|
12-5-02
Today was the day that I have been waiting for, the trip to the Ghilbi museum. I got up cleaned and since I got less than 8 hours of sleep last night i was rather tired. I woofed down my breakfast and I double checked where I had to get off at Mitaka, so I asked Shiori. I figured out that I only need to take the Tozai line until the very end, thanks to Ann lending me money the previous day I was able to afford the transportation costs. I left about an hour before I the museum opended. It took a half an hour to get there and then it took about a half an hour of being lost in Mitaka to find the place. The signs pointed in one direction while my map said different. I tried to just take in the area for the moment because I knew that Hayao Miyazaki would have been extremely particular about what place he would have choose. Finally after a half an hour of wandering I figured out that the museum was in the park. Once I arrived there was all ready a line of approximately 20 people atleast. Once I entered the woman asked me in English if Japanese was bad, so I received the brochure that had about 4 different languages. They took my Lawsons ticket in exchange for a Ghilbi ticket that was from Whispers of the Heart, naturally I was happy. I opened up my brochure and noticed the main theme of the place "Let's get lost together" the place was designed to have no set place of how one is suppose to explore the museum. Naturally I went into the first room on my right. In here they seemed to explore different aspects of animation, and they had this display of Totoro that had a bunch of these models that were slightly different and as they revolved around in a circle with a strobe light to give the effect of animation. Anyway I decided that it would be best to start at the top and work my way down. I went outside and climbed all of the way up to the top to see the huge robot from Laputa. Since it had rained the previous day it was all muddy out, and after I took a few pictures with the giant robot, I decided to explore the area and I saw the box from Laputa as well. After I did my sneakers were sooooo muddy, so I tried to wipe them off as best I could. They was this water fountain at the bottom of the stairs, so I assumed because it had this lever on the side that if i pushed it maybe water came out of the side, no, rather it had pretty songs. So I decided to go find a bathroom and clean off. I walked passed the huge cat bus and sighed at the fact that I could not go in it, only for kids. When into the bathroom and everything was very Miyazaki as well as very pretty. Even the soap was pretty! I tried to clean off my shoes as best possible, but I ended up leaving a mess in the bathroom and they still contained lots of dirt. Oh well I tried my best, so I decided to continue to look around. The third floor had a souvenir shop, but i was not completely impressed with the merchandise since most of it was from Totoro and Sen to Chiro, and here I was hoping that they would have more Whispers of the Heart stuff as well Nauiscaa. So I looked around and noticed that I have seen more merchandise at other places. So I continued to look around and I looked at the cell gallery and how much they were selling them for, ouch. The second floor was by far my favorite floor since in this one room they had all of his artwork posted up like he just ripped it out of his stetch book and tacted it on the board. I was so impressed with his little drawing and kicked myself for not having the ability to be that dedicated. In the one room it was dedicated to airplanes and they had this video on how Miyazaki studied this bird "airplane" to animate in Laputa. It was very cool and then after I was done on the second floor I went down to the first floor to see the fifteen minute animation made only to be shown in the Ghibli museum. I was the only foreigner at the museum.... Anyway I waited and I must say that this animation was VERY trippy. It was about the little girl Mae from Totoro and how she catches/befriends a baby catbus. For some reason Mae seems to want to give everyone/everything the candy that she has, even the huge catbus that had more than 200 freaky totoro's in it. Anyway, I don't think even if I understood more Japanese that it would make any more sense. I felt that room and decided to have another look around, and then I headed back to the sounveir shop and I was only going to buy a totoro cup when I saw the baron *sigh* I think I sat there for 20 minutes conflicted with the notion that I would be spending more money. It wasn't cheap, but i am glad that I bought it since it means something to me. Anyway I bought my friend a fuzzy totoro and I left that store. I went down to go eat at the cafe with what little money that I had left, but I noticed that the lunch room was full and they were only serving desserts, so I decided that I was tired after being there for four and a half hours. I headed back, and I had an easier time finding my way back, and I went back to the dorm and I was dying to show Ann what I bought. I went on the computer to type up a few things and then I went into the dinning room and I was talking to Shiori, and I told her that I had been waiting for Ann to come home, and she said, "oh well Ann is home." So I ran up to Ann's room and displayed all of my new goods. Later Jai Lee came into my room and she did not understand my fascination with the baron, oh well. Well after a long day of walking, time for bed. I felt really bad about spending soooo much money in the past week, so it took me a long time to get to sleep enough I tried to get to bed early.
|
