Day 22 - Tokyo (The Ghibli Museum, Nagano Broadway and Akihabara)

This morning we got up early and were greeted by light rain. The reason for the early departure was that we were visiting the Ghibli Museum. However, there was a major issue that arose as we were about to step out that prevented our departure from the apartment for some time; we managed to lose the front door key. After frantically turning the apartment upside down for around 15 minutes, we found the key in the bottom of a shopping bag...whew!

We did the usual pilgrimage to Okachimachi Station catching the train on the Chuo-Sobo line to Kichajoji Station; however, even that wasn't smooth sailing (or railing) as we had an unscheduled stop at a station along the way for a bathroom break. We ended up at Kichajoji Station and proceeded to walk to Ikonashira Park in Mikata, a distance of around 1.3 kilometres and the site of the Ghibli Museum, or more correctly, the Mikata Forest Ghibli Museum. There is a tourist bus we could have taken; however, the weather was fining up and thankfully, we decided that we needed to leave plenty of time to get there, much of which we had already eaten into.

The walk from Kichajoji Station to Ikonashira Park.

We saw this little Shrine along the way (at least that's what we thought it was). Check out the cute figurine on the top.

We managed to arrive about 40 minutes early at the Museum, despite Maureen finding a Cat Shop on the walk along the way. During the walk we also saw a few Japan Air Self-Defence Force (JASDF), Kawasaki T-4 Jet Training aircraft flying over, likely from the JASDF's Hyakuri Air Base about 30 kilometres to the north east of Mikata. 

A JASDF Kawasaki T-4 Jet Trainer.

As we were early, we went for a stroll through Ikonashira Park, taking in more of those gorgeous Autumn leaves. 

The beautiful Ikonashira Park.

One of the park's walking trails.

Team meeting.

The Ghibli Museum exists to showcase the work of Japanese animation studio, Studio Ghibli. Studio Ghibli was established in 1985 and has since produced multiple anime feature films, several short films, commercials and a television film. Six of Ghibli's anime feature films are amongst the 15 highest grossing anime films made in Japan, and five have received Academy Award nominations. The two most famous anime films produced to date have been 'Spirited Away' and 'My Neighbour Totoro'. The character Totoro is the Museum's mascot.

Totoro, the big guy. (source: theverge.com)

The thing about the Ghibli Museum, is that it is very, very popular. So popular, that you need to book your tickets a few months in advance. Walking through the museum was incredible; however, no photos whatsoever are allowed inside. They say that visiting the Ghibli Museum is like stepping into the portal of a storybook world. 

Arriving at the Ghibli Museum.

The self-guided tour through Ghibli took us through the various elements that go into making anime films, and I must admit I was truly amazed by the meticulousness that goes into making the transparencies that become the animation. There are so many colours that go into each frame and they are all hand painted. To make it easier, the graphic outline (also hand-drawn), is burnt onto the transparencies, this slightly etches the surface and makes it easier to keep the colours within lines. Considering that there are 24 of these slides required for one second of filming, and that 'Spirited Away' ran for two hours and five minutes, that's a lot of transparencies. Some of the animators will work at the same desk for a year on a particular film. The other thing that struck me was the incredible research library, with books about building and housing designs, books on colours, books on skin tones, books on human and animal movement. I'm not talking tens of books, I'm talking about literally thousands of books. Also, on the roof of the museum, which is accessible is a five metre tall, life-sized Robot Soldier, from the film 'Laputa Castle in the Sky'. The Robot Soldier overlooks Ikonashira Park and is the Guardian of the Ghibli Museum. It's one of the only things that you can photograph there.

The Robot Soldier, guardian of the Ghibli Museum.

The roof garden is intended to blend into the surrounds and make you forget you are on the top of a building.

The other thing about the Ghibli Museum was that it was very crowded. Even though you book your tickets in advance and have to arrive within 30 minutes of an allocated slot, you are wandering around as if you are in a crowded subway train, moving from room-to-room within the museum; but, that doesn't make it any less amazing.

The unusual Ghibli Museum building looks like a cartoon building and is nestled in to the park's flora. In fact, the flora appears to be overtaking the building.

Afterwards, we walked back to Kichajoji Station, whilst Kyle remained back to do some other local exploring. 

Beautiful autumn colours during the walk back to the Station.

Our train bound for Nakano Station.

We caught the train to Nakano Station to visit Nakano Broadway shopping district. The previous day, Sky and Kyle visited this place and told me that there were some diecast aircraft models here that I may be interested in, so clearly we needed to stop here. With three models secured we headed back to the station, then back to Akihabara where we met up with Kyle for dinner, choosing a nice Steak Restaurant. 

The entrance to Nakano Broadway.

The inside view of Nakano Broadway.

Outside of Nakano Station.

Our train to Akihabara arrives at Nagano Station.

Nice views from the front of the train.

Arriving at Akihabara

Afterwards, we split up and I shopped at Yodabashi to look for an external hard drive from my lap-top...so many photos taking up space. Whilst Maureen visited a Cat Cafe, which I think is tantamount to cheating on Scott, Virgil and Gordon. Nonetheless, she had a great time before we all met up back at the apartment.

The Cat Cafe.

That's it for Day 22.