Japan Winter Holiday 2017 Part 18 - NHK Studio Park Tokyo and Gonpachi

After our visit to the Miraikan, we took the train back to Shibuya area to meet up with one of Miss Kiki's best friend from pre-school. We had arranged to meet at the NHK Studio Park in Shibuya area. If you are not familiar with NHK, it is Japan's national public broadcasting organization with it's famous mascot Domo-kun. In Jakarta, we can watch NHK World on TV (with subscription). 

The NHK building was not difficult to find, but Google Maps didn't really show the proper entrance so we had to ask around before we found it.

どーもくん (Domo-kun)

Ohisashiburi ne.... It's been a long time!

キキちゃん　と　リリちゃん

When we entered the studio, there was a huge HD tv on display, but we weren't allowed to take a photo there. We proceeded to an interactive screen area where we could press a picture and it will show a news snippet from that picture.

We saw an ultra high definition TV on display but didn't take a picture. The clarity was pretty cool. The next section was trivia area. It was all in Japanese and related to their shows. For the kids, it was a fun guessing game. :D

Next was an area dedicated to their variety shows. They had many interactive games to try. All of the instructions are in Japanese though. Luckily we had a cute little interpreter with us. :)

Next was their animation section. Some I knew of, some I didn't. This one below was recommended so I will try to find it to watch....

Seirei no Moribito

We also tested our skills to be voice actors. The short animations were for children and the texts were written in Hiragana and Katakana. Well, I tried my best.... I think a Japanese pre-schooler would still beat me in speed :D The kids on the other hand, were just too shy and giggled all the way through.

After that, they got to pretend to be news anchors. That was pretty cool.

Aside from acting, they also got to try some technical stuff, like matching animations to their sound effects. This was done by arranging cards corresponding to the animations and the sounds.

Next was the rest area. There were more sections in the building that we walked through, but because it was near closing time we had to rush through it.

All in all, it was a great visit but I think it wouldn't be half as fun if our friends weren't there :)

Next was dinner time! Our friend had made reservations at the Gonpachi Shibuya location and we walked to the building. 

We walked past a Mega Donki (Don Quijote) on the way.

Finally it's dinner time! 

Gonpachi is mostly known as the Kill Bill Restaurant, since their Nishiazabu location was what had inspired one of the famous fighting scene in Kill Bill. (I didn't watch the movie but clips of the fighting scene were all over the internet). We were in the Shibuya location, but it was still a nice restaurant with good atmosphere. The food was more of a modern izakaya, on the more expensive side. If you come from other big cities though, I think the prices are not a shock.

We had food, drinks, and a lot of chats. That night Miss Kiki tried a Ramune drink for the first time. 

We had fun and it was time to say good-bye. The girls who were really shy at first (about 5 years of not seeing each other!) and now they are stuck together we had to pry them apart :D

It was great to see you again! Until next time!