Journal no. 3

i had bought the tickets for Ghibli Museum (三鷹の森ジブリ美術館) at Lawson a few days earlier.

i met my Japanese friend, R, at Kichijoji station at 10am and we walked to the museum via Kichijoji and Inokashira Park.

Inokashira Park (井の頭恩賜公園).

there was a huge reservoir (really really huge), with a water fountain, bridge and a small temple in the background which made for good photo opportunities.

we also saw ducks and this small shrine with many little stone foxes.

R let us try hot amazake (甘酒), it was rice-y and sweet with hint of ginger.


 we made it to the Ghibli Museum - a huge Totoro was in the box office!

 i liked the cute details like the soot fellas (ススワタリ) at bottom.

this was the view as we lined up to enter the Ghibli Museum.
photography was not allowed inside. ><

the interior was beautifully decorated. there were many stained glass windows featuring a myriad of characters and designs, and the high-ceiling central hall had a glass dome, criss-crossing walkways, stairs and elevator, like something straight out of a fantasy steam-punk picture book. it was all soooo gorgeous!!

at the first exhibition room,  there were delightful figurines of Mei chasing Totoro, the tall tree with the spinning figures of Nekobuses, jump-rope Totoros and mushroom-hopping Totoros animated by the strobe-light effect.

the short film at the mini-theater was about a girl who left the city  by herself - she would leave apples to appease the various wild creatures guarding the forest (giant tadpole in the stream, wind monster, rain monster, hut insects, forest god) as she traveled.
i loved the part where the forest god gave her some nuts and said, "Come again~" in return for her apples as she was leaving the forest.

the art room and library rooms were really cool too - they exhibited the different processes of animation.
the raw drawings for Howl, Kiki, Mononoke was amazing and inspiring, the epitome of eye-candy! and not forgetting the huge 6-headed dragon appearing the library of 1890-ish European/Germanic story+art print books.

there was also the huge furry Nekobus for kids to play on - a kindergarten kid could sit between the cat's ears with lots of space to spare, and their feet would not reach the nose. SO CUTE!
and the playground floor was filled with soft soot fellas~~

here are some pictures of the museum from the official website.

on the roof was a huge metal robot from Laputa (天空の城ラピュタ), the first film produced by Studio Ghibli. the early Ghibli films are awesome~ :'D

i bought a 'stained glass' style postcard (530~ yen) and a mini Nekobus keychain (930~ yen) from the souvenir shop.

we left the museum, and went back to Kichijoji as R found a Japanese-food buffet for us to have lunch at. we walked past various cool shops like Pancake Days.

the lunch place (Warabe) was in one of the shopping centers surrounded by a modernized shopping arcade. they even had a diy waffle station - awesome.