Ghibli Museum Mitaka, Mitaka

Only make the trip to the museum and go through the stress of getting advance tickets if you are a massive Ghibli fan and got enough time to spare while in Tokyo! I absolutely love the Ghibli movies, but in hindsight this place was a bit of a let-down. The exterior of the building is in desperate need of a makeover. Looks like it hasn't been cleaned or repainted since they first opened back in 2001. The interior of the museum is beautifully designed however, with lots of attention to detail and feels very cozy. That being said and despite visitor numbers being limited, some exhibition spaces felt very crammed and crowded. No English signs or explanations anywhere throughout the place, despite a certain amount of tickets being sold to overseas tourists. Couldn’t even use Google Translate as no one is allowed to film or take photos inside. Only being able to guess what we were looking at made this a very compromised experience. Not even the short film shown in their theatre had any subtitles. Their gift shop and cafe are both grossly overpriced and the cafe is unable to accommodate for the amount of visitors. We didn’t fancy waiting 30 minutes in line just to grab something to drink and decided not to bother. Still keeping my hopes up for their new theme park outside Nagoya.

As magical as ever. There’s absolutely no other place like it. Unfortunately you can’t take pictures inside (including the cafe), but it’s still worth it nonetheless. The food is quite good, though it was less movie themed than it had been a few years ago, which was a little disappointing. I had a couple wonderful interactions with the staff in the shop. They were really helpful and super sweet and truly improved my experience there. I walk into the Ghibli Museum and my stress and worries just melt away.