Those are the first three words in the English version of the song that plays during the title credits of "My Neighbor Totoro."
Here is the Japanese version (via Youtube, which has to be the best tool on the interwebs for finding this kind of thing.)
I like the English version well enough (the opening "Hey let's go!" fills me with a ridiculous sort of optimism: "Yes! Why not? Let's go!"), but I think there is something a little bit sweeter about the Japanese version. I couldn't find a Japanese version that actually played the credits along with it (UPDATE: FOUND IT!!!), but I only have so much time to scour the web for pop-culture reference material. I am already deep in the rabbit hole, and have watched not one, but two, live Studio Ghibli performances of "Songs of Totoro." It is time to stop.
A friend of mine (who also happens to be a fan of Totoro) is having a baby in March, and I gave her a Totoro gift package. The fabric I used on the waistband is Kokka (shown here at purl), a Japanese fabric with some squirrels, who are woodland creatures, and since Totoro is a forest creature, it seemed to work. The wee Totoro Chris picked up at Uwajimaya in the bookstore for me.
shirt and totoro plushie. had to hide it from the kids or it would never have made it out of the house.
pants (what the heck happened to the buttonhole openings? a bit wonky)
everything together!
I made the shirt doing the freezer paper stencil. It is SO SIMPLE. I'd share the details, but there are oodles of instructions out there on the web. The hardest part is cutting the stencil. I think I need better tools for that. Everything else was really easy. I can't believe how nice it turned out. This was my first one. Kind of stupid to make the first one as a gift, since it was midnight and anything could have gone wrong and then there would be no shirt, but that is what happens when you procrastinate: you take chances.
Hey let's go! Hey let's go! I'm happy as can be!
