Studio Ghibli Museum, Mitaka
I booked the tickets in advance for the museum from here:
http://www.japanspecialist.co.uk/
You must buy tickets before you leave for your trip
Once you go online you can select a date and time
I then paid with my bank details via email
Tickets were £12 each (worth every penny)
Finding your way from the station is pretty easy due to all the signs!
It's pretty much one straight road from the station to the museum
On the way we stopped at a bird cafe opposite the museum entrance called Kotori Cafe
It was such a cute little cafe with all bird theme decor and lots of birds hanging out in the front window (the birds were not flying around the cafe)
They do a variety of desserts (not a large menu) including cute cakes and french toast
Totoro!
Sadly photos were not permitted inside so all the photos I took were outside
Although I was tempted to sneak a few pictures I wanted to respect why they don't want photos and keep it a secret for people going. It really is an amazing experience ~ I felt quite emotional afterwards
The museum is quite small but every part is fascinating and there is a lot to look at with 2 levels
The most amazing part was the animation room where you can see characters come life with various contraptions. In the main room I remember a circular spinning table with hundreds of 3D characters ~ when it is turned on it spins so fast the objects look like they are moving and jumping. Could have watched this for hours. They also had these wonderful glass panels with several layers of illustration which when viewed look 3D, each one with different scenes from Ghibli.
There is a large room with many original illustrations and it is set up like Ghibli's working studio
Inside there is a winding stairway leading up to the top floor, a bridge overlooking. The windows are all stained glass with Ghibli themes. At the top floor there is a giant plush cat bus (sadly for children only) and an amazing gift shop with tons of plushies, figurines ~ even jewellery and china
On entrance you get given a film ticket, each one looks like a film strip with a different animation
I highly recommend seeing the special Ghibli museum film (unseen anywhere else)
The only drawback from the museum is not having an English tour guide ~ you can pay more for one of these. Everything is in Japanese... apart from the film which had subtitles
Outside the museum there was a small kiosk selling green tea ice cream and hot dogs
There is also a cafe but I was a little disappointed it was not themed
After the museum we walked around the surrounding area
There is a large park called Inokashira Park
The blossom were just coming into bloom (this was late February/early March)
We then went to Kichijoji ~ an interesting place with traditional bars and winding walkways
I also managed to stumble across a Kiddyland with the most amazing cute Sanrio collection ~ heaven
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