Day Sixteen: Ghibli Museum

Us with a totoro.

We've fallen a bit behind on blogging due to traveller's fatigue and long days. I also have a cold. Today I started wearing a paper surgical mask on the subway because I felt like a jerk coughing into my elbow when everyone else who's sick wears masks. Hopefully it clears up soon because I don't have time to get sick. We're off to NYC four days after we get back to Hamilton, and I have to present at a conference!

Anyway. Our day. Today, we went to the Ghibli museum. This was the one trip event we planned ahead because we had to buy tickets in advance. It is a very popular attraction. For those who are unfamiliar, Studio Ghibli is an animation studio. One of its founders, and its most famour film creator, Hayao Miyazaki, is considered the "Walt Disney of Japan." He makes lovely, whimsical films, (though sometimes with more serious subject matter or themes) which are good for all ages. My favourite is My Neighbour Totoro, which is about two young sisters living in rural Post WWII Japan, who discover some forest spirits (Toteros) living in the woods near their home and develop a friendship with them which helps them cope with their mother being in the hospital. I don't think anyone - young or old - can watch that film without getting a big happy grin on their face. (You can get a dubbed version for kids who can't read subtitles. Miyazaki films are distributed by Disney in North America)

Totoro is probably Miyazaki's most beloved film, so it featured centrally in the museum. The museum itself was utterly charming. The whole thing looked like the set for a Miyazaki film (if his films were live action). The windows were stained glass, and had pictures of Totoros, Kami and other Ghibli creatures in them. The rooms were oddly shaped nooks and crannies that took you by surprise. You had to be careful not to hit your head - even short me - because overall, the place was designed more for children than adults. Jon bonked his head coming out of the eccentric, spiral spiral staircase leading up to the second floor. (Don't worry, he's fine.) There were interesting skylights in the ceiling, and clocks on the walls. The outside of the museum was mostly covered in lush green vines. The exhibits themselves were, like the building, designed with children in mind. There were rooms based on the sets of Miyazaki's films, like one with a furry cat bus (a character from Totero) jungle gym in it for kids to crawl all over, and another that was the hat making studio from Howl's Moving Castle, where kids could touch the hats and flower decorations. There was also an intricately detailed replica of Miyazaki's studio, with added touches like little spirits sitting among the clutter, reading. There were also a few rooms dedicated to showing the way in which the Ghibli creators made their films, and teach a little something about the history of animation. There were story boards, colour wheels, cell and background transparencies and concept books you could look though. There were also some really neat zoetropes, stroboscopes, stereoscopes, and other early examples of animation machinery that you could play with, turning a crank to make it go, or looking into a box to see a 3D picture. There was also a movie theatre, which screens different short films on rotation. The one cute little film we saw, thankfully, was mostly told though music and movement, so we didn't really need to know Japanese to understand it (it was not subtitled.)

As you can imagine, the place was crawling with kids. Cute though they were, I feared for my eardrums. Following our inevitable stop in the gift shop and our pictures with the Totero (the only place you're allowed to take photos in the museum) we walked though Inokashira park (where the museum is located) to get to the train station where we were supposed to meet Matt Alt, an American ex-pat living in Japan, who works as a writer and translator. We had a great chat with him about Japanese culture and western perceptions of it, and he also was gracious enough to sign our copy of his book.

Hipster fashion.

After our meeting, we wandered around the suburban area where we met him. It was clearly a middle-class hipster/hippie hub. I was excited to find a used clothing store, although it turned out to be more of the expensive retro clothing variety than the salvation army type. I did end up buying a dress though. Damn the cuteness of Japanese fashion! Jon and I are particularly fascinated by the hipster fashion here, which is an odd yet adorable combination of Victorian/Edwardian pioneer fashions (think Anne of Green Gables: puffed sleeves, plaited straw hats and all) and frontier America (overalls, cowboy hats). I took a picture of an outfit on display outside the store to show what I mean. Whereas the 1960s seems to be 'in' as the current trendy/mainstream mall fashion (you can find it at most of your typical American stores geared to teen and 20 something girls) I think the farmer look is more of a hipster thing, (occasionally, and oddly, paired with huge lens-less glasses, which seem to be the new favourite among hipsters at home). And here I am talking as though I know anything about fashion...

I can definitely say I've spent more money here on clothes than I typically do in a year. (Keep in mind that all my clothes except socks, undergarments and shoes tend to be second hand). After we wandered about in the hipster district, Jon and I went to a shopping arcade called Nakano Broadway, because there was supposed to be a Thai Restaurant with veg options there. There were, and the food was some of the spiciest Thai I've had. Good thing Jon has been acclimatizing me to hot food. We had a cold tofu salad with a bunch of spices, a medium-hot greens dish, rice, and a really hot (to my taste, though Jon would probably just say hot) noodles and greens dish.

Alien @ goth shop.

After that, we wandered around the arcade a bit, which seemed to be a bit of an older shopping center, since there were less brand name stores and more subcultural clothing shops and otaku (geek) shops. Jon and I ended up in one gothy/skater type shop, and I got a really neat steampunkish watch. Again, damn Japan for being so cool. I usually am not much of a shopper!

Tomorrow is our last day in Japan. Jon and I are both feeling somewhat melancholy about this, but glad at the same time. We miss our cat and our friends and we're both feeling inspired to get back to our work. But at the same time, we have throughly enjoyed our time in Japan, and hate to say goodbye!