Goodbye and Thank You
I know that this is primarily a travel blog, one that only gets touched every couple of years, but today the world lost someone that is kind of connected to this blog, in the smallest possible way, someone that helped inspire these trips and these amazing experiences.
Isao Takahata died today.
As a founding father of Studio Ghibli, he directed a lot of movies for the company. My first experience with his work was Grave of the Fireflies, which is probably his most well-known film, and became a favorite Ghibli movie of mine. It’s a dark, hard to watch movie about a very serious subject and for some reason, I loved it.
In 2014, Jason and I went to Ikebukuro on our first full day in Japan and caught the first showing of The Tale of Princess Kaguya. It was the first full length movie we’d seen in Japan ever and because we aren’t fluent, the small amount of dialogue was helpful. And then.. none of that mattered. The story and the animation captured every ounce of our attention and it wasn’t until the closing credits and the lights came up that I turned to Jason and discovered that his face reflected mine, all happy ugly-crying tears..
Jason always said that Miyazaki makes you fly, Takahata makes you cry - and in the best possible way. Takahata had a way of telling a story that punched you straight in the feels.
Tonight, watching Kaguya again, the final climactic scene began and as soon as I heard the music, I turned to Jason and said, I don’t think I can do this, and then proceeded to sob for the rest of the movie. It’s an incredible film, a beautiful piece of art, and it wouldn’t have been possible without Takahata’s unique and talented vision.
Thank you, Takahata-san, and rest well.














