Ghibli Museum

Hayao Miyazaki is widely renowned as an elder statesman of Japanese animated films, the equivalent of America's Walt Disney, if you will. Over the years, he has won acclaim for directing children's films that explore feminism, environmentalism, and the relationship of man and technology. Moreover, his movies are just plain adorable, with characters recognized by every child in Japan.

Miyazaki is the co-founder of Studio Ghibli, an animation company, and the Ghibli Museum celebrates his canon and offers hints of future directions. When I heard about the Ghibli Museum, I immediately added it to my list of sights to see. Unfortunately, as Lonely Planet writes, it is "more difficult to gain entry to the Ghibli Museum than for the Kremlin." There are only a set number of tickets sold per day, you have only a half-hour window to enter, and you must buy a ticket ahead of time, not at the door. For overseas visitors, you can order through a designated travel agency and have it mailed to you. I emailed the Chicago distributor, and with shipping and handling, the ticket came out to about $30. Argh.

A loophole: you can also buy tickets in Japan through the Loppi kiosks at any Lawson convenience store. If you do this, a ticket is only ¥1,000 (~$10). So, armed with the directions for the Loppi machine, the first thing I did after landing was march into a Lawson and attempt to buy a Ghibli Museum ticket. Unlike ATMs and train kiosks, there are no English directions. I got an error message. I tried again. I got another error message. I tried another date. I made it to a new screen. A keyboard popped up and I surmised that they wanted a name. I typed in random characters and got an error message. At this point, I was about to throttle the machine, but then the Lawson attendant came over and asked if I needed help. He successfully typed in my name in katakana and added a fake phone number (9999-9999). Bingo, I had a ticket.

The museum is in the suburb of Mitaka, which is accessible from the JR Chuo line at Shinjuku. This is the busiest station in the world, with a dozen rail lines converging from 5 rail companies, and an average of 3.64 m people passing through each day. As Yukako put it, "Shinjuku station makes me want to cry." To add further complexity, each line has about 5 levels, from super duper express to local. I took a deep breath and hopped onto a train that seemed to be headed towards Mitaka. The next station indicated that I was heading in the right direction, so I sat down to eat a green tea-sesame seed cinnamon roll (without cinnamon). Fifteen minutes later, I looked up to see that we'd just pulled into...Shinjuku station. WTF just happened?

I bolted off the train and tried again. This time, the train actually went to Mitaka. After a 15 min walk from the station, I finally made it to the museum, which looks like something out of a Roald Dahl book.

You are immediately greeted by a giant Totoro in the window.

At the entrance, your paper ticket is exchanged for a ticket that contains an original frame from one of Miyazaki's films.

Alas, the museum doesn't allow photography inside the building, so you'll just have to take my word that it was pretty neat, despite being filled with dozens of (polite, well-behaved) children. As indicated by the exterior, the inside of the building is full of whimsical displays, depicting the inspirations for Miyazaki's work, storyboards, and other information which I couldn't read. The first floor contains a theater where you can view an unreleased 15" film short. For this day, the movie was about an adorable fanged water spider. (This is further proof that anything can be turned cute in the hands of Miyazaki.) The third floor features a giant, plush Catbus (from the film My Neighbor Totoro) for elementary school kids to play on, complete with dust sprites that you could throw.
The building included lots of stained glass with characters and scenes from Ghibli films. Above is the Forest Spirit from Princess Mononoke.

Everywhere you went, there were little nooks and crannies with interesting things if you opened a shutter or poked your head under an arch. Here is a random shed filled with knick knacks.

This window is filled with dust sprites peeking outside.

I think this is the seaside town that Kiki's Delivery Service was based in.

There was also a tree stump and wooden broom in the courtyard, so I clambered on and put on my best flying face.

The museum's credo from Miyazaki:

This is the kind of museum I don't want to make!
A pretentious museum
An arrogant museum
A museum that treats its contents as if they were more important than people
A museum that displays uninteresting works as if they were significant

This is the Kind of Museum I Want to Make!
A museum that is interesting and which relaxes the soul
A museum where much can be discovered
A museum based on a clear and consistent philosophy
A museum where those seeking enjoyment can enjoy, those seeking to ponder can ponder, and those seeking to feel can feel
A museum that makes you feel more enriched when you leave than when you entered!

I think he succeeded.