Ghibli Museum

Everyone knows Ghibli right?  If you don't it's a real shame...

Spirited Away? My Neighbor Totoro? Kiki's Delivery Service?  If those don't ring a bell, then I don't know what to do with you...sigh.



Seriously though, if you don't know, stop what you're doing and watch one of those movies.

Since I'm such a Japanophile, I've loved Studio Ghibli ever since I watched my first Ghibli film, Spirited Away.  After that movie, I really started to get into all the other works of Studio Ghibli, especially Hayao Miyazaki's works.

In Mitaka, Tokyo there is a Ghibli Museum.  The design of the museum, inside, outside and even the cafe is all designed by Hayao Miyazaki.  It looks like something that came straight out of one of his films.

Gigantic Totoro acting as ticket seller

The strange thing is though, that to visit this museum you need to buy advance tickets and reserve a time to go.  They limit the sales of tickets for each day, and also during certain times.  It's a bit weird, but that must mean it's super popular.  

You aren't allowed to take pictures inside the building, but outside the building is allowed...I think.

So we started from the top of the building and made our way down.  

At the very top, up some winding stairs is a gigantic robot.  This robot is from the move Laputa In The Sky.  It's one of the earlier ones, and the robot is really that big in the movie.  

The view from the top

 When you enter the museum, they give you a piece from a real film reel. It's 3 cells cut out and it's random whatever you get.  I have no idea which movie my piece is from.  All you see is an old lady's bottom part of her dress...seriously they need to pick some better scenes to give out.

The museum itself isn't all that big, but I bet that even if you went there 4 or 5 times, you'd still find something you haven't seen before.

 Inside there are 3 floors, each floor with 2 or 3 exhibits to see.  The decor and everything was very whimsical and childlike almost.  There were little openings in the wall that you had to duck through, and the other side would be the washrooms.  There were stained glass windows depicting scenes from various movies.  Even the doors to the washrooms matched the decor.  Everything was very detailed and was all part of the experience.

The thing I loved the most was in the middle of the first floor, it's a big open space where you can look up and see the other floors.  And in the middle of this space was a winding staircase inside a hollow tub made of vertical bars.  So when you walk up you can see out and people can see you.  But the stairs were so narrow that you can only walk up, and it doesn't seem like you can even fit because the way the stairs wound upwards, it seemed like you'd be too tall.  These stairs lead to the second floor.  I never thought I'd say this, but walking up stairs was fun! 

Some exhibits showed different scenes from various films, some show what the studio of one of the artists would look like.  One room has a giant furry Catbus (from My Neighbor Totoro) where you can actually enter and sit down.  Kids had their own smaller Catbus that they can climb all over.

There's also a gift shop (which was crazy busy), a cafe, an ice cream stand and a short film theatre.  The day we were there they showed a short film about one of the main characters from My Neighbor Totoro, Mei, and a baby Catbus.  It was really good, I loved it.  Every so often (like weeks or months) they change the short film...I think there are about 6 or 7 in total.

I loved the Ghibli Museum.  I actually want to go again, it was so amazing.  It is a must-see if you're ever in Tokyo and you like Ghibli at all.  It is super worth it.