Ghibli Museum

Growing up as a child, Studio Ghibli was like the Japanese version of Disney for me. I've watched all of the movies and I absolutely love all most of them...(sorry I hated Tales from Earthsea). As a crazy fan of Ghibli, naturally I would want to visit the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, right? I wasn't able to go the during my first visit to Japan because it was for an exchange program and I didn't really want to request my host family to take me there ...but I finally made it on my second time round!

No photos are allowed to be taken inside the museum so I can't exactly 'show' you guys what it was like inside, but trust me, if you're a die-hard Ghibli fan, it's definitely worth it!

First of all before the pictures, I will go through how to get tickets overseas because I searched for a long time for that and I hope it helps if you're looking to buy tickets overseas. If you're here for the pictures, just skip all the text below =D

Tickets

There are 2 ways of getting tickets to the Ghibli Museum 
1. IN JAPAN - Reserved tickets can be purchased only at Lawson convenience stores  
2. OUTSIDE JAPAN - Buy tickets via designated local travel agency counters

I did it the second way, because "entrance to the Ghibli Museum is strictly by advance purchase of a reserved ticket which specifies the appointed date of the reservation," (as quoted by the Ghibli website). The first worry for me was not being able to find a Lawson store, which was stupid of me cause they are basically everywhere. There was one across the road from my hotel. The second worry (the main one that you should worry about), is not being able to get a ticket for the time/date that you want. As the museum is not only popular with tourists but also many Japanese people themselves, I have heard on many occasions you have to buy tickets at least a week before as there is a limited number tickets available to prevent over crowding. 

So to be safe I decided to buy my ticket in Australia. Although, it will be more expensive than buying the ticket from the Lawson's machine because you have to pay an agent fee. The good thing about buying overseas though, is that there is no entrance time. You can rock up whenever you want, whereas if you buy the ticket via Lawson's, you are not allowed to enter after 30 minutes (Do not quote me on that..I believe it is half and hour but it may be more or less) on the time you reserved.  


For more information about tickets, you can visit the Ghibli Museum website for in depth details of the 2 options and where you can get tickets overseas in your country.

For people living in Australia, you can purchase them from JTB (which is what I did) in Melbourne or Sydney. All details can be found on their website which I'll link here. You can send in an online form or go straight up to their office, which is what I did and I returned the next day to pick up the tickets. For Melbourne, it's located in Artemis Lane which can be found in QV. If you stand in front of Max Brenners, it's right across the lawn of fake grass.

My ticket from JTB

Ok! That's all for tickets. If you still have any questions feel free to drop me a comment =D

PICTURE SPAM TIME

* Beware of massive photo spam....I absolutely loved this place so there are heaps of photos haha xD

Shuttle bus to the museum from Mitaka Station

You want to buy the round trip unless you have another way to go back

GHIBLI BUS!

3 more stops

Queuing and Ticketing =D

Here's a selfie LOL

Staff (dressed in blue) check your tickets and passports/ID to make ticketing faster

I arrived just in time for the 11am entrance I think...

View of the museum

Looking up at the winding staircase

I went in Dec so naturally ...la tree

Mononoke stain-glass windows

Bath house from Spirited away in a pot plant!

You get these film tickets that allow you to watch a short animation. Unfortunately I didn't get very good ones =[

Sewer lid

Susuwatari from Spirited away

 

Water fountain

...I AM wearing pants..

View from the bridge - Next lot of people

Robot from Laputa: Castle in the sky

Command Cube from Laputa

Mummy didn't want her face shown LOL

Musical chairs~ No I mean legit..it plays music

Soup we bought whilst waiting for a table at the Straw hat Cafe.

Chicken Katsu Curry

I have no idea what this is .

Strawberry Short cake. The BEST CAKEYOU WILL EVER TASTE

Hot chocolate

Coffee

The stain glass window in the women's toilets..I tried so hard not to look like a perv while taking this picture LOL

Our Ticketmaster TOTORO

UPDATE: As I said you're not allowed to take pictures inside the museum but I did stumble across some pictures of it.. I'm not sure if they arranged something with the museum or just went ahead and took pictures, but I'll link some below for you guys. Credits to the owners via hyperlink.

That's all for this post! I hope you have fun looking at the pictures and I DEFINITELY RECOMMEND visiting! Sorry for the super long post =[

Anyway, my favourite movie is  Howl's moving castle followed by Laputa: Castle in the sky. I know Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke are super popular and both got a lot of hype; but they just didn't make it as my favourites, but of course I still love them both! So I was just wondering what you guys thought about the movies and which one  is your favourite!

{ Twitter - Instagram - YouTube }