School Excursion: KINDERLAND / 5-6-08
School Excursion: TAMASEK PRIMARY SCHOOL / 27-5-08
School Excursion: GRACEFIELD KINDERGARTEN / 29-05-08
School Excursion: BETHESDA (Pasir Ris) Kindergarten / 26-5-08
After the excursion, teachers bring all the kids to the park which just in front of MoST.
School Excursion: TRUEWAY KINDERGARTEN / 21-05-08
School Excursion: Clementi Town Secondary School / 16,20-22 May 20008
School Excursion: Australian International School / 6-7 May 2008
My China Toy Trip / 5 April to 20 April 2008
This is another fruitful trip for me this year as I am exploring more china toy stories in other cities of China beside Shanghai. The 1st station is a little town which took me 2 hours travel from Beijing. In this little town, there’s a small tin toy factory produce many tin toys which formerly manufactured by Beijing No.1 Toy Factory. After the Beijing No.1 Toy factory closed down few years ago, this little factory bought over their mouldings and continue the China Tin Toy Dream.
This is the environment around the factory.
These are the Beijing tin toys.
Factory workers are assembling the wind-up dinosaur tin toy.
Before assembling, this is how Jumping Frog looks like. (FUN)
This is Monkey Riding Tricycle tin toy…
This is the room to store the mouldings.
This is the mouldings of wind-up Penguin Tin Toy.
And this is the mouldings of Rolling Tin Toy Cat.
After visiting the tin toy factory, i went to visit a famous Tangram Collector, Wei and her husband. I have been knowing them for many years but this is my first time to visit their home in Beijing.
Part of their collections.
We went for dinner after our gathering, Wei and her husband, Peter brought me to this interesting restaurant. Delicious!
Peter enjoyed the food too…
After dinner with Peter and Wei, I visited Zhang Yang and his sweet wife. Zhang Yang is a famous China Tin Toy collector in Beijing and this is my 1st time to meet him.
I gave my book to Zhang Yang as a gift and he liked a lot.
I wake up early in the next day and walk around the hotel i stayed. Quiet a beautiful environment…
Next stop is visiting a “tiny” wooden toy factory (Fun again)
This shows how the worker paints the children wooden pen.
Two cute little girls manufactured by factory owner… ha!
A wooden toy town.
Dennis, Daisy (my partner who ho;ld the camera) and I went to visit this famous wooden toy town which locate at Yun He. (Dennis is an Australian toy wholesaler and retailer)
Wooden factories everywhere in town…. wow!
Wooden toy production house.
This is the wooden toy factory where we visit, quiet big to me, but in fact it’s not that big when compared with a real huge wooden toy factory at Yun He.
Dennis is demonstrating…
Different wood will be used for different wooden toy, but sometimes not based on different toy’s needs, it also based on customers’ budget and requirement.
That’s how the original wood look like before becoming a beautiful wooden toy. (Isn’t it beautiful?)
This is the production department at level 3 of the factory where all the workers assemble the wooden toy house.
This is their sample room where show their sample toys to their potential customers.
After visiting the toy factory, the owner invites us to try a countryside chicken for dinner where takes us about 15 mins travel from his factory.
This is where the small restaurant is. Outside has many countryside dogs and as I like dogs, so would like to say a hello to them but no response…. They look so cool….. wow!
Here is the food, countryside chicken pot…the soap ok, but the chicken meat…is too hard….
Countryside chicken, fried countryside vegetable and original fried potato chips (not those we bought from supermarket)
Bazaar & Open House @ POST- Museum + Museum of Shanghai Toys / 29 and 30 March
I am happy that Museum of Shanghai Toys has the chance to tie up with our neighbour, POST-Museum to have an OPEN HOUSE cum BAZAAR on 29 and 30 March. The result is pretty good and positive and we both hope to have more events together in near future. The OPEN HOUSE cum BAZAAR totally attract 500 over visitors for POST-Museum and 130 over visitors for Museum of Shanghai Toys in 2 days.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Chee How / 12 March 2008
Today is Chee How’s birthday. His sweet girlfriend Melissa choosing Museum of Shanghai Toys as one of the birthday programme for him. Thank you for the support, and hope they are enjoying the museum tour and the activities at MoST.
Excursion: AMAZING GRACE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH / 7 March 2008
Excursion: RAINBOW CHILDCARE / 22 Feb 2008
Excursion: PEBBLE PLACE CHILDCARE / 22 Feb 2008
Excursion: BOON LAY GARDEN PRIMARY SCHOOL/ 28 Jan 2008
ADVERTISING TIME :-) - Chinese Playthings 1894 - 1980 / S$29.90 ONLY :-)
Hi! Sorry for a small disturbing and allow me to do a small “ADVERTISEMENT” here
What I want to recommend to you guys now is a book, a “BOOK” which spend me more than 7 years to write. What book is this and what so special? This is the world’s 1st book which talked about Shanghai Toy Industry from late Qing Dynasty to Cultural Revolution, is also a book for anyone who like toys and the history of Shanghai for the past 100 years.
Toys are epitomes of the various historical eras, they can reflect the cultural level, economic strength, arts mastery and creativity of a country.
The modern toy industry of China began in the early 20th century in Shanghai, during the late Qing Dynasty. During the past 100 years of development, the toys of China has already developed from folk toys to tin toys of the 20s and the 30s, battery operated toys of the 60s, voice activated toys of the 70s and 80s, up till the present day 21st century computer games and toys.
Although China has been known as the largest toy manfacturer and exporter in the world now, yet for the past 100 over years, the development of the China Toy Industry has not been smooth sailing. From the Patriotic Campaign of the 1910s to the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, each era has left the historical mark on every toy of old Shanghai. And this is what made my book is interesting, not only for toy lovers, but also for anyone who like to know more about the Shanghai history.
From this book, there are not only tin toys, but also wooden toys, paper toys, candy tin, biscuit tin, mickey mouse toys, vintage Chinese dolls like Door of Hope dolls..etc.
We are selling each book for ONLY S$29.90 (about US$22.00).
Each book you purchased from us are not only buying the history of Shanghai Toy Industry, but also contributing to the conservation of vintage Shanghai toys.
You can purchase this book from our Museum Shop (Tel:+65 62947531), POST MUSEUM ( http://www.post-museum.org ) or TANGS at VIVO CITY.
For overseas buyer, please do let me ( marvin@most.com.sg ) know where do you from and we will give you a quotation of postage fees.
SHANGHAI TRIP - TOY DESIGNER HUNTING 14-27 January 2008 (Part 2)
For the past 18 years, although I collected toys made in China, but however I were more concentrated in tin toys and all my “OLD” toy designer friends are from tin toy factory. So I were luckily knowing an old man in this trip who was from another Wooden Toy Factory - Shanghai No.8 Toy Factory. (Shanghai No.8 Factory was named Shangahi Da Hua Toy Factory in 40s)
“P.S. The 1st wooden toy designer who I met last year Sept was from Shanghai No.9 Toy Factory, readers can visit my previous page of my museum blog.”
The 3 wooden toys above in my book were designed by the below old man. His name is Yuen Wen Hui, was born in 1926.
SHANGHAI TRIP - TOY DESIGNER HUNTING 14-27 January 2008 (Part 1)
This is my 1st journey to Shanghai in 2008. Again, this is also my another fruitful trip as I finally found out who is the toy designer and the box artist behind the SPACE TANK, one of the popular toy in USA and the only robot toy made in China in 60s.
This is the SPACE TANK which was designed in 1964, by who???
He is the designer from Shanghai No.1 Toy factory who designed the above toy tank. His name is Wu Jun and was born in 1933.
He is the packaging designer for the above toy tank and he’s from Shanghai No.1 Toy factory too. His name is Xie Ge and was born in 1946.
Mr Xie’s working pass of Shanghai No.1 Toy Factory in 1988.
This is another toy which designed by Mr Wu, this toy is using back the same body of the SPACE TANK.
Excursion: CHARACTER MONTESSORI / 28 Dec 2007
Excursion: Teachers from YANGZHENG PRIMARY SCHOOL / 26 Dec 2007
Excursion: YUQUAN PRESCHOOL / 14 Dec 2007
Excursion: CS MONTESSORI LEARNING CENTRE / 7 Dec 2007
Japan Trip / 28th Nov - 1st Dec (Last Day) - Museums at Yokohama
I am leaving Japan today at 4:30pm, so hope to see more things before I leave. After some consideration, I’m not going for sights seeing and decide to visit few more museums at Yokohama. The 1st museum which I go to is Yokohama Yusen (It means CRUISE in English) Museum. Yokohama Yusen Museum is located at Yokohama Yusen Building which was completed in 1936 and owned by one of the leading shipping companies in Japan. The entrance ticket is 500 yen, no photograph taking in the museum.
This museum is worth to see if you are interested in ship or cruise. Plenty of historical items support this museum, the most interesting part for me is you can view the original menu, bowl, plate and what’s the food served on the cruise in 1930s.
The 2nd museum which I go to is YOKOHAMA ARCHIVES OF HISTORY. Again, not allow for taking photography.
The building was owned by THE BRITISH CONSULATE in 30s.
The last museum which I go is YOKOHAMA CUSTOM MUSEUM. At first, I don’t know this is a museum, I was just attracted by the below DOG MASCOT and realised this is another museum at Yokohama.
This is a MUSEUM DOG which represent the custom museum. The reason why the museum using this mascot is because this is the type of the dogs which help Japan custom officer to find out the drugs, weapons from Japan custom. BRILLIANT CONCEPT!
The 1st and the previous CUSTOM OFFICERS of Japan.
After visiting the 3 museums, it’s about 1:15pm and I am hungry. I manage to find a tiny restaurant at Yokohama Station and find the food is really delicious. This is a restaurant which specialise in CURRY RICE, there are various kind of CURRY SAUCE for you to choose. So if any of you interests in Japanese Curry, please come and try this. (Not sure whether they have any outlet outside Yokohama)
WANT TO TRY???
Japan Trip / 28th Nov - 1st Dec (Part 8) - ODAIBA
I continue my “JOURNEY HUNTING” and choose to visit ODAIBA after JIMBOU. Again, the journey took me another 1 and 1/2 hour to find the location but again it’s a really nice place and really a good “TOURIST ATTRACTION” . “SHOPS STREET” is a place where the organiser designed it to become a 50s or 60s Japan. From there, you can buy any type of things which appear in 50s Japan, like toys, candy, restaurant etc. It locates at Odaiba, 1-6-1 Desks, Tokyo Beach, 4th floor.
Japan Trip / 28th Nov - 1st Dec (Part 7) - JIMBOU (Book Town)
After my lunch at Harajiku, I start to proceed to Jimbou which recommend by my friend since I like books. I arrived JIMBOU around 1:30pm, took me about 1 hour plus to locate this place. JIMBOU is a book town or book street which sells various kinds of books from “ADULTS ” to children, from antique books to 2nd hand comic books, from Japanese books, English books to Chinese books. If you like books, here is a best choice for you to “walk walk”, “see see” when you are in Japan.
Guess what is this? GIGANTOR “28″ CAN SOUP . Limited Edition. 1500 yen per set.
1930s Japanese Children’s Book
This is a children’s books store which I like a lot. It names BOOK HOUSE and occupies 2 floors. 1st floor is selling Japanese story books and 2nd floor is selling English story books. For space wise, I guess it’s about 2 to 3 thousand sq foot per floor. In the central of the book store has a very big space for parents or children to sit down and enjoy the books. HOW NICE!!!
Japan Trip / 28th Nov - 1st Dec (Part 6) - HARAJIKU
Today (30 Nov) is my last day in Japan, so since I have some spare time, I go to Harajiku in the early morning. As there is a street named Takeshita Street which just locates at Harajiku and famous for trendy goods, so hope I can get something for my wife . But nothing really special, plus I feel shy to step into the ladies’ shop, so…. just take some pictures only….
This is a present for my wife. Ha! (So big ya? Sorry, picture only. Ha! )
YUMMY!!!
After an hour hour walking, I feel starving. (Always feel hungry very fast in winter ). I step into a tiny restaurant which specializes in TONKAZHU (Japanese Pork Chop) at Takeshita Street 1-6-13. The food is really delicious. The set lunch is only 880 yen. Pls try this restaurant if anyone goes to Harajiku. The service is quiet good too Opening hours: 11am to 10pm. Tel:03-3402-7366
Japan Trip / 28th Nov - 1st Dec (Part 5) - YOKOHAMA RAMEN MUSEUM
After meeting with Mr and Mrs Kitahara, I go to visit YOKOHAMA RAMEN MUSEUM. Although it took me an hour to locate the place, I still think that it’s worth it. This is another a “MUST” visit when any of you in Japan or Yokohama in near future. How much of the entrance fee? Only 300 yen. (RAMEN is a Japanese word, it means Japanese noodle)
At the 1st floor, you will see an exhibition about the production and the different type of ramen in Japan.
After viewing the 1st floor exhibition, you can proceed to the basement, which will bring you back to the 30s Japan. The decoration, design, atmosphere will just make you really feel that you are back to ancient. Don’t know how to describe the feeling, but will be better if any of you can “FEEL” this museum if you like nostalgic.
This is the most “EXPENSIVE” ramen which I ever eat in my life. 1200 yen per bowl, but so so…only…
Japan Trip / 28th Nov - 1st Dec (Part 4) - Meeting with Mr Kitahara, owner of YOKOHAMA TIN TOY MUSEUM
Mr and Mrs Kitahara
Mr Kitahara is showing his collections in pictures and see how we can work together next year
Mr Kitahara gave me 3 of his latest books as presents. He’s signing his name on his book.
Japan Trip / 28th Nov - 1st Dec (Part 3) - YOKOHAMA DOLL MUSEUM
Before meeting with Mr Kitahara, his staff bring us to visit Yokohama Doll Museum which just not far away from the tin toy museum. There’s a new exhibition - TOY CAR COLLECTION which organised by Mr Kitahara and exhibits at the doll museum until next year Feb.
This is the TOY CAR COLLECTION exhibition. Any toy car fans is a “MUST” visit if you visit Japan before next year Feb.
This huge “Die-Cast Toy Car Collection” was donated by an old man to Kitahara many many years ago when Mr Kitahara just started his museum.
Japan Trip / 28th Nov - 1st Dec (Part 2) - YOKOHAMA TIN TOY MUSEUM
After visiting the ANPANMAN CHILDREN MUSEUM, I straight away go to the YOKOHAMA TIN TOY MUSEUM. I have an appointment at 3pm with Mr Kitahara, owner of the toy museum. Since I reached the toy museum early, at about 2pm, I browsed through the toy museum once again, 6 years after my last visit. Although I only collect China made toys for nowadays, I still feel very excited to have so many nice Japanese toys surrounding me. The toys gave me many sweet memories when I first visited this toy museum back in 1993 and because of this trip, I have my own Museum of Shanghai Toys today.
Inside Yokohama Tin Toy Museum, you can view a few thousand pieces of tin toys at any one time. As early as 1920s pre war Japanese toys to 1960s Baby Boomer Toys. You name it, the toy museum has it. If you like robots, space rockets, Batman items, Ultraman toys, Popeye toys or Mickey Mouse, this museum has them, and you will definitely be astonished just by looking at them.
Japan Trip / 28th Nov - 1st Dec (Part 1) - ANPANMAN CHILDREN MUSEUM
This is not the 1st time that I visited Japan, but I still feel very excited to be here again. I have a very “SPECIAL MISSION” for visiting Japan again, beside showing very interesting museums from other countries for our BLOG VISITORS, MUSEUM OF SHANGHAI TOYS is planning to work out something with YOKOHAMA TIN TOY MUSEUM next year. So, here we go….
I touched down in Japan on the evening of 28th Nov, so can’t really do anything much. But I visited a very INTERESTING “ANPANMAN CHILDREN MUSEUM” the very next day. This is the entrance to the museum.
In front of the museum, you can take some nice pictures with all those interesting ANPANMAN characters. DON”T MISS IT
When you steppd into the museum, you can hear the ANPANMAN theme song everywhere. There are plenty of ANPANMAN theme shops all around you. There are ANPANMAN BARBER SHOP, ANPANMAN CAFE, ANPANMAN CHILDREN BOUTIQUE, ANPANMAN TOY SHOP…etc. ANPANMAN is EVERYWHERE….WOW!!!!
CHINA ANPANMAN?????
Wanna “TASTE” ANPANMAN? 500 Yen each!
This is an ANPANMAN SOUVENIOR SHOP for X’MAS period only. So if any of you is going to JAPAN now, don’t forget to visit this museum and buy some of these “TIN” made souvenirs. (actually they are cookies.)
ANPANMAN CAFE
ANPANMAN PHOTO STUDIO
She is so “KAWAYII” (Japanese words: CUTE)
SAY “CHEESE”
Want to try some EXPENSIVE fruit juice?? Unless you are really thirsty! Ha!
“POOR THING”, someone “CHOP OFF” the Anpanman head and put it here “ON SALE”. DARE TO TRY???
The children museum occupies 3 floors. The lift operator will bring you to the 3rd floor and you can walk to 2nd floor by staircase. I am at the 3rd floor now. Hope Museum of Shanghai Toys can grow and become like one of this one day. ( I always like to day dream! )
The creator of the ANPANMAN. He’s born in 1919, and going to Ninety years old soon. Wow!
This is the 2nd floor of the museum. The idea of this floor is creating a HANDS-ON place for children to see & touch. There are an ice cream shop, restaurant, bakery shop, classroom..etc. I like this place very very much…