I was going through some of my old folders the other day and found these photos of the Kawaguchi-Ko Music Forest. It was one of the most fascinating places Garandee's best friend brought us the last time we were in Japan.
The moment you enter, it almost feels like you've left Japan and gone into one of those fantasy novels set during the Renaissance. It's no wonder why like magic, all three of us started talking funny all of a sudden..
Garando: "Care for some tea, mi lady?"
Garandee: "Oh I'd be delighted, Sir Garando. But we'd like to see the museum first."
Garandee's friend: "It's bloody beautiful, isn't it?"
The place is at one of the mountain resorts near Mt. Fuji, and that explains why the clouds were hanging so low like my old underwear...
Garandee is a magnet for swans. Either they're just curious or they're guard swans in attack mode.
I can almost imagine Frodo and Sam happily frolicking around... holding hands, looking gleefully at each other and... never mind.
But the main reason we went there was for the huge collection of antique automated music boxes. You know those wind-up music boxes that played either Christmas tunes or tunes from Disney's Fantasia? Imagine a museum filled with these music boxes only they were a hundred times bigger! Big enough that their main attraction was an entire orchestra!
This is an orchestra of dolls playing instruments. It's one humongous music box surrounding the entire hall, it felt like we were looking at the true origin of Dolby Surround Sound!
This orchestra originated from Belgium in the 1800's and was unfortunately abandoned until a Japanese collector decided to purchase and restore it before bringing it back home to Japan. I heard all the music boxes in the museum were owned by that same collector, and to think I saw over a hundred!
I wish I had more photos, but taking pictures wasn't allowed in some parts of the museum... At least I was able to sneak in some videos. Here's a one minute video of their most kawaii (pretty) music boxes!
Garandee mode:I want that English accent!
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