Ghibli and Mitaka

Today, we went to Studio Ghibli Museum in Mitaka. We also explored a bit of the surrounding area. One of the staff members at our hostel grew up in the area, so she was able to draw a very detailed map purely from memory.

We are getting close.

The front entrance.

The studio itself didn't allow pictures inside, although I heartily recommend seeing it for yourselves should anyone reading this end up going to Japan. Even if you don't know any of their films, you will want to after going through this museum.

Fortunately, the picture ban only applied inside of it. On top of it, there was a massive statue of a robot from Castle in the Sky. Bram added for scale.

An interesting spiral staircase tower to get up top. It has a wire cage that has ivy growing up it.

There was also a cafe, which is in no way related to One Piece.

The park around the area was also very nice.

There was much to see, and nicest of all, an abundance of shade. Having forgotten my hat today, this became an important selling feature to me.

A kid wearing a chopper hat made entirely out of balloons riding a swan boat. I want to know where I can get something like that.

An outdoor gym. This is fantastic idea, it has sit-up benches, pull-up bars, and a variety of routines posted on the blue boards. Would that we had these in North America.

Some massive koi in the nearby pond. I mean massive. These had to be at least 18" long. And there were tons of them. For some reason, Blogger is loading the picture sideways.

Some ducks flying overhead. I quite liked how this shot came out, as birds are very hard to photograph.

There was also a small shrine nearby. I believe was a shrine to pray for good fortune (wealth). The nerdier among you may see a triforce among its banners. It is actually an old Japanese family crest, and is strongly linked to Shintoism.