The Royal Wedding celebration flags in Regent St, London’s famous West End

The heat is unbearable,its the hottest day of the year so far – 23 degrees and the tube was hideous.

The traffic is a nightmare as all the roads are being dug up and the buses are on diverted routes, there are thousands of bodies out on the street today and yet, I turned into Regent St to be greeted by this fantastic display of flags and instantly my day was so much brighter.

Its a fabulous tribute to the Royal Wedding  to come on April 29th, it feels patriotic and retro at the same time and actually is way better than the feeble Christmas decorations we have come to expect.

Patriotic flags line Regent St for the Royal wedding on April 29th 2011

Closer views can be seen from the upper floors of Regent St buildings

All photos by Smudgetikka – all rights reserved

Wishing our Japanese friends well. すべての我々の日本人の友達を願って。

Thanks to @Aravore for the translation, thoughts are with you all from those in the West.

I was in Tokyo in October and it is a wonderful city. I hope those there recover and regain strength soon.

 

Thinking of those in Japan suffering the Tsunami

Copenhagen fashion week, Arne Jacobson’s legacy and if there is time in the city visit the Lego store for your kids.

A quick post today while I sort out all the pics from CPH Kids and Ciff Kids, a couple of new discoveries for me in the city. Copenhagen is a great city to visit as most of the centre can be walked around, I hit the shopping streets Sunday morning and came across the Lego store in Stroget Vimmelskaftet that Brit kids would adore to go to.

Of course it should be good in the Land of Lego’s birth but what it it’s really good for are the hard to get exclusives unavailable elsewhere. When I visited they had the Guggenheim museum from the Architecture series not yet in the UK and a Danish cargo boat I can’t imagine you can buy anywhere else in the world. They also had a table to build your own mini figure with a wide selection of five separate pieces.

Elsewhere I learned that in the imposing Radisson Blu hotel in the city centre which was designed originally by Arne Jacobson whose involvement extended to even the door handles, there remains one suite in the original style that can be booked. It’s room 606 which comes replete with original Egg and  Swan chairs.

What I love here though is the general attention to design throughout, luckily you don’t have book a room at the Radisson to sit in an Egg chair, they have them in the lobby, not only that but Copenhagen must be the only airport in the world that has Egg chairs for travellers to sit in while waiting for a flight and very comfortable they are too.  Whats not to like about that?

 

Lego store Copenhagen

 

 

Interior of Copenhagen Lego store with models, and yes Danish kids really do wear those padded all in ones all the time.

 

 

Lego store special edition Danish Cargo ship from Copenhagen store

 

 

The Copenhagen Lego store has unique models built into display cabinets around the stock shelves

 

 

Mid Century Modern tower hotel built for SAS by Arne Jacobson in Copenhagen, now owned by Radisson Blu

 

 

Arne Jacobson suite room 606 Radisson Blu Copenhagen - photo from Radisson Blu

 

 

The revamped lobby at The Radisson Blu in Copenhagen

 

 

No better way to chill before a flight, Arne Jacobson Egg chair at Copenhagen Airport

 

All photos Smudgetikka unless otherwise stated – all rights reserved

Akihabara in Tokyo, a teenage boys dream to visit.

One of the highlights of the year for me was my trip to Tokyo. My teenage son who is games mad had done quite a bit of research thanks to NGamer magazine and had a list of obscure addresses for us to find, in strange office type buildings where the 5th floor would suddenly open up into a secondhand electronic games shop or a specialist build your own robot store.

Most of these were based in the area known as Akihabara and easily accessible from the subway, it was also the area with the fabled Japanese gaming arcades and the Maid Cafes which we avoided at all costs!

There were stores 8 floors tall full of electronic goodies, each floor dedicated to a different aspect, and 6 store buildings full of nothing but computer game machines, again each floor dedicated to a differing style, World of Warcraft on one level, football games on another, fantasy another and so on. The ground floor was often an arcade full of claw machines such as those found at the end of the pier in English seaside towns.

Instead of eating at the Maid Cafes we made our way over to Roppongi to vist the Dragon Quest restaurant called Luida’s bar. Its a replica of the cafe in the role playing game and is tiny with a bar area and 3 tables to stand at. The food is amusingly themed as parts of the game.

My son adored it especially the “Slime” character meat pie, plus if you had a DS to hand you picked up extra points to gain special one off items for the game.

 

Games playing and selling on 8 floors in Akihabara Tokyo

 

 

Retro games store with old consoles, games, books and even sought after character cuddly toys

 

 

Gaming arcade with"Claw" machines on ground level

 

 

Slime character meat pies in the Dragon Quest restaurant Luida's bar in Roppongi

 

 

Slime metallic paperweight, a novelty purchase I couldn't resist from Akihabara

 

 

Shelves of vintage Japanese Graphic novels in Akihabara in Tokyo

 

 

The games floor in one high rise store in Akihabara Tokyo, so much choice!

 

 

 

The streets are full of Japanese men in dark suits

 

 

 

Just before the Typhoon hit Tokyo, Akihabara in true Blade Runner style

 

All photos by Smudgetikka – all rights reserved

Snowing in London again! Wimbledon Common.

Wow so much snow this year, and more to come tomorrow.

This is so unusual I had to rush out and capture it on Wimbledon Common, looking foreward to the heavier fall tomorrow but then I am one of the fortunate ones and I know the shops won’t run out of supplies and I won’t be trapped in my home for long so I am sympathetic to those in the extremes of the country with far worse weather and hope they manage to enjoy the snow as well.

 

Wimbledon Common snow on December 17th 2010

 

 

Wimbledon Common snow on December 17th 2010

 

 

Wimbledon Common snow on December 17th 2010

 

All photos by Smudgetikka – all rights reserved

Mori Tower Tokyo, a great place to take kids, its not just about the view, buy the Takashi Murakami toys too!

The Mori building is the tallest tower in Tokyo with public access to see that astonishing city spread out below you but it is so much more than just an observation tower. As well as being part of the Roppongi Hills shopping development there is a really good art gallery with a very nice toy shop attached too which is great for kids. The observation level on floor 52 also has restaurants and bars, it is light and airy and spacious with plenty of windows to view from and the view is stunning.

The art exhibition I saw was Metabolism: Urbanism and Architecture which ended in November and I can really recommend if it comes over to the West at all, if the quality of that was the norm then I think whatever is there will be good. For Christmas there is a special Sky Planetarium installation which sounds great fun too.

The museum shop has a lot of great quality tin painted toys and some amazing detailed street scenes and there is a tie in for Roppongi Hills with the well known Japanese artist Takashi Murakami who has created children’s soft toys and hand puppets,fridge magnets, a Monopoly set and many posters and special sweet and cookie tins for the centre.

 

Tokyo view with a typhoon approaching from the Mori Tower

 

 

Takashi Murakami created special soft toys for the Roppongi Hills complex in Tokyo

 

 

Takashi Murakami Monopoly set from the Mori Tower Tokyo

 

 

Tokyo diarama street scene from Museum gift shop at Mori Tower Tokyo

 

Cute metal penguins from Mori Art Museum gift store

 

 

Vintage look tin toys from the Mori museum gift store

 

 

Vintage look tin cars and trucks from the Mori museum gift store

 

 

Waterfall in optical glass from the Metabolism: Urbanism and Architecture exhibit at the Mori Gallery

 

 

White trees floating in gallery space by Kuribayashi from Japanese larch trees, pulp and paper

 

All photos by Smudgetikka – all rights reserved

Studio Ghibli Museum Tokyo is like walking into a Ghibli film set.

Having loved the Studio Ghibli animated films for a long time it was amazing to be able to visit the Ghibli museum in Mitaka, a suburb of Tokyo.

Sadly it was raining as the museum is itself very green with lots of roof terraces and outside spaces but also in parkland which is very fitting.

The museum opened in 2001 and is a series of interlocking spaces which from the outside have a moulded adobe style appearance and inside resemble a castle with large staircases and huge wooden doors, they have the atmosphere of a Ghibli interior set, slightly turn of the century with Art Nouveau stained glass style windows and a huge domed central glass ceiling. There is a centrepiece spiral staircase which runs throughout the three floors as well as more conventional wooden stairs.

The museum begins with an explanation of animation and a wonderful zoetrope with 3 dimensional Totoro figures, there are rooms that show Hayao Miyazaki’s office style and working methods, how the backgrounds are built up in layers and best of all there is a giant shaggy fur Cat Bus that the under 12’s can clamber in and out and on top of. I would thoroughly recommend a visit here even if you are not aware of much of the Studio’s output as it is just great fun.

There is also a cinema that shows short animations made especially for the museum, every entry ticket includes one screening.

Its about a 30 minute ride out on the JR Chuo line from central Tokyo so fairly easy to visit, the prices all seemed reasonable for Tokyo and there is a shuttle bus from underneath the elevated station especially for museum visitors. The only proviso is if you can,  book before you travel to Tokyo as there is a limit of 200 visitors per day and the museum can sell out. I managed to book tickets in London from an agency listed on the website about 2 weeks before we left and the allocation for some days had already been sold.

 

Entrance to the Ghibli museum in Tokyo with rain cover walkway

 

 

The Robot soldier on the roof of the Ghibli museum, Mitaka, Tokyo

 

 

The patio garden with a working well in the centre

 

 

Patio manhole cover - why don't all manhole covers look like this?

 

 

Giant soft Cat Bus and smoke balls in the Ghibli museum - photo by Yutaka Suzuki

 

 

One of the stained glass window panels

 

 

Another secret patio and roof terrace garden

 

 

One of our gift shop buys, a soft spinning Totoro

 

 

Another gift shop buy, a Totoro key ring at the Ghibli Museum Tokyo

 

 

One super stylish young Ghibli museum visitor in the cafe, Mitaka Tokyo

 

All photos except Cat Bus by Smudgetikka, Cat Bus photo by Yataka Suzuki – all rights reserved

Off to Tokyo for Half Term

No post for today as I am flying off to Tokyo today for half term fun with my son, the Studio Ghibli museum is on our list amongst other delights.

I hope to post by iPhone when I am there so apologies if I don’t manage the techy stuff but there will be lots of posts when I get back in a weeks time.

I hope you all have a good autumn break too, I found these amazing red leaves at the back of our house and just could not believe their intense colour, had to capture them before the landscape all turns bleak and barren. Happy Halloween to all too.

 

Autumn leaves

 

Photo by Smudgetikka – all rights reserved