Ghibli Museum

Our next stop was the Ghibli Museum.

I admittedly enjoy Hayao Miyazaki's animation.

Many of you may have seen his works as they are now distributed by Disney. Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro amongst others.

We ventured from Musashi Koganei to the Mitaka via train. It was a relatively short ride, three stations on the JR Chuo Line. Exiting the station, we headed toward the bus stop. There is a bus (micro bus) that shuttles people from Mitaka Station to Ghibli and a few stops beyond. We were lazy and our feet hurt from all the walking. We decided to take the bus rather than walk about 20 minutes.

Quite honestly, I thought that this would be an amusement park for kids. I was wrong. I thoroughly enjoyed the Ghibli Museum.

We entered the museum through its main entrance.



The museum is housed in two story building. As we entered the building, we were greeted by children running all over the place. To the left was the theatre. To the right was an exhibit of how animation is completed. We ventured to the room in the right.

We were greeted by a wall of cels from the various works of Ghibli. There was a wall projection showing a loop of animation. When we were there, it was an animated movie of fish eating each other from small to big to bigger.

The most fascinating exhibit was one that used a set of rotating figures in various stages of motion. There were almost ten figures laid out around a wheel. When the wheel started rotating, the lights dimmed and an intermittently flashing light was applied to the rotating figures. The result was an animated scene of moving figures. It was truly awesome. I apologize for the lack of detail in my explanation. Unfortunately, guests were not allowed take pictures in the museum. Bummers.

We made our way to the theater. The theater held maybe about 100 people. One notable observation was that the bench seats were low to the ground. There was a large window, that brought in natural light that was closed when the movie started. Yes, the theater was designed for the comfort of children. We watched a wonderful 15 minute movie.

The upstairs area had an animators workshop. The workshop was extremely cool. It was a recreation of Hayao Miyazaki's workshop. It also was an exhibit of the animation process that exhibited various stages of creating a movie from story boards to creating cels.

There was a seperate room for special exhibitions. This time, it was an exhibit of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. It showed vintage animated books that told this classic story. There were almost life sized stuffed bears, what the bears would have looked like to Goldilocks. It was a fun exhibit.

Of course, there was the gift shop. Honestly, this was a turn off. It seemed to be the most congested area in the whole museum. I really did not feel like buying back any omiyage at the shop. It was just to crazy....

We went upstairs to the roof. There was a garden with a path, leading to the giant statue that we took a picture with.

I had a great time at the Ghibli Museum. I recommend it to children and adults as Mr. Miyazaki's works appeal to both adults and children.

Please note that foreign visitors may buy their tickets in advance through authorized outlets.

You can also purchase tickets at Lawsons. Apparently the number of tickets issued at Lawson's is limited. We went on a Wednesday. Was still crowded???????