Studio Ghibli Museum and Akihabara

Today we visited the Studio Ghibli museum in a little town just outside of Tokyo called Mitaka. I couldn't take any pictures in the museum, which is a shame, because it was AMAZING. I want to live in the studio Ghibli museum. Imagine a cross between Alice in Wonderland and a nature conservatory and add some French Provence decor and you basically have the inside of this wonderful building.

Despite the total absence of English words, except in the little info guide we got, the museum was fascinating and informative. It seemed to be an attempt to teach young children about how animation works. Most of the exhibits were interactive, and there were even replicas of artists' workplaces. AWESOME.



Next we visited Akihabara, the electronic district of Tokyo. Despite big hubub from most of teh guidebooks and from my understanding of the Otaku (nerd) culture, it was actually kind of a disappointment. The highlight of your trip: running into a prop replica of Darth Vader in the basement of a department store!