Tasmania has its fair share of tourist attractions, but if you were to compile of list of them to visit, it’s unlikely the Ross Village Bakery, nestled between Hobart and Launceston, would be in the number one spot. Unless you’re a massive fan of Studio Ghibli’s Kiki’s Delivery Service, in which case it might be the only place you go.
According to a story by The Mercury’s Emma Hope, each day the bakery welcomes some 50 Japanese tourists, all curious to check out the “uncanny resemblance” the small store has to its cartoon counterpart.
Dr Craig Norris, from the University of Tasmania, even wrote a thesis about it. He compares it to “discovering Hobart is the setting for Snow White or Cinderella”:
A small bakery in regional Tasmania, Australia, has been reimagined as a pop culture destination by Japanese tourists who claim it is the inspiration for a key location in the anime Kiki’s Delivery Service.
To understand how and why Japanese tourists have located this bakery in the imaginary world of Kiki, two processes are explored: the media pilgrimage, where fans bridge their ordinary reality and enter the special media world, and the media scaffold, where Kiki becomes a way to interpret the world around them.
As for the owners of the bakery? Here’s their perspective:
Some — known as cosplayers — even wear costumes to emulate their anime idols. “Seeing the looks of joy on their faces when they walk in, some squeal and jump up and down,” [co-owner Carl Crosby] said. “Some of them will come in their little costumes, with their bow in their hair and their little red shoes, and they want to stand in front of the oven and take a multitude of pictures.”
The lead picture is a photo of the bakery itself. Below is the one from the movie:
Ross a hot spot for fans of Japanese anime classic Kiki’s Delivery Service [The Mercury]
Image: Atsushi Kase / Flickr, licensed under Creative Commons 2.0
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8 responses to “The Store From Kiki’s Delivery Service Can Be Found In Tasmania, Apparently”
Seriously? That looks like any number of small bakeries I’ve seen…anywhere…
Small bakeries? Even a big chain like the faux-wood facade of Baker’s Delight is close enough once stripped of its branding. Apparently the staff wear colonial costumes as part of their uniform, which I guess is part of the appeal.
http://travelerfolio.com/tf2/photos/2010/01/kiki-bakery-oven.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DE7LCYlNS5U/UL7YDdlcUuI/AAAAAAAAAhQ/MNzvIDYzPVE/s640/ross+1.jpg
It’s friggen Ross. Everything looks like that in Ross.
And despite appearances, Ross is not a magical place. It’s Ross.
What this article isn’t going into is that the other rooms ALSO look like they came out of Kiki’s, as does the outside of the shop.
It is a little uncanny. Not identical, but still slightly uncanny.
Craig’s my supervisor for my Master’s degree on Miyazaki, he wrote a great article about the tourism marketing about the bakery selling to Japanese tourists.
Was here just yesterday! Ross is a gorgeous town.
This place also has an enormous oven out back (that the staff let us go in to the kitchen and take photos of) and looks very similar out front. I wouldn’t be surprised if it really is the inspiration for the anime.
I don’t know what their trade is like usually but we were there in a Sunday morning and the only people we saw coming through were asian couples (the few Asians we saw in all of task tbh). These guys have a lot to be thankful for. Also they make great vanilla slices!
My wife told me about this awhile back.
If I owned that bakery I would make it resemble the Kiki store more, so like hanging the bread pretzel in window , Also make pies with little characters on top and so forth.It would add more $_$ from those Japanese tourists. Rent out the upstairs room $200 night :p
They do have a room called “Kiki’s Room” which does ‘resemble’ her loft from the Ghibli movie. Without the characters their food is amazing, I recommend the Vanilla slice.
@Logan, you forgot to mention that it also has a loft room available that Resembles KiKi’s room from the Ghibli movie.
The coutyard out the back also has a Ghibli-eske feeling to it. The room includes a book about the history of Ross Bakery and has a note stating that it at no point set out to make it look like the iconic bakery, however the japanese tourists started the rumor and so the bakery ran with it. The legend is that Miyazaki visited the bakery on his travels, but I’m sure that is just a tale.
The most impressive thing is going through the guest book when you stay in “Kiki’s room”, it is full of awesome illustrations and notes from fans and artisans who have all enjoyed the stay.
hows their custard tarts though?