Totoro forest

Does Miyazaki Hayao & Studio Ghibli ring a bell? There is a park called 'Totoro's forest' (トトロの森）near our home. It only takes about 20 minutes to get there with our bicycles. This place was where the famous anime director drew his inspiration for the 1988 movie 'My neighbor Totoro'. It's been said that the famous animation director used to live in Tokorozawa, and today still resides relatively nearby.

Mr & Mrs S lives just next to the forest. Some time ago, we visited them at their home for lunch, and Mr S was kind enough to take us hiking in the afternoon. The trek in the forest, which is actually located on the border between Tokyo & Saitama prefectures, took 2 hours, but we had a fun time walking and chatting (in Japanese...). Mr S brought his butterfly net and DSLR camera along. He didn't get to catch any nice butterflies, but he caught plenty of us on film.

Totoro forest wasn't a very spectacular place, but knowing that Miyazaki once walked in the same forest made it a little special. One can imagine the 'cat-bus' (a character from the movie) hurtle along the same forest pathway that we walked. After the afternoon trek, we cycled along the perimeter of the forest, but sadly much of the forest had given way to residential homes. Many big houses with large driveways now dot the Totoro forest landscape.