The #1 thing on my must-do list was the Ghibli Museum. For those who don’t know, Studio Ghibli is the famous animation studio responsible for films like Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro.

Time-specific tickets have to be purchased in advance from Loppi machines in the Lawson convenience stores. The museum is very popular especially on weekends. We had to settle for going on a Monday afternoon (and even then, the museum was quite busy still). The museum is located in Mitaka which is in the western part of Tokyo. You can walk from Mitaka station or take a bus that drops you off right by the museum, which is within Inokashira Park. Since our feet were tired from earlier sightseeing, we opted for the bus.

The main entrance doors of the museum feature beautiful stained glass windows of Totoro. Upon arrival, you exchange your Lawson tickets for a souvenir ticket that consists of 3 cells of a movie film strip. On this particular visit, I was lucky enough to get a movie strip from Castle in the Sky, which is my favourite Studio Ghibli movie.

Photography is only permitted in the outdoor areas and not within the museum itself. However, not focusing on photography means that we could fully immerse ourselves in the charming and delightful world of the museum. 

We started our visit by heading to the Saturn Theatre where they show a short film for which one viewing is included with your ticket. These short films are only shown at the museum and (like the rest of the museum) are only in Japanese. My girlfriend was thrilled that they were showing "Mei and the Kittenbus" that day as it is basically a sequel to My Neighbor Totoro, which is one of her favourite movies. But as I mentioned, it was a busy Monday afternoon, so we ended up sitting on the stairs as the regular seats were already full.

The Saturn Theatre itself is well-designed. There are small submarine-like windows with automatic covers that come down as the lights dim before the film starts. The projection room has glass walls so you can look right in and watch what the projectionist is doing. Even though the short film is in Japanese, you really won’t have too much trouble following the plotline of the film. 

After the film, we explored the rest of the museum. There were a lot of great exhibits including a replica of Hayao Miyazaki’s office with drawings galore. While we were there, a special exhibit on Hayao Miyazaki’s interpretation of The Nutcracker was also running. There is also a wonderful life-size plush Catbus on the upper floor of the museum but it is only for actual children (12 and under) and not the young at heart (ie. my girlfriend). On the roof, there is a life-size statue of the robot and the cube of destruction from Castle in the Sky. And of course, the museum itself is a charming building full of lovely details including Jiji figurines on faucets and stained glass with various Ghibli characters.

Ghibli Museum is well-worth a trip if you’re in Tokyo. It’s a fairly small museum and you really only need 1-2 hours to go through it although you could spend longer if you wanted to. Anyone can enjoy the museum, but you will get a lot more out of it if you’ve watched at least a few of the films. My girlfriend was able to point out various little exhibit details from the movies that I hadn’t watched yet and it made the experience a lot more enjoyable. If you’re looking for suggestions on where to start, my favourite Ghibli movies are Castle in the Sky, Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro and Grave of the Fireflies. (Please note that Grave of the Fireflies is very sad and heartwrenching – prepare the tissues!)