100 YEARS BEFORE THE BIRTH OF DORAEMON CELEBRATION

I was halfway doing an introductory program at my 1^st semester in my college, it was kind of a welcoming program to freshmen in my university. I wasn’t supposed to take a short getaway from these but somehow being off-track at this time is incredibly rewarding. What time? 

The celebration of  `100 YEARS BEFORE THE BIRTH OF DORAEMON’!!

Oh my

100 YEARS BEFORE THE BIRTH OF DORAEMON

100 YEARS BEFORE THE BIRTH OF DORAEMON

100 YEARS BEFORE THE BIRTH OF DORAEMON

100 YEARS BEFORE THE BIRTH OF DORAEMON

100 YEARS BEFORE THE BIRTH OF DORAEMON

What?

Yep, I considered myself as a big fan of this so-called japan iconic robot cat from the future. If you asked why, I grew up together with him even though the doraemon characters itself always being a 5^th grade student since the series first appeared in 1969. Stacks of multi-layered doraemon story and anime/movies with its kind of ‘old’ or ‘new’ series have been swallowed by me. Of course, the fond memories of doraemon which remain from my childhood successfuly made me tremble with excitement when coming to this kind of celebration!

The number of people visiting the place for the exhibition is pretty extraordinary and the blue balls seen in the distance are the Doraemon statues.

Picture by Cindy Zenata 

This large-scale free celebration of “100 Years Before the Birth of Doraemon” Exhibition was hosted at Harbour City , Hong Kong from 14 Aug to 16 Sep 2012. The exhibition itself was held as a honour  to this beloved anime character because this year is the start of the 100 year countdown to his birthday! Okay, I’m going to cut the pretense and cop to the fact that I finally be able to take a part in this euphoria! Me and my brother got a chance to visit the exhibition, gadgets expo gallery, and Bo-logne Café which has been transformed into a ‘Doraemon Café’.

Let's step through the famous anywhere (dokodemo) door, and relieve our childhood dreams!

Picture by Cindy Zenata

To carry on the campaign’s theme of friendship, future and dreams, three famous installations also has been set up at different parts of Harbour City including “The Night Before Nobita’s wedding!” (the scene where Nobita check-out his future wife), “Goodbye, Doraemon!” (the scene whereby doraemon escorting a beaten up Nobita with tears before bid farewell) and “Memories of Grandma” (the scene when Nobita reunited with his grandma when missing her a lot after she died).

Oh! And also here is famous gadget installation to complete the awesomeness of this exhibition

Moshimo-box (もしもボックス), a phone booth of which the user can propose a "what if" scenario and make it a reality. What kind of world do you want?

There also a separate gallery of Doraemon's gadgets in details named `Doraemon Concept Expo: Gadgets in the Future’. It is focused on showcasing 30 original gadgets from around the world. The room is also filled with many other doraemon characters. In addition, to enter this gallery requires a free admission queuing ticket. I got the ticket at 9am but allowed to enter at 1pm. What a long time! 

On the other hand, the long queuing is worth since I overwhelmed with happiness inside! Of course i'm not forget to take a lot of pictures and happen to just ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ over various gadgets! They even sell the gadgets but unfortunately I happened to come near to the end of exhibition period and everything had been sold out! :(

Picture by Cindy Zenata

For the duration of the exhibition, the BO-LO’GNE café and bar which  located inside Harbour City’s LCX are transformed into a pop-up Doraemon themed café. Fill your tummy with a wide-range of choices with a touch of Doraemon’s! They also served a pack of biscuits in a shape of doraemon and doraemon’s memory toast to be taken away home. The Memory Toast lets you remember your text books right away just by pressing the toast on the pages you want to remember and eat it.  Use it in school! =P

Picture by Cindy Zenata

During the exhibition period, Harbour City was also hosted workshop sessions at KidX that welcomes parents and their children to participate in creating, designing and decorating their own personalized Doraemon figures. 

Picture by Cindy Zenata

Picture by Cindy Zenata

In the end, the time to go back has come up! The celebration with bunch of doraemon figures which embedded into the memories of many people here is not your everyday sightseeing and the exhibition is already over for those who are interested to visit. This exhibition is freakin’ good and nostalgic! So, when event like this are occuring again, get a short escape without a doubt!