As part of the seminar, we get a tour of the Ghibli Museum 🙂 and meet up with the engineering department that deals with animation at the Tokyo University.  I already enjoyed the Ghibli Museum the first time around and this time, it still made my heart ache a little.  The place is a must for anyone who is remotely into animation.  Miyazaki designed it like a playground and you can’t help but feel like playing when you’re in there … just like his animation I guess, they bring you into a fantastical world full of imagination.

So as I walked the halls that I walked through just 4 months ago, I still feel the same rush of awe that fills you when you surrounded by the work of a genius.  In the middle of the visit, someone commented to me that the animation scene in Singapore shouldn’t pretend to be the next Pixar, we should focus on their niche strength and create stuff like Tomato Twins … … I wonder if he knew I was part of the team that created Tomato Twins and how my favourite series at that time was Powerpuff Girls.  That said, I’m very proud of Tomato Twins, sure it has its flaws and isn’t Totoro but it was the turning point for me in my animation career, it made me realise yes, we can do it.  I’m looking forward to when I find the right team and get to do it again 🙂

Meanwhile, I’ll appreciate that my civil service job that serves the animation industry gives me the opportunity to visit some really cool places.  I’ll even be grateful to be sitting in a cold tutorial room learning about how other countries grow their animation industry 😉