Not so spooky spooks
Not so spooky spooks
I went on my most ambitious and expensive day trip yet--to Kyoto to visit the Kyoto Toei Studio Park for their Yokai (妖怪, Japanese folk monsters and ghouls) Festival. I got up dark and early to catch the first train to Tokyo so I can catch a bullet train that'll get me to Kyoto around 8:30am.
The Kyoto Toei Studio Park is an actual movie studio where they shoot period shows (mainly based in the Edo period). They were shooting a show while we were visiting, but we didn't really see any famous actors. For the shooting, they closed off a part of the park (which opened up later in the afternoon when the shooting was finished). I did, however, see a few minor actors dressed up as samurais. There were ladies in kimonos, too. One of them was giving a studio tour.
My buddy and I got to the park soon after they opened, and there weren't that many people around, which was great for getting photos without a bunch of strangers in the background. We took the opportunity to go into the attractions without having to wait in a long line. The first one we went into was the ninja trick house, where we had to push and pull on the walls to find hidden doors to make our way out. Unfortunately, they didn't allow photos. Now the last room had a door tilted one way, and the room tilting another. Vertigo-inducing, yo. It didn't help that the tatami (straw) mats were slippery, so my socks were slipping and sliding as I tried to make my way to the door. My buddy and I were giggling away. I noticed the rails along the walls after I finally made it to the doorway. We were still laughing as we left the ninja house.
The next attraction we went to was the haunted house. Now, this haunted house was supposedly the second-scariest haunted house in Japan. I wasn't impressed, although my buddy was a bit scared. She said the place terrified her when she visited when she was little. To me, it was just dark. I was more annoyed with the darkness than scared. My friend was squeaking behind me while I was like, oooh! this moves with sensors! LOL We were assigned a mission when we went in, to take the blindfold off one cursed doll and place it on another. OK, there were a few dolls laying around, so I couldn't figure out which one was the cursed one. My buddy was more focused on getting out, so mission failed, I guess? Oh well.
When we got to the other end of the park, we saw that we were just in time to join the guided studio tour. Our guide was one of the minor actresses who get small parts in the shows. We learned that the park celebrated its 50th anniversary not too long ago and saw that some houses and trees that were part of the sets are on wheels so they can be moved around easier. One of the gates served as a gate for 3 different samurai shows. Economic, hey? LOL
We ditched the guided tour part way to catch the ninja show. We were impressed with the ninjas jumping down from the second floor onto the stage or somersaulted off the floor onto the stage. Of course, there was (fake) sword fighting. The story line is pretty typical, but there were parts where the main actor interacted with the audience during the short intermission. He was telling the kids that the scars on his face is makeup and if he takes it off, he's just a typical uncle. Then when the lights go down again, he goes back to his role and starts the show. We caught this show twice (the first and last show), and the second time, during a short intermission, there were foreign tourists sitting up front, so he was explaining how the ninjas were drinking water, in his broken English. LoL It was a pretty good show.
We noticed that the park got considerably crowded around when lunchtime rolled around. We saw groups of people coming in led by tour guides. The tour busses have descended to the park. The big cafeteria was booked for the tours so that left only the smaller restaurants to have lunch at. There was a bit of a waiting to get in. The food wasn't bad. I had a chicken and egg bowl and my buddy had a beef bowl. Simple and filling.
Of course, we can't forget about Evangelion. There's a robot statue in one corner of the park, which draws fans of the anime movie. It was pretty cool to look at. We climbed up to the top of the platform and the view was great. There was a pilot's chair up there, too. The chair was around the corner, so I was wondering what the holdup was until I saw the chair. Of course, people were stopping to sit in the chair and take pics.
Now for the Yokai Festival part. I was hoping that a set would be built to showcase a yokai village like in the promo poster or some elaborate exhibition. After all, it's held at a movie studio. Nope. It was mostly actors and cosplayers dressed up in yokai costumes roaming around. But, gotta give it to the actors and cosplayers. They did ham it up for the camera. Everybody patiently waited their turn to take pics. Most people wanted to take pics with the yokai, but I wanted a solo shots. When they realized that, they showed off different poses as if they were modeling for a photo shoot. They made it fun taking pics. Some were really playful and came right up to the camera lens. Talk about closeup shots.
There was a yokai parade that started with dancing, then they all marched toward the stage at the other end of the park. There was more dancing at the stage, with the MC giving instructions to the audience on how to do the yokai dance to dance with them. I did take a vid of the parade, but there were little ones participating in the parade and standing in the background, so I didn't include it in my reel. I was rather impressed by how 2 of the yokai could dance in their costumes.
For some reason, there are many parks with dinosaurs displayed somewhere. The studio park was no exception. There's a square pool that's in the middle of one of their sets that where about every 5 minutes, mist shoots up and and a Nessy-like head of a dinosaur rises up, shoots out steam, the head turns this way and that, then sinks back down into the water. Why dinosaur in an Edo-period themed set? Your guess is as good as mine.
The pool I mentioned is actually used when shooting a show. There's a deep end and a shallow end. The deep end is for when the good guy slices the bad guy with his katana and the bad guy falls into the water. The shallow end is used when they're shooting floaters. This is a little tidbit we learned during the guided tour.
While the Yokai Festival part was mildly disappointing what with the lack of the dedicated set, the playfulness of the actors and cosplayers made up for it.
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