We were up early to hop on a train to visit the Ghibli Museum.
The Ghibli Museum can best be described as a
children's/fine arts/animation museum. It showcases the art and technique of
animation using Ghibli feature films and shorts.
If you are not familiar with Studio Ghibli, they are a
famous anime studio in Japan. Six of their films are among the top ten highest
grossing anime films in Japan. Hayao Miyazki, one of the directors of the
studio, has won many awards and accolades and is praised as, “the
best animation filmmaker in history”.
One cannot just walk up to the door of the museum to purchase
admission. Ohhhh noooooo. That would be WAY too easy. So that the museum doesn't get overcrowded, there are set entry times each day for a limited amount of people, and you must
reserve your space.
There were a few options I could use to get these coveted tickets. Pay an exorbitant price through a travel
agency or try to go it alone and battle the online masses to assure us a time slot.
Over a month before the date we were to visit the museum, I was online at 6pm PST (which was 10am, the next day, in Japan) to get our tickets. It was a struggle. There was a lot of
refreshing and a lot of stress/ frustration for about 45 minutes, but I was
able to secure us a time. Phew.
There
were train delays due to “human-related accident”.
I have not been able to find
out what exactly that means.
We still made it on time.
As we exited the station, we found our way to a bus that would take us to the museum.
The bus was kinda easy to spot.
It was bright yellow and was decorated with Ghibli-ish
creatures.
The museum is located in a lush park in the city of Mitaka.
We arrived a bit early for our reservation which was at 12 noon.
Hey, what's that in the distance?
I spy a robot guardian.
Since we were early, we sat on a bench near the entrance to eat a snack and relax.
It wasn't very relaxing.
There were giant mosquitoes everywhere.
And, they were VICIOUS.
Finally, we just couldn't take it anymore.
We got up to walk around the park for a bit until our time to check in came up.
Upon entry to the grounds of the museum, you are greeted by a huge Totoro who is standing inside a ticket booth.
This is Totoro.....
It was a cute visual and I really wanted a picture of it....
But, so did about 30 other people.
I did the best I could to get a picture without someone else's family in it.
The grounds of the museum looks like it was taken directly out of one of the studios films.
It had a very whimsical feel to it.
The museum had its own coat of arms.
You can find it all around the museum.
Here's a clearer shot of it from the cover of their brochure.
There were no pictures allowed inside the museum.
Sorry.
The building you see in the distance is the entrance.
We were still technically outside, so I took a picture of the stained glass doors.
The museum had four floors.
Basement: Main entrance and "Saturn Theater" screening room
First Floor: "Beginning of Movement" exhibit
2nd Floor: Special exhibit on animation paint colors, "Where a Film is Born" exhibit, exit to eating areas and main exit.
3rd Floor: Cat Bus Room, "Tri Hawks" Reading Room, "Mamma Aiuto" Store and exit to roof garden
The first thing we did upon entering the museum was to see the short film that was included in our admission.
Below, you can see our tickets to the theater.
Each ticket had three film frames from a Ghibli movie.
On closer inspection, we couldn't tell what movie any of them were from.
Oh well.
We got to keep them as souvenirs.
The short film was called, "Kemushi no Boro" aka Boro the Catepillar.
Boro hatches and makes his way in the world. The film is from his small point of view.
The animation was movie-quality, but there was no talking.
All the sound effects were made by one guy.
It was extremely "Ghibli". This means it was weird, and cute, and there were malevolent forces beyond the characters control, buuuut it all works out in the end.
The caterpillars even pooped. A lot.
Huzbend was creeped out by all the insects.
There was a really creepy wasp that was part steam-punk inspired robot, part insect.
Huzbend hated that guy.
The kids fell in love with Boro.
We walked up to the first floor and were surprised by a large open space that stretched up to a decorated sky light in the ceiling. The hallways of each of the floors above circled the outside of the indoor space. Colorful stained glass art was everywhere as well as odd architectural details, like sconces and tapestries.
A three story metal enclosed spiral staircase went all the way up to the top floor. There was an old fashioned elevator on the other side and a bridge extended across the empty center on the second floor.
Here's a picture borrowed from Ghibli Museum website....
While we were exploring that day we also found other magical details such as: little nooks and crannies, portholes full of soot sprites or other creatures, small doors that no human could fit through, a door that opened to a mirror and
a door that opened to another door.
At the later door, as Mikey stood there with his door open, wondering what to do, the other door opened and there stood a little boy. He was delighted to find us.
While Mikey was waiting in line for the Cat Bus, Huzbend and Katie explored these and went on up to the roof garden.
Katie decided that she wanted a turn on the Cat Bus (she had only JUST turned 13).
So, she hopped in line.
While she bounced around, Mikey and I headed up to the roof via the metal spiral staircase.
Hi!
The garden itself gives you the feeling of wandering in an old abandoned space of some ancient - or not so ancient - civilization.
For example, water plants grow out of smashed clay pots that seemed to have been thrown into disintegrating wells.
Overlooking the garden is this dormant robot soldier.
Fans of the movie "Laputa: Castle in the Sky" know that these robots act as guardians.
Deadly lasers fire out of their eyes.
It had been sitting still so long that plants and moss were growing on it.
Towards the back of the garden, one can find this flying control box from the same movie.
The box is used to fly an entire island.
I assumed that if you had the magical amulet to activate the box, you could make the whole museum fly away.
We decided to get a late
lunch at the café.
The museum houses the Straw Hat Café where you can eat inside with
specialty dishes. There was a long line to get in.
We decided to go to the take-out window and eat on the deck just outside the Café.
The window served ice cream, hot dogs, fries, tea, juice and beer that had been made
specifically for the museum.
We each ate a hot dog and ordered fries.
The fries tested gluten free, so Katie was able to eat them as well along with some fruit we'd picked up from a convenience store earlier.
For dessert, the kids and I had milk ice
cream.
We were able to communicate via Google Translate that Katie needed to
have hers in a cup.
She was very excited that they could do that for her.
After lunch, we headed back into the museum to check out Floor 2.
This floor was dedicated to the animation process – sketches, storyboards, cell
creation, cell painting, creativity and ideas were the focus.
One side of the floor housed a special exhibit about the color choices for films.
The other side of the floor was an exhibit themed, “Where a Film is Born”. It was structured as if you were walking through various artists workshops/rooms that were chock full of half done pictures, ideas, story boards and were full, floor to ceiling, with items that were meant to inspire.
Before descending to the bottom floor, we decided to hit the gift shop back up on the third floor.
It was a mad house! The place was small so it was really hard to walk
around in. But, we picked up some nice souvenir shirts, two Boro mini-stuffies
and a magnet. It took a long time. Huzbend sat outside the store and waited for us to finish.
We headed down to the first floor and found a quiet little sitting area outside some doors.
"Are we done yet?"
On the first floor was an exhibit exploring the history of animated films.
There was an amazing Totoro themed zoetrope that I could watch all day.
What's a zoetrope?
According to Wikipedia: "It's a device that produces an illusion of motion by displaying a sequence of drawings or photographs (or, in this case, figurines) showing progressive phases of motion."
The Totoro zoetrope had 347 figures that were static. Each of the figures was slightly different from the one they were next to, just like frames of animation. When it contraption spun, a strobe light would flash and made the characters look like they were moving.
You can find some videos of it online if your curious.
Otherwise, go there and see it!
It was time to call it a day.
We headed to the main exit that was located over near the Café.
On the way out, we found another quiet courtyard area.
There was a hand-pump well and a large pile of firewood.
I found out that you can drink the water out of the well and the firewood is cut in the courtyard and used to warm the Café in the winter.
We thought that we would only spend a little bit of time at the museum.
Boy, were we wrong.
We spent over four hours there!
We headed back to Tokyo for dinner.
We stopped off in Shinjuku.
Huzbend had found a place called the Breizh Café Creperie during his search of GF restaurants that was
capable of making GF options. In addition to crepes, this place offered breton galettes. Galettes are pancakes made with buckwheat flour. Buckwheat = GF!
It took
a bit to find the place. It was high up on the 13th floor of a department store/office building.
We were seated in a outdoor patio area.
Dinner time!
I think Katie’s had mushrooms, bacon and egg.
I can't recall what I or Huzbend had.
"They expect me to eat this?"
Don't let that look fool you.
He loved it.
"Prosciutto and runny egg crepe."
"It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up."
"Picture of me eating? Why?"
With
dinner finished, it was time to move on to dessert.
Katie was on cloud nine. She actually got to have a fancy, freshly made dessert!!
Her choice was chocolate and caramel.
I chose apple caramel.
I can't remember what Huzbend had.
He did have something.
Mikey had straight up chocolate.
Dude really gets into his food.
We
took our time at dinner and just sat back and enjoyed a really good meal.
On the way out, the kids spied this weird statue of a newt with a samurai sword.
Since
we were already in Shinjuku, we decided to pay a visit to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building.
This tall government building offers a free alternative to observation decks that are located at the vastly more touristy Tokyo Tower or Tokyo Skytree.
We hoofed it over the building.
It seems as if rush hour in Tokyo lasts for hours and hours.
This photo was taken at about 7:30 or 8pm at night.
Here's a peek at the two towered office building from the ground.
It had a red tower and a blue tower.
After a cursory bag check, we elevatored up to the 45th
floor and spent about 20 minutes enjoying the night views of Tokyo.
"HI, FROM TOKYO!"
A text Mikey had me sent to one of his friends.
Time to head back to the condo.
It was another late night.
Katie thought this sign was cute and wanted a picture of it.
It thanks passengers for using their manners on trains.
