Went to a hamburger restaurant in Sanjo. It's highly rated, and a friend and I wanted to give it a try as both of us has lived in the US and wanted to see how it compares with an authentic American counterpart. Short answer: it was much more delicious than I expected!! The patty was thick, 100% beef, juicy and grilled just right. Mine had some mushrooms in it, and they were tasty, too. The vegetables were fresh and crispy. It was way above fast-food chain hamburgers, and it was a pleasant surprise! It reminded me of a Youtubers video where two Americans living in Japan for a long time casually chat about what their impressions are on various things in Japan. And when they were talking about food, they said "Japanese cooks bring any cuisine to a next level". And never have I felt it was true more than I did today! When I miss American food, it is a go-to place, though I'm unsure if there will be such a day...?
Next we went to a museum to see Ghibli exhibition, but it was so crowded! They were distributing a ticket that says a specific timeframe for your entry. So, we went there at 2:15, and the only time we could go in was at 5:15. Wow... The venue was full of people inside and outside.
So, we went to check out Kyoto manga museum that's just 5 min walk from that museum. It was so fun to look around!! They have a huge collection of comic books, old and new, in towering bookshelves. There was a small exhibitions like "How manga is made", "Are cartoonists a millionaire?", "Pirated versions of manga", etc... The size of manga industry is ~450 billion yen. And it was surprising that cartoonists only get 10% of the profit of selling of their own comic books published. The rest of 90% goes to the publisher and others. It's such a low compensation rate if you think that it is cartoonists that are doing all the hard work...!
Finally we got into the Ghibli exhibition. It was more about a person who worked at Ghibli than the movies themselves, but... it was quite interesting to read about how he started his career as a journal editor first, then a journalist, then chief editor, before starting up a film company Ghibli spun off from Nautica.
Ghibli was named after a fighter plane used in Italy. Hayao Miyazaki was a fan of it, that's why. He seems to have been a warplane enthusiast. What's more, originally, Ghibli is a word for a dry breath that travels through Sahara Desert, in the local's language. Interesting.. It became big and world famous now.
I didn't know, but Ghibli has created many more films than just the super famous ones like Totoro. It was kind of encouraging in a way to know that even this world-renounced successful company does not always get the best result from their creations. There are ones that are huge hits and others that are not so much. They just keep creating new things. Keep going! Whether it turns out well-received or not, the only way forward is to continue working.
It inspired me to draw and study, to continue my endeavor to improve myself as an artist and as a researcher.
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