Kitty And Buck: Japan Update #7

Monday, October 28, 2013

Japan Update #7 - Ghibli Museum

Sorry for the unintended break in posts! I managed to come down with a mild flu, which didn't stop me from sightseeing, but I've been suffering from total brain drain and a lack of energy which put my blog posting on the backburner. I'm back now, safely at home, but I'll continue with a few more Japan posts that I had prepared for you. I hope you're enjoying following along on our adventures, and I know some people are going to be really pleased with my post today - Studio Ghibli!

We visited the Museum last time we were in Tokyo, you can see my post here. I thought I'd share a slightly different perspective this time, as photographs are forbidden inside, there's not too much to share visually, aside from some teasers of the outside. The museum is one of those magical places that I think will be an essential part of any trip we make to Japan. I should warn any potential visitors that it's extremely difficult (impossible) for a foreigner to purchase tickets once they are in Japan, I think you need to always reserve ahead of time before you leave for your trip. If you're in Australia, I bought my tickets from JTB in Sydney, but I'm sure the Ghibli Museum site has a link for ticket sales.

The highlight is the theatre, where you get treated to a Ghibli short film. There's no knowing what the film will be when you visit, they are on a rotating schedule and each film is screened for a couple of weeks I believe. This time we saw "The Day I Harvested A Planet", it was such a great little film! Once again, C made a point to thank the projectionist who is an adorable old man, and he was so thrilled that we thanked him again - I think he actually remembered us from last time! It was so cool seeing the huge grin on his face as he enthusiastically shook our hands :)

Having a nanna rest - stupid flu

The museum itself has a whole section dedicated to Miyazaki, recreating his work space, complete with piled books on the floor, animation cells and research materials. There are walls filled to overflowing with sketches from Ghibli films and character studies. You can flick through reference books and explore the thought processes of the creators and animators. On top of that, there is a temporary exhibition, which on this visit, was all about optics. There were demonstrations of pinhole cameras, lenses and even some periscopes to peek at adorable critters in a forest installation.

On the ground floor, there is an entire room dedicated to animation, with interactive installations that show how animation works. My favourite is probably the zoetrope, which contains many miniatures of the characters from My Neighbour Totoro. As the device rotates at high speed, a light flashes and with the perfect speed, the static models come to live, it is really quite magical to watch!

The museum itself is really fun architecturally, with many little nooks and crannies to explore and get lost in. There are even two gift stores, one dedicated to books and a much more crazy one with people everywhere, filled with Ghibli memorabilia, toys, buttons, posters, you name it. We never leave empty handed.

I hope you enjoyed finding out more about the Ghibli Museum, if you've never been before, I think it's a really fun place to visit if you ever go to Tokyo.