An arcade game just for kids in Lotteria

For lunch we made a quick stop at Lotteria, which seemed like a Japanese version of Hardees. However, what stuck out to me was a miniature arcade game in the corner. It was just tall enough for the two little kids playing on it. That's definitely something I haven't seen in the U.S. before.

From Lotteria we walked over to Toei's building and were ushered into the conference room for a quick overview of facilities we would be seeing during our visit. Then we were led over to a screening room where we got to see some of the company's latest trailers, including One Piece and Robo DZ. Robo DZ really got our attention, because even though it was in Japanese we could still understand the humor. I also noticed that the visual style of Robo DZ appeared similar to some of Pixar's work.

From the screening room we began our tour through the building; seeing workstations along the way and getting an upclose demonstration of one of the software programs used by Toei. I had done some research beforehand and found an interview/walkthrough video of Toei Animation, which features a similar demonstration to what we saw on our tour. The video covers techniques used to complete in-between frames for a character from One Piece ( http://tr.truveo.com/Inside-Toei-Animation-Part-1/id/1945781189 ). I was really impressed by the software Toei was using and I hope that some of the functionality of its tools are embraced by other programs (like Photoshop).

Right outside Toei Animation building

Next we were led through the special effects area and watched as two women used character sheets to color in sketches (Paintman software). Another employee explained how effects were composed with Photoshop, showing some layers that were combined to create a bright shine off a character's sword. Lastly we walked through the company's gallery which showcased glass cases with figurines, life size characters, posters, and images from older movies/shows.

Left to Right: Hand painted backgrounds, Special Effects department, Woman explaining color sheets in Paintman

After the tour we were invited back into the conference room for a Q&A session with Mr. Yoshioka, who is a senior advisor at Toei. He had much to say about the various on-going projects they were working on and the benefit of using digital tools for animation. He also said that the demographics of the company between men and women were about 50/50, which was surprising to us since there are less women employed in animation fields in America.

Our time at Toei came to an end and we said our goodbyes. We got a nice gift bag and a final group picture before catching the train for our second stop of the day: Nakano Broadway.

Group photo inside Toei gallery

We entered through Nakano Broadway's gates to a street of shopping. At first we were overwhelmed by the number of stores and all the places we wanted to walk through. There were special stores set aside just for items like socks or key chains! However, most of the stores were second-hand shops with items that were overpriced. Although this discovery was somewhat disappointing, it was a fun experience to see the kinds of stores and items that are popular in Japan.

Not to be outdone for the day, we went to an Italian restaurant close to the hotel for dinner. The pepperoni and mushroom pizzas we ordered hit the spot and I even tried some Asahi beer. Then it was time to go back to the hotel and rest up before another full day of activities.

The Asahi beer was good but I prefer Sapporo!