Japan Day 13 - Part One

So day 13 was Ben's day and he'd arranged a Studio Ghibli tour, let me start by saying this tour was whack! We got a train from our hotel to a hotel in Shinjuku, got picked up by a tour guide who hailed a cab so we could meet another tour guide at a bus depot and then this tour guide, traveled with us on a train where we had to travel back past Shinjuku in order to finally get to the studio ghibli museum...if you followed that you're amazing, if you didn't don't worry, neither did I!

So anyway before our tour we decided to make use of our time in Shinjuku and hit up the metro building that offers the best views of Tokyo for free. I was a sucker last time I traveled to Japan and paid for the privilege :P BAH, don't pay, go to the metro building :)

Early morning view of Tokyo!

So we then went to a swanky hotel to meet what we thought was our guide for the day

If was a nice nostalgic moment for me because this was the very first place I stayed in Tokyo, all those moons ago! Nothing like feeling rich, on company's money!

50 dollar cab fare later and we're at the bus depot thinking we're about to hop on one of those big fancy tour buses, decked out with studio ghibli nerds, but no, we get dumped by our first tour guide to find ourselves sitting around waiting to meet our next one... turns out we were the only peeps on the tour too!

We all know how this story ends, a few train rides later and we arrive in Mitaka City

we hop on the studio ghibli public bus

And literally travel a few metres down the road to the museum :)

The way our tour guide was selling the museum to us, was that we would literally get lost in the museum as there are many trick passageways and that the map provided upon entry is all false...intrigued...we walked in and she tells us to go to the fake entry cause totoro wants to sell us tickets :P

As much as I was a horrible girlfriend and told Ben way too many times he got ripped off, our actual tour lady was pretty cute and made the museum more interesting

You're not actually allowed to take photos inside the museum, boo to you ghibli 

*thumbs down* so I'll just share the ones we took outside

despite not being able to take photos inside, Ben and I did rebel, until I suggested Ben go super sleuth and hide his camera behind his mask to take photos...that was a pretty stupid suggestion and security came and chased us away. And by chased I mean casually walk over and we ran away, or maybe I ran away :P

We did get this sneaky shot though! They had lots of pretty dioramas set up...

has definitely inspired me to make my own!

So what exactly was inside the museum, not a lot and I feel "getting lost inside" might have been a bit of an exaggeration, but what there was, was of awesome quality. 

There was a room full of various animation contraptions, there was another room full of their hand painted background scenes *dies*,  there was a little cinemas where we got to watch a short film, there was..... mmmmm, not too much more, lol

I was incredibly inspired though and came away with a whole new appreciation for ghibli! Our tour guide also said something interesting, that they start the story telling process first by the backgrounds and then they add the written word, which to me totally explains why there stories are always so whack but so pretty!

So after our wandering, where we definitely spent more time getting to the museum then at the museum

We hoped back on the train and headed back to shinjuku

I couldn't resist snapping this shot on the train, this guy with chains and tatts carrying a cute deer bag! Ahh Japan how I love thee!

We said our goodbyes to the tour lady and decided to walk back to shinjuku and check out the observatory again...sunset shot over Tokyo perhaps!

I got myself a cute panda snack!

hung out with some ladybugs

wandered through the park and then back to the metro building!

Stay tuned for part two