World of Ghibli

On the day of our last trip to Kamakura and Yokohama, Ken said he wanted to go to Ghibli Museum with us. I went back to Utsunomiya with my sister, put down my backpack (what a relief!) and relaxed for a few days after the long trip from Tokyo to Fujigoko to Kansai region (Kyoto, Osaka, Nagoya) back to Kanto around Tokyo, Yokohama and Kamakura. We finally set our time to visit Ghibli Museum. Beside Ken, there was someone who was willing to go with us - Toshi, whom I know from an online travel community. He lives near the museum so he'd like to meet up with me.

So I contacted Ken and Toshi and let them know about our plan. On the night before we went, we bought the ticket at a Lawson convenient store for the 4 of us. Too bad Hide wouldn't be able go with us to Ghibli Museum.

November 24, 2005

My sister and I took a pretty long train ride from Utsunomiya to Tokyo and then to Mitaka. We met up with Ken at the station, and took the cute Ghibli bus to the museum. There was a long line, and Toshi was there.

Totoro in ticket box

The museum was like a nice home. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos. There's one room where they display things "animation", another room full with sketches and drawings from Studio Ghibli works, another is a book store about Ghibli animations, another is a souvenir shop with Ghibli merchandise including soundtrack CDs and books of music parts, and so on. I wish I wasn't on a tight budget (or I wish Japan was not so expensive)...

The cute one is NEKO-BUS! Maybe it's the real size of "real" neko-bus as Hayao Miyazaki imagined. Unfortunately I couldn't take a photo of those children playing on and inside the "makkurokurosuke"-filled Neko-bus! (Note: Neko-bus and Makkurokurosuke are characters from "My Neighbor Totoro".) We also climbed upstairs outside to the top of the building where it's decorated like the situation on Laputa.

With Laputa robot

It's getting very late in the afternoon. Outside the museum is Inokashira Park. I wish we could take a stroll for a while but it was getting cold. The 4 of us took a Ghibli bus to the station, and found a small cafe to warm ourselves and have some chat. After that we said goodbye to Toshi, and the 3 of us took a train back to Tokyo. Ken got off at a station somewhere (I can't remember) and I knew that was it - I don't know when I would see him again. It could be the last time we saw each other. We'd had fun together, he'd been very nice to us and we had spent good times with him exploring some parts of Yokohama, riding to Tokyo, going on day trips to Kamakura and Mitaka. I hope to have fun with him again some day.