We woke up this morning to find that it was very cloudy outside, which, unfortunately, turned to a pretty steady rain for the rest of the day. Nevertheless we headed out to the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka.
We got a bit of a later start than expected, but it wasn't too bad. Minus one minor mistake on the trains to the museum (which consisted of the train we were riding on stopping and then starting back in the direction in which it came. doh!). After arriving in Mitaka, it was about a half-mile walk to the Museum. But getting there was very easy. There were plenty of signs pointing the way, like this one:
After about a 10 or 15 minute walk, we arrived at the museum, probably around 10:30 am.
At the front gate, Totoro was taking tickets. Ok. Well, maybe not. But he was there in the front window.
Although the museum itself was smaller than I expected it to be, it was still very cool to check out. Lots of little displays on animation, Miyazaki, and the Ghibli characters. Including everything from small displays of characters in motion, to sketch books you could thumb thru, to full size models of some of Miyazaki's flying machines.
The ticket to get in is very neat as well. Mine was a 3 cells of film from Kiki's.
On the roof of the museum is the giant robot from Laputa. Since we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the museum, I made up for it with lots of pictures of the statue. ^_^
On the walk back to the station from the museum, it seemed like the rain picked up even more. But, it was still a pretty area. Nice and quiet compared to the hustle and bustle of Tokyo.
Nevertheless, we headed back to Akihabara for more shopping. By the time we were done, it was about 4pm. So, we headed back to the hotel to drop off the stuff we bought.
We were hoping to meet Fumika today, but unfortunately she got off work late and was feeling pretty sick, so we weren't able to. The plans are to meet up with her sometime on our return trip thru Tokyo.
So, instead, we grabbed dinner at the ramen shop across the street from the hotel. It was approximately 7 or 8 pm by this point. We were planning on going out and checking out Roppongi, but the weather was still pretty dreary (i.e. still raining and cold), so we just settled in at the hotel and checked out some Japanese TV. Tomorrow it's off to Hakone and our stay at the ryokan. I'm looking forward to that.
