Since I was young boy I enjoyed anime movies. Animation has a power to unleash imagination and show things that can’t be shown by the traditional movies. There is one film studio that I admire over all, and I was never disappointed with their creations. Studio Ghibli has many great movies that I think had some impact on the way I am. Films like “Hauro Moving Castle”, “Spirited Away”, “Nausica of the Valley of Wind”, etc are all smart, beautiful and touching. I’ve already seen them a few times, but I will watch them again.
We were both very excited to visit Ghibli Museum. The museum is located next to Inokashira Park and looks magical even from the outside.
When we got to the entrance we were told that everything is in Japanese, and we can’t take any pictures. That was a bit of disappointment but after a while we realized why it’s better to keep your camera in a bag. There are just so many things that you would like to take photos of, that it would be impossible to enjoy the museum.
On the ground floor there is a small cinema and a room with animated props, that we could watch forever. On the second one there is a set of rooms that present and explain phases of movie creation. From sketches, plot creation, gathering information about settings, animals, plants that will be featured in the movie, creating more detailed sketches and painting them… Everything was so beautiful! On the third floor there is a room for kids where they can play with the cat bus from “My neighbour Totoro”. There is also a shop, where you can buy souvenirs. At the roof, there’s a statue of giant robot from the “Laputa - castle in the sky”.
The museum is not big, but it was great to wander around and remind all the movies.
After seeing the museum we went to Yoyogi Park. As today was a national holiday in Japan - “Culture Day” - the park was full of people. There was a major ceremony at the Meiji Jingo shrine, some traditional dancing, ikebana (the way of flowers) exhibition and picnic.
Then we went down to Shibuya, where we met some other friends - Japanese guy married to a Polish girl. We went for a dinner and later spent a good time in the pub.