Ghibli Museum in Mitaka

Well, it’s been nearly a year since my last post. Yes I’ve been busy, but I have had time to post, but just haven’t. Hopefully I can get back into a normal posting routine.

Anywho, this post is about the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka. I went there several months ago with a friend who came to visit me. The adventure began when we found out we had to buy tickets before hand. People online had suggested getting them anywhere from 1-2 months in advance. We were trying to get them less than a week in advance. I found out that to get them you had to go to a Lawson convenience store, and purchase them through the computer there, “Loppi”, which is used to purchase tickets for a variety of events.

We went to the closest Lawson, a few minute walk from my apartment, and I stepped up to the machine. The first thing i noticed was there was no English button. I somehow managed to navigate the whole thing, and in the end I was half surprised we ended up with the correct tickets for the correct date instead of some Sumo championship tickets for an event in Hiroshima. Needless to say, I was quite impressed with myself.

We ended up going to the museum on a Friday at around 4pm. This was one of the latest times the tickets allowed. We got off at Inokashira-koen and took a nice long walk through the park. We ended up getting there a little early so we sat on a park bench and people watched for a little. It was several weeks before hanami time, but the sakura were already starting to blossom.

Finally around 3:45 we got bored and decided to try to go in early. We were let in without a problem and got our tickets to a movie preview they do. We decided to go see that first, and were pretty excited in being able to see a never-before-released piece of Ghibli magic.

The movie that was playing was Chu-zumo, which was a 15-20 minute flick about sumo mice. It was very cute, and even though it was all in Japanese the plot was really easy for my friend and I to follow (him not knowing a single word). We left the flick with smiles on our faces.

After that we wandered around the museum. It was a very nice and unique place, fun for all ages. There were no pictures allowed inside, so the few that I have are from outside.

All in all, it was a wonderful experience that i wouldn’t mind doing again. I think that people of any age, regardless of whether or not they are Ghibli (or even anime) fans would enjoy it. There is a lot of eye candy and hands on things to do. My only regret is that i was over 12 years old and couldn’t play on the cat-bus.