16/3 - Anime Museums

Friday was one of our planned activities from before we arrived in Japan - a visit to the Ghibli Museum. The Ghibli Museum is owned and run by Studio Ghiburi (did I spell that correctly? The curse of not having ready access to the internet and ability to check anything that's required) - these are the guys responsible for the most heart-warming and wonderful animations around. Best known to western audiences are Spirited Away, Howls Moving Castle (all major cinema releases in the west), and Porco Rosso (an SBS favourite), but also responsible for other fantastic films that I recommend to all (even if you don't have kids under the age of 13) such as Tonnari no Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service.

So this place is a bit of a pilgramage location for families with small children...and so we found it.

Once again Matsubara-san came through for us in organising tickets (they were nearly all gone for the whole month several days ago when we bought them) as well as going with us there (its in Mitaka, so just a short bus trip from Kichijoji).

However, before talking about the museum I'd like to mention gomi (rubbish) and recycling as we're experiencing it here, because that was the kids morning adventure. Recycling, and in general the handling of rubbish is much more "extreme" than in oz, with much more expected of each house/person. There are several different categories of recycling items and as an example with plastic items (e.g., the container your obento from the supermarket came in) you are expected to wash it,dry it, and remove any stickers labels on the outside (which go in a separate category). Now, our situation is compounded by the fact that garbage collection and the payment for it is a bottom-up system - collections of a dozen houses or so all organise their rubbish together, putting it out in a single location (on certain days ... And you can't put it out early like the night before because of crows and general untidyness) and paying from a collective fund. Because our house has been empty for sometime, it has not been paying into the garbage fund, but that means we cannot put our garbage out. Now there are some recycling bins at the local shop, and that's what the kids adventure of the morning was, taking plastic bottles and such like down the local supermarket (about 3 blocks away) by themselves (though Maria did go along on her bike shortly after). So we have a kitchen (small as you'd expect) with bags of rubbish in it, and are reduced to asking Keiko to take it away with her and place out with her garbage on the appropriate day.

Anyway, the afternoon was dedicated to the Ghibli Museum (we had 2 O'clock entry tickets). The best way I can create a picture (we weren't allowed to take photos inside) is to think of a mixture of Alice in Wonderland and Hogwarts (from Harry Potter) - multi-stories with an open area spanning all floors, narrow spiraling staircases, bridges from one side to another, little alcoves, interesting images and models all over the place. For the kids the highlight was the Nekko (cat) bus from Tonnari no Tottoro (the most famous of all the movies in Japan). Nearly full-sized they were able to climb all over and through it under supervision... In 5 minute sets. We went back a 2nd time for them to have a play (thankfully this time the line was short), and I can rarely remember a purer smile of sheer joy on Zoe's face. The other physically impressive feature was a full sized bronze robot (from Laputa) on the roof of the building. For me though the most impressive feature were the displays of original artwork (from sketches through to the wonderfully colourful cells) and the environment (and items of inspiration - books on human movement, strange walking sticks, sculptures) that led to their creation.

We returned to Kichijoji in the late afternoon and with Matsubara-san's aid searched out an internet café. What we found was actually what's called a Manga Kissa. Sort of a mix between an internet café, a hotel, and a cinema. You have the choice of various rooms on a hourly rate (with different fees for an extension) - from 250 yen for a basic computer in an open room through to muti-seat rooms with reclining massaging leather couches. The business has a large anime and manga library, as well as a shower (that also needs to be rented) and presents a bit like a slick motel - a kind of reception desk with attendants behind it. Keiko tells me (writing this Saturday night after our dinner together here at the house) that these places are often used by the young working poor who pay to sleep there overnight (prices from 1500 yen - under $17) - not having a place of their own (or apparently possessions).
By then we were at the end of another tiring and cold day and were very thankful for a quite trip to Seiyu to buy various obento and then a lift (rather than 30 minute walk) home with Matsubara-san.