Ghibli Museum: discovery of wonders
Ghibli Museum showcases the work of Studio Ghibli who has created plenty of Japanese animations. If you've heard of Spirited Away or even My Neighbour Totoro, then yes! Those are some of the animations produced by Studio Ghibli.
Even if you're not familiar with their animations (like me...), it's still a very interesting place to visit. I was intrigued by the layout of the building; mock-up of how the studio used to look like; replica from various scenes from Totoro; the ongoing exhibition on memorable animated meals and etc.
Tickets
The only tricky part is getting the tickets. All admission tickets must be purchased beforehand as there's no tickets sold at the museum. So don't try rocking up hoping you'll get lucky. Their official website has shared a few methods on how you can get your hands on them. Link here.Prices for tickets are as follows:
Ages 19 and over: JPY1,000
Ages 13 to 18: JPY700
Ages 7 to 12: JPY400
Ages 4 to 6: JPY100
Tickets purchased will have admission time tagged to it and there are 4 admissions per day. 10am, 12pm, 2pm and 4pm. If you've purchased a 10am ticket, your entry time can be anywhere between 10am to 10.30am. You would most likely be denied entry if you arrive after 10.30am. However, there's no designated exit time meaning you can stay in there for as long as your heart desires. I would recommend nothing later than the 2pm admission.
Access
Get off at Mitaka Station, approximately 20 minutes from Shinjuku Station via JR Chuo Line. From Mitaka Station, you can choose to either walk or take the free shuttle bus provided by Ghibli museum (link here for the bus timetable).Walking will take about 15 minutes and can be quite relaxing.
Along the way, you'll be able to find super cute roadsigns as guidance to Ghibli museum. So don't need to worry about getting lost.
Interesting fact
Well, unlike any other places, you will not be able to find much photos of Ghibli museum crawling all over the internet. You'll most likely stumbled upon photos of the museum from the outside and never the interior. That's because you're not allowed to take photos when you're inside! Keeping it extra mysterious (love it~!). But at the same time, makes the write-up for this post extra difficult. No materials, how to write?!
Anyways, like I've mentioned before, go for the earlier admission. Reason being there's a pretty decent themed cafe/restaurant in precinct and the seating area is actually quite comfortable to just sit and do some people watching. So, sit down, and relax.
However I do admit that the photo of our sandwich and hotdog looks a bit (just a tiny bit) pathetic. It was really yummy though! Not sure if it was because of the hunger or because of the ambiance. Or maybe because it's Japan, food is more often than not just goooodddddd.
OH! Nearly forgot to mention that with your entrance ticket, you will get to watch a short 15 minutes animation sketch in this mini cinema at the museum itself. Unfortunately there won't be any subtitles. I couldn't understand any of the conversation that was happening but could still more or less decipher the content.
My last piece of key takeaway, you don't need to be a fan for anime and especially not true that you need to be familiar with Studio Ghibli's work, to appreciate and truly enjoy Ghibli Museum.
