Japan - Tokyo - Day 4

- Sunday, October 4th 2015 -


Today we slept in a little!  Not too much, but our plans didn't start until 10am.  Sporting Studio Ghibli Museum tickets, we made our way out of the usual area we had been spending time in.

We were told to get off the train at Mitaka and walk along the water way for about 15 minutes.  The waterway was lovely, the sidewalk narrow, and it was refreshing to see a more local side of Tokyo.  Less busy, more families, more daily activity.

The path led us through adorable little forests, beyond gates and around ball fields.  Eventually winding around to where a officer was standing and people were beginning to gather.

Photo from Emma

That's about when we saw the Totoro 'welcome' gate! Fans old and young took their turn posing with this adorable booth, Emma nabbing a chance towards the end after making plenty of purchases at the gift shop.


We continued onward around some lovely landscaped architecture.

Even the lamp posts makes me think "Ghibli" doesn't it?  Looks like it could come alive at any minute.  We're able to walk up there, the top of the 'bird cage', but there was a bell ringer who'd come by every once in awhile, drawing attention up there.

Our tickets weren't to let us in until 10, and we'd arrived a bit early so joined the line to get in.

All of the windows had beautiful art in them from all the different movies Miyazaki had done.

Continue after the cut for more ~

Unfortunately there weren't any photos allowed inside of the building.  Lots of interesting film reels playing, sketches everywhere, and Miyazaki's work shop inside.  Emma and I got on all fours and crawled around a maze made for children.  Lots of little details inside of the maze!  Unfortunately we were a little big to play on the Cat Bus giant plush, but it was still cute to see.    I need to watch tales from Earthsea... the most interesting set that was on display was the " Yureito (The Haunted Tower)" tower layout, and the artwork for that.  It was amazing! I really wish he'd animate it, instead of just do artwork and things... I know as soon as I saw the exhibit I wanted to know more about the story.

We had dropped our things off in little lockers down below, which were located to the right of the above picture.

I'd gotten thirsty and the cafe wasn't open yet, so this little wash station also doubled as a water fountain.

Decorated with little cats above the rotating handles, soap dishes up on top, and the entire thing was easily child's level.  Bending down as a full sized adult was a little amusing!

View as we were exiting

Child plays with the well

Emma, after the gift shop

After watching a cute and random mini film, we grabbed our gear and went back to the top of the birdcage to get our pictures with the giant robot that topped the building!

Me! Pic from Emma

After that we headed back to the station with all of our loot to hit Harajuku and find some food!
I didn't really know what to expect, being Sunday at Harajuku...

 

 Trees by the station! It can't be that bad can it?

That's narrower than it looks when it has a flood of people moving through it... Looking up from the station towards the 'exit' of said station...

MASSES! No stopping for a still picture, you'd cause a traffic jam!

  We followed the hordes on towards the actual Harajuku shopping strip.  The masses never stopped, you moved so slowly and it was very difficult to cross so many 'lanes' of traffic.  Still, it was an experience and a ton of fun to check out some of the shops!

This was lunch, well. Not this vendor in particular but crepes.  Delicious, amazing, unhealthy crepes.

I then found an anime store which had things I was actually a fan of.  I spent more money than I intended to that day. Between Ghibli goodies and these things that will be no use to me ever, but I enjoyed.  I really want to know that series on the bottom right...

one of the clothing shops.

 Finishing up Harajuku we headed back towards the station and up the road.  Hitting Meiji Jingu.

People dressed up!

My lovely assistant being forced to pose everywhere.

This shrine was one of the more popular ones we went to, makes sense with Harajuku being RIGHT there and all, a good place to get away from the sea of people and enjoy a refreshing stroll!

Random photos!

Sun started going down.

There was this doll section of the shrine. Prayer dolls or something like that, it spanned walls across walls, so many of them!

Lots of weddings going on at this shrine as well, I snuck some photos of the guests and bride of one of them!

heading back towards the station.  Good long busy day!

pic from emma

Dinner that night was at Kuro Satsuma Dori.  I can't quite recall what we ate, but it was a very enjoyable experience.  We had walked into another establishment and were ignored for nearly ten minutes, so we got up and left and came here.  Where we were greeted while looking at the menu outside. It turned out to be a great decision, the prompt service was lovely! We gave our server some Tablet and got a sweet thank you in return!

Picture from Emma

We bought some candy while there.  Lots of just... sugar things.  One of the candies were orange and lemon hard candies that were super tasty.  These on the other hand were just really neatly shaped chunks of teeth rotting squishy sugar.  I'd hoped they'd had some flavor.

And that concludes yet another day!