Ghibli Museum

The Studio Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Tokyo, isn't just a rehashing of classic Miyazaki films. It offers so much more in terms of never before seen in America shorts. There are flip books of all the shorts, and a movie theatre where I saw the sequel to My Neighbor Totoro called Mei and the Kittenbus. The museum is laid out like a house with rooms that are decorated as if illustrators were only recently occupying them. There are original watercolors and preliminary sketches from all of the movies decorating the walls.

Unfortunately, there is no photography allowed inside. It's understandable, but the museum is so popular that it's hard to get in. Instead of getting just a ticket, I had a reservation to go to the museum at a certain time. There are a lot of great exhibits, original watercolors, and stills from the movies. Your ticket can be exchanged for 3 original frames from one of the Ghibli movies. There was a heavy focus on My Neighbor Totoro, more than any of the other movies. I got two movie posters for future Ghibli movies: one is based on the story of Princess Kaguya, and the other is an adaptation of the children's book Anne of Green Gables. Neither are Miyazaki, but instead are being directed by Takahata, who I recently found out was the producer of Little Nemo in Slumberland.