Today we took the train to Mitaka and went to the Hayao Miyazaki - Studio Ghibli Museum. Miyazaki is Japan's Walt Disney. He is the Academy Award winning director behind "My Neighbor Totoro," "Kiki's Delivery Service," "Spirited Away," and "Princess Mononoke" (and many others). If you haven't watched his movies please do yourself a favor and rent some; they are readily available in the U.S. (but PLEASE keep the audio track on the original Japanese and read the subtitles - none of that English dubbed crap). I have seen all his movies and they are all wonderful. I especially like "Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi" (Spirited Away) and "Hotaru no Haka" (Grave of the Fireflies). But really, how can you not like them all? I apologize for the lack of pictures, there was no photography allowed in the museum building.
The museum was neat. It was very kid-friendly. There was a giant neko-bus (cat bus from the movie Totoro) that kids could climb on. There was also a kids book store and lots of hands-on items. The museum was innovative in that there were several rooms that were recreation of Miyazaki's workshop or Studio Ghibli - so you could literally walk into the place where they create the movie. There was a lot of art on the walls and you could see Miyazaki's original character designs and storyboards for his different movies.
There was a movie theater in the museum and we watched a short created especially for the museum entitled "Yado Sagashi" (Searching for Somewhere to Stay). This short had all of Miyazaki's trademarks. It was unique in that all the movie's music, sound, and voices were done by humans in a comical manner.
There were some indoor exhibits in the museum on Miyazaki's movie "Heidi of the Alps" and on his general styles as an animator. All in all I enjoyed the museum a lot.
After that we went to a small hole-in-the-wall basement shop for udon and soba in Mitaka. Mitaka had the most pharmacies of any place I have ever been. Mitaka was also nice because it was the first suburb we had been to since arriving in Japan. It's nice to be in a place that isn't SO crowded and see where real people actually live. After lunch we took the train to Shinjuku. We peeked into different shops - I didn't buy anything - I had already made my purchase for the day; a Studio Ghibli fudabako (pen case).
We soon went back to the hotel because my mom's feet hurt a lot and Roger's back hurt a lot. Then they promptly both fell asleep and started their snoring symphony - I started blogging with earplugs. I keep eating natto rolls from Sunkus and I feel like a million yen everyday. Natto is the fountain of youth. Natto wa kenkou no tame ni sugoku ii - seisyun no izumi da yo.
Till tomorrow,
B.E.W.
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