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A future where Miyazaki prefecture become littered with grandparent-fueled Ghibli characters and quickly become overrun with tourists...
Or kids at this specific stop are treated to a moment of joy while waiting for their train to come...
Time will tell...
You can't just tell everyone to not do anything cool because it might attract too many tourists. That's a race to the bottom of a boring world.
There are so many cool things like this all over Japan, and only a very small percentage of them get completely run-over with international tourists. Even an hour or two outside of Tokyo, many not-so-hidden treasures like this can be found. And there aren't many tourists at these spots.
Take last year's "Lawson with a view of Mount Fuji" thing. The city had to to take all kinds of counter-measures to international tourists flocking there just to take a photo. Meanwhile, there are dozens more Lawsons in the area with epic views of Mount Fuji in the background, and not a tourist in sight.
Yes and no.
Yes, I agree, because life would get boring really quickly. People should be able to express themselves (in a civil, legal manner) so that the world can be more colourful and filled with art and beauty.
But also no, I don't agree. Have you seen the impact tourism in Japan has had on the local ecosystem as of late? They've literally banned tourists in some areas because frankly: more tourists act like animals. They litter, act rude and disrespectful, and are just obnoxious. Also, in a lot of cases, they provide little to no financial growth or benefit to the local economy. Look at Venice, for example.
So I think when making something like this, there has to be some degree of forward thinking around how it's going to divert (tourist) traffic to the area and what impact that's going to have on the locals.
Kyushu is quite far off the beaten tourist path, so I doubt it would get a lot of non-domestic traveling.
possible but more a corner case that additionally takes one along the opposite vibe trajectory to the story's
so ... why?
> Or kids at this specific stop are treated to a moment of joy while waiting for their train to come...
Kids are becoming a rarity in Japan
Luckily tourists are a political problem, which the corona restrictions clearly showed.
Doesn't pessimism like this exhaust you?
As least Japan doesn’t have a bunch of sheep tech bros building a Burning Man every year pretending they are cool
The my neighbour Totoro theatre show has a 18ft soft moving puppet built by Jim Henson’s Creature shop. It’s incredible how they pulled it off.
I saw the musical in London and it was so good! Highly recommend it!
This is awesomeness happening because copyright can't sabotage it.
sidebar: The opposite of this awesomeness is counterproductive absurdity. The latter is what copyright always devolves to when it is insufficiently restrained.
Studio Ghibli has historically been fairly permissive with non-commercial fan tributes compared to Disney or other animation studios, which is part of why we see these wonderful community expressions flourish in Japan.
Not to defend anti-creativity, but it's my understanding that at least in the US you have to defend your copyright and go after violations or I guess a real serious violation could say "but this other person did it and had no consequences so that's unfair"
> This is awesomeness happening because copyright can't sabotage it.
If this were a Disney character, it would have been destroyed a long time ago.
I love that this happened on Miyazaki Prefecture.
I love that they didn't half-ass it, even if it was just for the kids.
It's made of concrete, which now that I think about it must have been the obvious choice, but I can't help but feel a bit disappointed that it's not soft and fluffy like in the movie.
Here it is on Google Street View/Maps
Looks like it turned into a little side business for them.
Haha, digging the Kei VW bus ...
Miyazaki prefecture? Thats going to be a long route for the Nekobasu.
https://www.ghibli-museum.jp/en/welcome/#:~:text=Poof%2C%20B...
If you're in Seattle, there's also a large statue of the robot from Laputa: Castle in the Sky here. It's standing on the front lawn of a house in the Ballard neighborhood. I had recently seen the movie when I first encountered it, so it was a fun find.
There is a tradition of placing small tokens or flowers on his palm! At one point the owner had a tumblr where they posted pictures of the offerings it received occasionally.
this is so incredibly cute.
i swear tourists better not ruin this
I guess if they ruin it, they're also likely to generate economic life for the area (though the owners are going to hate it). A lot of areas outside the main cities are quietly struggling. A little depressing to see when visiting.
Okay, it looks nice and it is great that they are doing this, but what if it rains, and where do I sit, on the floor?
It’s not an actual bus stop. The bus stop is part of the installation. It depicts the scene where Totoro takes the cat bus [1]. But I was hoping it had an umbrella too.
I can’t think of any bus stops near me, in Tokyo, that has a cover or seating. It’s pretty normal.
Fantastic, I love it. We should all be doing things like that.
Man, if only they would create a working cat bus....
meeds moar umbrella
Quintessential "Thing, Japan" content
As someone who's triggered by this and has griped about it just recently: No, this doesn't qualify, because Totoro is actually Japanese content that happens to be popular internationally. "Thing, Japan" is if you take something that is commonplace outside of Japan as well, and act as if only the mystical, wise place that is Japan has it.
No it's not. "thing, japan" implies that the "thing" wouldn't be special outside of japan. Where else is there a totoro bus stop?
Those grandparents are the best.
The epitome of Ikigai - 生き甲斐
Try to do that in america and some bureaucrat will have a crew demolish it within a week.
Depends on where you live. In the upper Midwest, it's common to see a roadside booth at the end of a driveway, where kids can keep out of the weather while waiting for the bus. Most are pretty simplistic, but I can't discount the idea of making a fancy one.
In my urban neighborhood, there are some houses with interesting or odd art works on their lawns, often what you'd call folk art.
Now they need to make a cat bus to stop there.
Try that here and city regulators will be all over your ass, smh.
Disney would sue the hell out of you first.
Eh, depends where the bus stop is. Around me, the transit busses don't have marked stops, and will stop anywhere on the route, and there's no sidewalk, so landowners can put up art/sculpture at the edge of their parcel or the road easement, if they want. School busses stop at specific places, but many landowners have put up shelters for students to wait underneath. In town, there are bus stops and city managed sidewalk; you can't block the sidewalk, but a landowner could put up art at the edge of the sidewalk. Commercial signs are regulated regardless of where installed, but a sculpture such as this isn't commercial.
Your city may be different, of course, but I wouldn't expect this to cause a problem, if installed by permission of the owner, in most cities. HOAs might throw a fit, they like to do that.
This sculpture isn't particularly tall, but height restrictions are popular. A sculpture that does not appear to be stable, or appears particularly flammable might be reviewable as well. There's no utility connections, so there's no need to review those.
This was my initial thought just from reading the headline and was not dissuaded from seeing the permanence of the structure. I'd imagine some fines for your effort as well.
You are absolutely correct. In fact, SF and Berkeley were both mad about the "guerrilla benches" where people were putting benches were bus stops were: https://sfist.com/2025/07/07/sf-city-hall-not-at-all-pleased...
Besides, think about it, have these parents completed an Environmental Impact Report? How do we know this is not terrible for the environment? Chesterton's fence. Regulations are written in blood.
HN becoming Reddit.