Totoro and Kiki and Chihiro and… Gromit? – Trip to Japan Part 2: Studio Ghibli Museum

*OH SHIT. What’s this post still doing here not published? Blame the lazy ass called Lupus…

The next day, we ate breakfast at the hotel and booked tickets for the Studio Ghibli Museum at Mitaka, a suburb around 20 minutes by train from Shinjuku. For some reason the tickets are timed, and the earliest ticket we could get was 2 p.m., so once again we went browsing around Shinjuku. I spent the entire morning in an arcade playing UFO catchers and Guilty Gear XX: Accent Core, and with my l337 haxing skillz I got a Rei figure from one of the UFO catchers. Disregarding the fact that I spent close to another 2000 on trying to get the matching Asuka figure, the Rei figure only cost me 700 yen. I’m still counselling myself that it was a good deal.

The machine I conquered. There are a LOT of these in Japanese arcades – unfortunately that only applies to the machine bit though, not the conquering bit.

Unfortunately, because the Museum prohibits photography and videos, there aren’t many photos to post this time.

Soon after lunch, we caught the train from Shinjuku to Mitaka, where the Studio Ghibli Museum was. As previously mentioned, it’d only take around 20 minutes to get there from Shinjuku, so it’s not very far from central Tokyo. Even though it’s only 20 minutes from the hustle and bustle of Shinjuku, Mitaka is a very pleasant little suburb with a beautiful park and seems to mainly be a residential area. A very clean river runs through the suburb, adding to the feeling of peace and tranquility that pervades the whole area.

Not far from the train station is a shuttle bus service that runs between the Museum and the station every 15 minutes. The bus is a very cute one, with Totoros and other Studio Ghibli mascots decorating the side. The price is 300 yen for a return ticket for adults and half that for children.

After a very short bus ride we arrived outside the Museum, which was situated in a very beautiful park. The place feels very serene and peaceful, which makes it perfect as the location of the Studio Ghibli Museum. But wait! What’s that?

It’s the robot from Laputa! It’s going to attack us! RUN FOR THE HILLS!

*cough* Nevermind, false alarm, it’s just a statute.

This is the entrance. I was hoping there would be people in giant Totoro suits running around, like those mascot characters you find in theme parks, but alas, nothing like that here.

The ticket to the Mesuem costs 1000 yen for an adult, which is around $11 AUD. Don’t let the cheap entrance price fool you though, they don’t make money from the entrance fee alone.

Once inside, you’re given a very nice ticket that’s made up from three frames cut out from a reel of one of the Ghibli movies. Apart from making a very nice memorabilia, the ticket also allow you entrance into a special movie that is only aired inside the Museum. When I was there, there was a choice of two movies to choose from. Being the cheapo Chinese that I am, I opted for the longer movie.

The movie was about a kindergarten class, and how the children’s imagination turn a make-shift boat into a real see-faring vessel. After an interesting session naming the boat (which ended up being called the ‘Lion-elephant’), the boat sets off for its imaginary voyage, on which it encounters a number of interesting things, including a storm and a whale.

What really stood out about the video is the wonderfully childish storyline. The innocense pervailing the short movie clearly marked it as a Ghibli production, and I’m always impressed by the wonderfully pure imagination of the Ghibli staff. The production value is not shabby either – the art is done in a beautiful colour-pencil style that fits the theme and the setting of the story very well.

Apart from the movie, there are various exhibits around the museum. Most of them shows how anime are produced, from the storyboard to the process of drawing the original frames to chaining those frames together to make a roll of film, the Museum gives us an insight into how a feature lengthed animation is produced. Another exhibit showcases the work of the Wallace and Gromit creators, including the various clay puppets they use to make their show. One particularly interesting exhibit revealed the various mouth-shapes used for when Wallace speaks.

All that aside, the highlight of the trip has got to be the shop. As I was saying, this place doesn’t earn its keep from the entrance fee, as evident from how packed the shop was. I walked in or past it at least 3 times during my 2 hours long stay, and at all times it was completely packed. I myself succumbed to the spell of the numerous Studio Ghibli merchandise and bought a number of items, which I can’t take photos of because I left them in Sydney. Stupid, stupid me.

I’m going to cheap out on the rest of this post and just leave it at that. That’s the problem with getting lazy and not writing this post sooner. I hope you enjoyed my half-assed post more than I enjoyed pushing it out of my verbal recctum.

Here’s some other interesting photoes.

Me next to the robot, for a sense of scale.

I thought these little decorative windows are cool.

Totoro bus sign! Anything with Totoro is automatically awesome +2.

SUSHI!

Otoro. Why is there only 1 piece you ask? It was so tasty that it was almost completely devoured before I remember to take a photo.

Another UFO catcher, and a testimony to Evangelion’s popularity. Or maybe these just came out in anticipation of the new movies?

CLEEEEEEEEAVAGE

Found in Shinjuku. Pretty damn cool, but I have no idea if those are based on real Gundams.

Same thing with Howl’s Moving Castle.

And finally, a movie secretly filmed in Studio Ghibli Museum. A staff actually caught me taking it, but she was kind enough to not ask me to delete it (or maybe she just doesn’t know how). The quality is horrible, both due to YouTube and the dim lighting at the time, but I think it’s interesting to see none-the-less.

And that’s it for My Trip to Japan. What about the loot you ask? I don’t have them with me right now, so I will do a post sometime in the future (maybe in another 2 months waffles) where I just sorta semi-review all of them at once.