tokyo- sunday

very shortly after we changed our plans from thailand to japan, i started pushing the idea of the ghibli museum. i’ve enjoyed a number of movies from the ghibli studio, and the podcast from tank riot fuels my desire to see more, but i think it was while searching through atlas obscura for interesting places to see that i came across the ghibli museum.

camille was luke warm on it, and i offered that i’d be willing to go alone. it was slightly outside of the city and it could take a good chunk of the day. she read up on it and gathered from the reviews that it was really worth it. i also picked up a couple of movies that she could watch to get an idea of just how beautiful their work is. she really warmed up to it, and after touring the museum, we’re both gunning to see more of the movies.

we had to go through all these extra steps as foreigners to attend the museum. within three months we had to get vouchers for tickets through a travel agent, and even had to show our passports at the door. but it was completely worth it.

our tickets were for noon. . . add in some train travel and transit time. . . time for the bus ride. . . and me not wanting to be late. . . we left around 10am. we took trains to get to mitaka where there’s a special ghibli bus.

the area of mitaka was super cute. we passed a park that looked incredible. just the thought of getting out of the sun and sitting in some tree shade made me giddy.

we weren’t supposed to take pictures inside the museum, so i took a lot from the outside- though it crossed my mind to see the whole museum and then walk through with my camera so in case i was tossed out, i would’ve seen the whole thing already. . . but i didn’t have the guts.

the whole museum was complete in this amazing style. sort of a whimsical, sweet, and steampunky vision. a huge, open main room with maybe three floors open to the ceiling. . . a staircase, a spiral staircase, an elevator and a bridge across the walkway above. one side of the building was mostly service area, really nice bathrooms on all floors with really gorgeous interiors. little nooks under stairways. . . all buttons and fixtures fit into the style. it was very nearly like walking into a set or a movie.

the first room we saw was incredible. there were all manners of video and ‘motion pictures’ being shown. flipbooks, hand-cranked film scrolls, strobe light animation, zoetropes. there were rube goldbergesque reels of films winding around the corner of the room (some with small backlit areas so you can watch the film from several vantage points) before they made it to the projector.

i really would’ve loved to video or take pictures of this room, but i’m pretty sure my camera couldn’t do it justice.

several other rooms looked a bit like ‘inspiration’ rooms. filled with books, photos, paintings, and objects that all looked like they came from different movies. there was the big cat bus. . . but that was only for children. (still haven’t seen my neighbor totoro yet. . . but it’s higher on the list now.)

there was a screening room, and you can bet i dropped a few bucks in the gift shop. there was a hot dog/ ice cream stand where we had lunch. we hung around for the line outside the ‘strawhat cafe’ to dwindle a bit. . . completely worth it. we walked around the grounds of the building and eventually caught our ghibli bus back to the mitaka station.

we couldn’t resist a little stationary store shopping in the mitaka area. . . but then we were on to harajuku.

harajuku definitely has its own rhythm. we didn’t see many of the goth or harajuku girls. . . but we saw a couple, and it was impressive. kind of drag queen like in their level of drama. . . but slightly more to the bo peep side of fashion. . . at least the ones that we saw.

we were enticed into an english pub for dinner, especially since it promised hard cider. did some bargain shopping at the 500 and 300 yen stores, and with the night still young, we headed back into the heart of tokyo to try and find that area that you always see in books and magazines.

we thought we found it, but really, we just ended up in ginza again. not that it’s a bad thing. . . we’d later find that area we were looking for.