Monday, April 27

I came across a very odd series of connections today.  Researching for a trip to a Japan next year, I found an odd little village in Kyushu called Yufuin which has been built in the style of a village in the Cotswolds.  Why? Who knows!

In the village is a bakery called Kiki's which refers to a 1989 anime film called Kiki's Delivery Service, about a young witch who moves to a small town to start a new business.  Apparently, some Japanese visitors to Tasmania noticed an uncanny resemblance between Kiki's bakery in the movie and the Ross Village Bakery.  Thanks to Facebook, etc, the Ross Bakery now has about 100 visitors every week, making a pilgrimage to see the shop.  The owners have turned an upstairs bedroom into a replica of a bedroom in the movie, and are having trouble coping with the influx of new customers.  I'm sure they can't believe their luck.

Dr Craig Norris at Tasmanian Uni has written a thesis on the phenomenon of people making pilgrimages to sites connected with favourite movies, books, celebrities, etc.  He says, "When we go to these locations we get to live and be excited by a space through the fantasy of them. ". My instinct is to be cynical about the people who indulge in these pilgrimages but Marilyn and I will certainly be in Yufuin next year.