Ghibli Museum Field Trip
By Tomoyo

Today, in order to learn more about Japanese anime, the Adventures in Tokyo group visited the Ghibli Museum near Mitaka station.  The museum featured all of Miyazaki Hayao's movies (including My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Castle in the Sky) and some of Pixar's production.  The museum seemed more like a wonderful playground than a museum with its unique spiral staircases, low entrances and doors, antique looking elevators, and countless displays of Miyazaki and Pixar's animation.  The huge bigger-than-life size neko-bus (cat bus) stuffed animal from the movie, My Neighbor Totoro, was a favorite attraction among all the children.  The children couldn't get enough of bouncing, diving, climbing, and sliding up and down the huge stuffed animal.  The children also climbed up to the roof of the museum to look at the huge replicas of the robots and stones from the movie, Castle in the Sky.  Some other attractions of the museum included a theater, where the children watched three short Pixar movies, several picture galleries, a replica of Miyazaki Hayao's studio, and a fascinating machine that spun a row of sedentary miniature sculptures in a circular motion so fast that made the sculptures like they were moving. Project output is here.