One of my students told me that the inspiration for Hayao Miyazaki’s ‘The Totoro Next Door’ (also known as ‘My Neighbour Totoro’ in the US and Europe) anime film was a forest, called Totoro’s Forest, in the Sayama Hills near where I live. Well I thought it was near…
So on our day off last week we set out to find Totoro’s Forest - and then I soon realised it was much further from our place then I thought it was. So we gave up getting there and instead opted to just take various detours on our way to Tokorozawa, a fairly big town near us.
As with my bike trip the previous week, getting lost on the bike proved to be one of the most enjoyable things we could have done. In the process we found various interesting things including an amazing little bamboo forest, some farms, beaten up cars, a river, temples, shrines and much more.
Biking really is one of the best things you can do when wanting to discover an area - especially when it’s on the other side of the world and you’ve got so much to see and discover. We got lost on our way back and found more fields, forests and a shortcut back to our place. Pretty good result for a four hour ride.
We finished the day with some food and drink at a local izakaya - and with alcohol being soooo cheap in this country it was pretty funny having to then bike it back to our place at 2am, drunk, cold and somewhat tired. Don’t do it kids.
As usual I took a hefty amount of pictures on the way there and back, which you can see on this Flickr photoset:
Looking For Totoro’s Forest Flickr set
More info on Totoro’s Forest and the fund to save the Sayama Hills can be found here - http://www.jeef.or.jp/ASIA/japan2004/totoro.htm
And for those who haven’t seen the film yet I can only recommend you fix up and check it asap - My Neighbour Totoro
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