Day 19 – Last Night in Japan
19,774 steps, 13.81 km travelled, 1 dog in a beanie, 1 banking problem, last night in Japan.
Today was a fairly easy day for us! We had a little bit of an early morning, with Drew and myself plus Brad and Alysha, heading to the Studio Ghibli Museum. We’re both fans of the movie company, so the museum was really interesting to us both. One thing that was a little different with this one, is they did not allow you to take photos while inside the museum. To quote them, “please enjoy the experience through your eyes, not through a screen”. I thought this was very interesting. It took away the worry of trying to get that perfect photo to reflect the memory, and left you to just enjoy that memory. It also meant there were close to no lines for the day, because we weren’t left waiting on people to get said perfect photo. I say that, but I am also really disappointed I wasn’t allowed to take the photos to upload them here, because the exhibitions were very impressive.
When we initially entered, we were directed to a lady sitting behind a desk, who took our ticket, and then gave us back a map and a section of film from one of the Ghibli movies! We are yet to work out which ones we got though, we might have to do some digging. With our awesome tickets in hand we went into the first room, which really focussed on the animation process. I was most impressed by one display they had, were they had models of a few characters, each in a different pose that they would hold in each frame of animation. They had them lined up in circles with lights off. They then started spinning in those circles, and you could see each character being spun, but the next step was turning on a strobe light as they were spinning, so it looked as it would on moving film! Each character was either jumping up and down, skipping rope, or flying. It was a really really cool thing to watch.
Along with our entry, we were also able to view a short film that was not released to the public. So as soon as we were done exploring the animation techniques, we headed straight over to the small cinema. The short film was following a character who appeared in My Neighbour Totoro, Mei, who discovered a creature who was initially in the form of a mini tornado, but later took the form of the iconic ‘Cat Bus’. She gave this baby Cat Bus a caramel chew, and he ran away. He returned later that night to take her on her own little adventure, where she runs into her old friend Totoro, and also meats what we dubbed at ‘Mega CatBus’, and gives him a caramel chew as well. A very cute short film.
As soon as that was over, we were free to explore all the little nooks and crannies that make up the Ghibli Museum. We came across a very small entrance way (you had to duck to get in), which lead you to a tiny tiny winding staircase. Having to watch our heads since the ceiling was so short, we climbed, and climbed, and climbed until we got to an open area, which lead to an even smaller archway. Once through there, there were adult sized stairs leading to the top floor, which had a large play area for small children. The room had a huge Cat Bus character in the centre, which the children could climb all over and inside of, as well as a mound of Soot Gremlins to throw at each other. I haven’t wanted to be a kid again so much in a very long time! Looked like a load of fun!
There was pretty much a route laid out for us, so following that we next came across a few rooms that were staged to look like Miyazaki’s studio workshop. It was brilliantly made up, with sketches absolutely everywhere. Each of the characters little scribbles, laying out where they would be and how they would stand. The more Drew and I studied the sketches, the less sure we were of if they were replicas or not! It doesn’t sound like very much, but when you’re in there, there are just so many things to look at and find hidden amongst the props and exhibitions. We were in there for about 2.5 hours, when we decided to make our way towards Akihabara.
Akihabara is known to be one of the Nerd Havens in Japan. With so many shops holding so many things, it reminded me a lot of Nakano Broadway, only open to the air, and a little more expensive. Aki holds a lot more than Broadway, so we did find a few little things that we had been looking for. Some more things to find space for in the suitcase!
Speaking of which, we are now sitting in the hotel, bags nearly ready to go, bar the clothes we are wearing, just waiting for the others to get home to head out for our last meal together in Japan! I am going to miss this place like crazy. There is so much here that makes me want to stay! The people are amazing, the infrastructure is great, the public transport makes sense, and everything is so clean! Drew has always wanted to teach over here, and I’m starting to think that that would be an amazing idea.