My Neighbor Laowai

One of the fun things about being here in a less-developed part of China is that foreigners are still fairly uncommon, so we catch a lot of attention.  People shout "Hello!" at us in the streets pretty much every day, we get eyeballed quite a bit, and every so often we get a round of drinks at the bar.  Following is a fun instance of being special because I'm not Chinese...

Yesterday I found the Totoro store.  I was wandering around near school when I found a little shopping complex with a store entirely dedicated to merchandise based on Hayao Miyaziki's My Neighbor Totoro.  The shopkeepers made quite a fuss over me, going so far as to mime how I might use the Totoro oven-mitt.  As I was leaving, I was asked if I would take a photo with the shopkeeper in front of a giant Totoro mural.  Apparently they don't get a lot of Western shoppers.

Anyway, I totally neglected to get my own photo in front of the mural, but I did nab one outside the store.  I know Gemini loves Totoro, so I'll try and get back and get a proper picture.