time going to one of these type of shops, so I asked the shop owner if I could take a photo of his shop. The owner seemed to do all the calligraphy and writing of many signs, menus and advertisments. When I was entering, he was in the middle of writing on this giant expensive looking lantern. Since he writes on expensive and sometimes non-flat objects, it must be pretty stressful and difficult work.

After getting him to do the Shikishi, I went to Kyoto to meet up with Ronald.

He was with his friend Max. Since our plans for today was to go to visit Kyoto Animation, we decided to have some fun and eat some Chokokorone bread (a chocolate filled bread) in front of the building like Konata from Lucky Star, a popular anime by the anime studio. So, our first destination was to the bakery. This was of course all Ronald’s idea. (^^;)

At the bakery, although I thought I’d been to some bakeries in Japan before, this one had so many types of bread that I had never seen before. I really would like to sample them all, but unfortunately that is impossible given the limited time we had there. In the end, I only bought myself one of the Chokokorone breads.

I hadn’t had lunch at that time, so I decided to get a quick bite from Mac Donalds and tried a couple of their 100 yen snacks. I bought some 100 yen fried chicken and a burger.

After that, we went to Uji station. Apart from helping Ronald find the right line to go on for the train, he guided us to the Kyoto Animation building.

It was actually right in front of the stations!! Also it was much smaller than I had imagined.

Apparently it is in this building that all the hit anime series Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu, Lucky Star, Clannad, Air, Kanon, K-on and so on are produced.

I went inside and got a map to the Kyoto Animation shop from one of the staff working there who also kindly helped give us directions to it.

Before heading off to the Kyoto Animation shop, we decided to take some photos in front of the building. Ronald was the first to get his picture taken.

I was next.

I got a map from the staff member I talked to in the building which showed the directions to the Kyoto Animation Shop. It was quite easy to find. Apparently all you needed to go was walk straight down the main road until you go a bit past the 2nd train station, and then it should be to the left.

The Kyoto Animation shop is a building with these red coloured stairs that do kinda stand out. The shop is on the 3rd floor.

Entering the store, this is what you see. According to the shop attendant, the items in the store are usually limited edition items that you can’t buy elsewhere. They also have an online shop, but when they run low in stock, they then only sell those items in this shop.

Here are some Lucky star and Haruhi pillow covers.

All the items here really were stuff that we hadn’t seen before on our many frequent visits to Animate and Gamers. There were a couple of things there that we’d seen before, but most of the goods were new to us.

When I look at the picture below, I should of bought that lucky star towel!! Ahh.. I lotally didn’t notice it. orz

In the photo above, the book with the blue cross on it is Kyoto Animation’s own text book on creating animation. I didn’t buy it because of weight and price, but now, I am regretting that.

These are some cell art samples that can be ordered through the Kyoto Animation shop website for 15,000 yen each. I am still deciding if I should buy one, although I think Ronald has already made up his mind about getting one.

This is the section next to the entrance.

This is a little post box to leave messages to Kyoto Animation. After our shopping we decided to write a little message to Kyoto animation. Ronald also wrote something too. Also, together with Ronald, I think we almost bought most of the items in the shop. I know we did buy the last of a few things.

After leaving a message, we met up with an Otaku from Hiroshima who also left a message. However, he also did a drawing next to his message! He was really nice to us and gave both Ronald and myself a K-on keychain. Thanks!

Since we didn’t do a drawing, we went back and added drawings to our messages as well.

After returning back to Kyoto station, we arriving, Ronald dropped the camera lens cover of his DSL camera, so we quickly contacted the train staff to help us to retrieve it.

While waiting, Max found an interesting vending machine that served hot food. He bought some Karaage Chicken, but although the picture on the vending machine looked nice, what came out looked like it had just been heated up in a microwave.

We then decided to go back to to the video arcades to play more of the UFO catcher machines at the place we went to the previous day. On the way there I took some photos of these displays. I don’t really remember what it was about but since I took photos of them, I’ll upload them anyways. (^^;)

Ronald was leading us to the video arcades.

At the UFO catchers, we again spent a whole lot of time there relying on Ronald to win heaps of prizes. I also gave a shot at the other type of UFO catchers where you have to pull down some prizes held by strings and won a few K-on prizes myself.

After the arcades, we went to eat at a really nice Katsudon specialty restaurant. It was really delicious. This was one of Ronald’s recommended shops.

Since time seemed to fly when hanging out with Ronald and Max, I had to eventually go back to Osaka. Considering the previous day, I barely caught the last train and got stranded halfway on the way back, I decided to leave a bit earlier this time.

For some reason, there were a lot of people, and it seemed like there was some sort of Matsuri (festival) happening somewhere. Perhaps a fireworks festival. But it was getting late so I decided to just go back to the hotel.

When I arrived at the hotel in Osaka, I quickly started taking photos of my loot at the Kyoto Animation shop. The box has a Haruhi pillow cover on it and the 4 posters are some rare K-on posters.