Day 14 - Tokyo: Ghibli Museum, Akihabara & Mr Pointy

Laputa Guardian statue at Ghibli museum
Originally uploaded by Ginger DJ.

Started the day with breakfast in the ‘Finger’ bar. Cool white interior and swivel stools plus bonus for having cornflakes. However, hotel had no idea of what bowls to use as we resorted to cappuccino shaped cups. Background music grated us within 2 mouthfuls of food playing boring jazz music with ‘be-bop-do-wah’ lyrics. Took the subway across Tokyo heading for the Ghibli museum and got a little confused along the way with trains stopping and Japanese announcements about trains we should have changed. Managed to catch the community bus just in time by legging after it in the pouring rain. A quick queue and presentation of vouchers and we entered the museum. First impressions were of the many floors and windows then the detail of the artwork used to make it so unique. No photos were allowed so even more souvenirs had to be bought. There were 2 or 3 rooms which looked like organised junk rooms full of sketches from past films all beautifully painted plus loads of books, models and objects that influenced the artist’s final, unique look. Elsewhere were rooms dedicated to the moving image on how the art gets transferred to film. There were some interactive demonstrations to play with but were ruined with little sh!ts pushing in and hogging them. Bloody kids, it was a school day and must have been bunking with their parents. Some clever strobe lighting was used to animate many models. The tickets we received at the start, which were segments of actual film reel, were stamped for a short animated film exclusive to the museum. It was about a primary school playtime/make-believe of going to sea and catching a whale. Luckily no harpoons were used and the whale was rather jolly or just relived it wasn’t going to be used for cosmetics and soap. The rain hampered our visit to the outside garden where photos could be taken. Everyone queued up orderly for their photo of the Guardian robot from Laputa: Castle in the Sky then ordered hot dogs from the café which were a bit rank. By 1pm we felt we had seen all we wanted and escaped the swelling crowds of more misbehaving little monsters.

Akihabara or Electric Town was busy with foreigners looking for the latest gismo or best bargain. The guidebook also said there were loads of strange coffee shops with waitresses dressed up as manga characters but we couldn’t find any so resorted to basement café playing more crappy jazz. I was after a digital camera memory card but was disappointed to find them slightly more expensive than the UK. Games and consoles were cheaper but buying the export models looked a bit dodgy. Some unusual I-pod accessories were very common plus cuddly Pikmin toys. Needed to repair my watch strap and being a Japanese watch thought I’d be in the best place for it. Went to the biggest Yodabashi store going which was the size of Harrods but dedicated to electronics. Some English spoken so started off quite promising but it took 7 different staff and 30 minutes to tell me they would need a week to fix it. I was a bit rude and snatched it off the poor guy then stormed off.

Dropped off the shopping at the hotel then explored the local area of Roppongi although the rain hadn’t stopped. Completely OTT but amazing architecture but didn’t really enjoy the minimum clothes shops with maximum pay packet required. That was until we found a design shop where T-shirts, fridge magnets and other goodies were bought. Satisfying our hunger was our next priority and choose a Chinese from a choice of 8 with another 30 other types of restaurant. Bit pricey and noodles and rice didn’t come in plain form so we had to ask. Whether this was to do with our cultural differences of English eating a main dish with a side of something might have something to I don’t know. Service was rubbish as all orders came out randomly so starters were immediately followed by mains. Finally our special order came out last of all about 15 minutes after our main – complete duffers!