Tokyo Adventure: Part 2 - Studio Ghibli Museum
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This has to be one of my favourite days in Tokyo. I had been wanting to go to the Studio Ghibli Museum for years. After being an avid fan of their spectacular heart-warming films, such as Spirited Away to Whisper of the Heart, my heart was pounding when I finally booked my tickets to the Museum. Note to anyone intending to visit, you have to buy the tickets in advance from the official sales people. I think I got mine off a website that specialises in Japanese tickets. Also double check your booking date... as you will find out why below:
Day 9:
Woke up early and got the metro at 8:30. Surprisingly it wasn't busy as Tokyo metro is known to one of the busiest in the world. I think the quietness was due to it being summer and around 40'C (people tend to migrate out of Tokyo during these months)
We went to Kanada and then changed for the Choi line which took us to Mitachi, the stop closest to the Studio Ghibli Museum. You can get a bus here, but we decided to walk as it was a nice day and not too far (under 1km if I recall). We walked along a river there and then we got into the queue to enter the museum. The building and surrounding gardens themselves I can only describe as one of Studio Ghibli's masterpieces.
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| Studio Ghibli Museum |
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| View as you come out of the gift shop |
One of the reasons we aimed to arrive early was because the night before I had realised that I had booked the tour for the next Friday and was distraught to learn this. Kana (one of the lovely hostel ladies) advised us to go there and try and say it as the companies fault not mine. It was horrendously nerve-racking, I was prepared to give out the full water works. Charlie said at the time that he had never seen someone act so upset, little did he know that I was actually very scared we weren't going to get in and that the whole trip would be ruined. But after a lengthy discussion with the manager we were allowed in. Hurray!
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| Me and Totoro, the ticket booth operator! |
OMG it was magnificent... Out of this world. Literally dreams on a paper. Unfortunately for you we weren't allowed to take any photos inside. So I can only describe what was in the museum. A secret film to watch, walls covered in screen art and animation, Miyazaki's studio, a Cat Bus to play on (if you are under 10, shame for me) from My Neighbour is Totoro. After looking around we went and had lunch in the cafe. We queued for 30 minutes in the sun, the staff did provide fans etc. It was definitely worth the wait. We booth chose an amazing drink called 'Here comes the Sun' that changes colour as you swirl the floating ball of orange sorbet. I chose to have some sort of chicken pate sandwich with chips, while Charlie had spaghetti Bolognese with a breast of chicken on top (odd).
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| Video of the Here Comes the Sun drink |
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| Studio Ghibli Menu |
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| One of the windows inside the Museums toilets. This was the only part I could photograph without getting told off |
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| Inside the cafe |
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| My meal at the Café. Look at the cute Kiki plate! |
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| Charlie's food on a Totoro plate. I think he chose a children's meal! |
After eating we went around the surrounding park where we visited a small temple and also went swan peddling on a lake.
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| Some boats you can hire in the park. |
Afterwards we got the train back to Shinjiku where we went to the park Shinjiku Goeyn. It was massive and very beautiful. I learnt from my Paris trip with my friend Livi during the heatwave in 2010, that parks are friends when trying to find a cool place to chill. This one did not disappoint. Temperatures were reported to be around 43'C that afternoon.
We then went back to the hostel and chilled, had some beers, made pasta for dinner, as I missed cooking, and then went and played Panchinko. Panchinko is a form of gambling in Japan. There are loads of places to play in Tokyo we found. So we decided to go in and try our luck. We had no idea what was going in and the man was helping us... We lost all our money. Oh well the experience was still awesome. We then wondered the streets and then came home.
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| Panchinko |
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| Me in one of the many cardboard cut outs in the Asakusa area |
Back at the hostel we chilled with Chinaru, whom is very cute and taught me how to make an origami swan. We then watched the end of Harry potter... Japanese dubbed..EXPECTO PARTNAAMM.
Stayed up til 1am and then went to sleep. Amazing day :) 
Zoe x
2 comments
looks like you having a really good time in tokyo! i hope i can go to this beautiful city as soon as possible!xx
ReplyDeleteIt honestly is stunning! You must go xx
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