Nestled inside the lush greenery of Inokashira Park, the Ghibli Museum awaits to welcome you into its unusual doors. Totoro mans the (fake) ticket gate and there are a number of little soot sprites watching you through the little porthole windows too.
The greenery from the park doesn’t stop at the gates, and it completely covers some of the walls of the buildings too, making it seem like nature has found its way back somewhat. This seems like the perfect representation of Miyazaki’s films; as does the colourful paintwork and the curved doors and windows. You really feel like you’ve stepped inside one of Miyazaki’s films when you come here and it’s honestly perfect. Just an FYI, photographs are forbidden inside the museum itself, but you can take them outside.
After collecting your tickets (everyone gets part of a 35mm film reel of one of Ghibli’s films framed by their cardboard ticket) you wander down the stairs flanked by stained glass windows with imagery of characters you’ll most definitely recognise.
I don’t want to spoil what you get to see inside in too much detail, considering no photos are allowed, so I’ll just give a little summary. The museum feels like you’re stepping inside a large house with each room filled with exhibitions of different kinds. There’s a room filled with examples of animation tools and techniques; an area designed to look like the rooms where the illustrators work, with walls plastered in inspiration, sketches and artwork; a gallery space currently showcasing stills from The Boy and the Heron (this is a special exhibition space and changes every 6 months); and a room with a huge cat bus to play on, but sadly that’s for children only.
The building itself is light and airy with a grand wooden staircase and then a fun metal spiral staircase too that you can only use to go up! In some ways the building reminded me of the Grand Warehouse at Ghibli Park, but on a far more intimate scale. Up another spiral staircase, the little roof garden is guarded by the robot soldier from ‘Castle in the Sky’ and it’s a lovely place to wander when the weather is nice. Plus you get a different vantage point of the building and surrounding grounds from up there too.
Within the building there is a book shop (which also sells little illustrations of areas of the museum) and a souvenir shop (this sells some different merchandise to Ghibli Park – but also some the same), and then adjoining is the Straw Hat cafe (this sells refreshments, but they’re not themed to food in the films). There’s also a little patio below the cafe filled with plants and ornaments, where you can find a working hand pump that pumps out cold water.
One of the highlights is the screening room/mini cinema where you can watch a special Ghibli short film. It used to be the only place to see these shorts, but now some of them are available at Ghibli Park too. I was super lucky and was able to see a kind of mini sequel to ‘My Neighbour Totoro’, called ‘Mei and the Baby Cat Bus’. Mei meets a baby cat bus (kitten bus??), they make friends and visit a ghostly forest full of other cat buses of all sizes and ages. I’m so happy I was able to see this one, but any extra Ghibli work I get to see is always a bonus.
I’d wanted to visit the Ghibli museum for years so you can imagine how my heart was beating out of chest when it was time to get tickets. They’re notoriously hard to come by and MUST be booked in advance, but if you’re a fan of Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli’s films then you definitely have to try.
How to buy tickets
Tickets go on sale via the Ghibli Museum website at 10am JST on the 10th of every month for the entire of the subsequent month, so if you want to visit on any date in April, for example, then you need to be online before 10am JST on the 10th of March. Tickets only cost ¥1,000, but they literally fly, so make sure you have options for days and times in case the one you want is sold out. The website is in English, but just be sure to check all of the entry requirements and make sure the person named on the tickets is present when you actually attend. Once you’ve got your tickets, do as I did and do a little happy dance!
How To Get There
You can access Inokashira Park and the Ghibli Museum from either Mitaka or Kichijoji station (both accessible on a direct train line from Shinjuku), but if you go to Kichijoji then you can also visit Shirohige’s Cream Puff Factory for a picnic of Totoro cream puffs and themed biscuits! These aren’t affiliated with the museum, but they’re amazing, and I talked about them in more detail in my character bakeries post.
Ghibli Museum or Ghibli Park?
I just wanted to say that while Ghibli Park (below) is definitely reminiscent of the museum, it’s a completely different experience (size aside). If you’re a fan, I definitely think you should visit both, as you’ll take away very different things from each one. The museum very much focuses on the illustrators’ and film makers’ journeys, showing you books filled with storyboards and sketches, walls covered in illustrations in all their various stages of development, and tools that show you how the layered animation of the Ghibli films were put together. However, the park tries to put you in the films themselves and gives you a way of exploring the films on a grander scale. So you won’t have seen them both just by visiting one.
Before you go, have a read of the ‘This Kind of Museum…’ page on the website, as it’s written by Hayao Miyazaki about the kind of museum he wanted to make and what he didn’t want. It’s lovely and it’ll give you an insight into the type of place you’ll be visiting!
What’s your favourite Ghibli film? Would you want to visit the museum?
More Studio Ghibli Guides
- Visiting Ghibli Park
- Kawaii Character Cafes & Bakeries in Japan
- Marceline’s visit to the Ghibli museum in 2008
- Where To Buy Studio Ghibli Merch
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