Totoro Party

We've been fans of Miyazaki for a long time and were finally able to throw a Totoro party for our son when he turned 8.  We had a daytime party for all his pals and then a sleepover at night for just two friends when we watched the movie.  Not all of his friends knew the movie, My Neighbor, Totoro, but they fast became fans after our party and rushed to watch this classic movie.

We like to set the stage around here so I put up a light green flat sheet for the backdrop, a nod to the color of bamboo.  A friend helped me print these three figures from the movie on a large printer.  We then used spray adhesive to affix them to foam core board and he cut them with a very sharp box cutter/knife.

The front of the party invitation.  I bought the template on Etsy and printed here locally on silver grey card stock.

The template came with this as the inside of the card.  I skipped this extra cost/step and just glued white paper party invite information.

Here is the back of the card, same print job, folded.

We made paper cut-outs of the three main characters and taped them to the front door.

Another friend drew this Totoro on a piece of poster board that we set out front on a large art clipboard.

Here is the birthday boy, wearing a grey shirt in honor of his grey buddy, Totoro.

On the wall in the foyer and in other parts of the house we hung movie posters a friend picked up at a bookstore in Japantown, in San Francisco.  (I've also seen these online on Amazon.)

My daughter sewed this Chibi and the soot sprites with googly eyes.  I hung them on a stick.  The movie poster above was framed and still hangs in our son's room.

We lay a cloth shower curtain with a grid pattern on the long rectangular table in the eating nook.  On top of that we set cards from the Totoro playing deck-- 52 different images from the film.  On top of that we placed a clear shower curtain.  The party guests sure liked checking out all the images.  (We got the deck online.  Our local comic book store now sometimes carries the deck.)

My daughter and her friend made MANY soot sprites out of black pom poms and craft googly eyes.  These were placed around the house for the party and in the gift bags.  We still have a basket of soot sprites where Totoro and this Chibi now hang out.

We bought many Totoro-themes figurines and set them around the living and family rooms.  This Totoro we placed on a wooden tree house we already had.

Some of the character figurines were set on the ledge between our foyer/hallway and the living room.  We also borrowed a screen partition for another backdrop in the living room.

In honor of Totoro, we also sprinkled felted acorns (bought locally and on Etsy) throughout the rooms.  They were also favors in the gift bags.

Speaking of gift bags, we used plain white paper bags and tied name tags onto the handles with ribbon.  We placed some Totoro books and soot sprites on the hearth.  The white lights are wrapped with a garland of bamboo leaves.

The gift tags were a custom order on Etsy from a seller who already made Totoro-stamped items.

The cake was easy-- I brought an image to the bakery at the local Safeway supermarket.  They made a cupcake cake.  My friend made the soot sprites from cupcake balls, with sprinkles and frosting eyes.  The crowd went wild for both.

The friend who drew the Totoro for the clipboard out front also drew Totoro faces on the grey, blue, and white balloons.

Two of the grad students with whom I worked at the university came to the party and made origami Totoro with the children.  (We saw examples and instructions online.)  It was a favorite activity at the party.

We had slices of cucumbers, tomatoes, and edamame pods.  I also bought lots of Japanese food at local groceries and at Cost Plus World Market-- wasabi peas, sweets of all sorts, and dried snacks.

Another fun activity was making scenes with stickers and rubber Totoro character stamps.  I bought a basic paper kit from Oriental Trading that had a green mountainous background and a pagoda.  Its stickers were mostly flowers.  The guests put Totoro characters in their scenes. 

The friend who drew many Totoro faces for us!

We loved how many people posed with the Totoro friends.  Note the tiny hanging cocktail umbrellas as a nod to the bus stop scene with Totoro and the girls.

I forgot to mention that I had a friend spiff up my thrift store shoes-- she used a black Sharpie marker to draw the soot sprites and glued googly eyes onto them.  Festive party shoes!  I still wear them.

The children weren't the only one walking through the curtains of streamers.

One friend made handmade wrappings for the gifts he gave our son.  We still have these hanging in our son's room.

An adult friend made this handmade box for our son!

We had a great party.  Many of the guests wore shades of grey, blue, and/or white, in honor of the movie characters.  Lots of friends gave our son Totoro gifts to add to his collection.  We reused/repurposed most of what we could.  At the end of the party we always roll up the streamers to use them again.

The thank you cards were handmade by our son, with the Totoro rubber stamps.

It is definitely one of the parties with lasting memories.  The foam core Totoro characters are hanging in our son's room to this day.