Tokyo part 3

Okay so today`s main goal was to get to the studio Ghibli museum. We got a late start and ended up eating at Dennys again and then headed off for mikata. We had to transfere to the Chuo line, which was kind of hard to see on the train map we had, but we went to shibuya, transfered to shinjiku, then got on the chuo line. Some how we did a pretty good job at navigating the train lines here in Tokyo. It was about a mile or so to the studio from the station and we decided to walk, it was a really nice suburbian setting along the way. When we finally got there behind the glass was a giant totoro and a bunch of people taking their picture with it. It turned out that we needed to wait until 2pm because they let people in at increments at a time. So we walked around the nice park that was nearby while we waited. The museum wasn`t incredibly huge but was like a really rich person`s house. The whole thing had the miyazaki magical vibe about it. They had one room that was about like the old ways of animation and they had these figures that were the same character but slightly diffrent poses and they spun with the strob light and it looked like they were all moving, very cool. They also had a fake, over the top, old time projector. Like its not how projectors worked back then but it was kind of like a magical way of thinking about it with film being stretched back and forth left and right all over the place. We also a room that was dedicated to the animation process. It had original story boards from movies, original cells, and lots of charts on how cell animation was done. It really make you appreciate the old way of animation, it again just made it feel some how magical. We also got to watch a short film about the kitten bus. The cat bus was a major character in totoro and this was its son. Its a really weird character design. Its a cat with 6 legs, you can get inside of it, its eyes become head lights, and it can turn into the wind if it wants to. This was the first time Erin had seen any studio Ghibli stuff and was pretty freaked out. They also had a cat bus playground thing for little kids and an over priced gift shop.

It started to rain when we got out so we took the bus back and then we ate some cheap donburi place. Then we began our quest for the square enix store. This is where we started to get on each other`s throat. As it turns out square enix store is in shinjiku, NOT shibuya. Both me and Emily looked up the stores location but neither of us could get solid information about how to get to there. Assuming it was in shibuya I was pretty sure we had to go one way but other people thought we needed to go another. It wasn`t until we boared the wrong train that we found out how off we were. We both admitted fault for that then headed back. Becuase we tried to exit the same station we bought the ticket at, the machine wouldn`t take it. Pac some how managed to get pass the gates before the closed but the three of us had to try and explain what happened to the clerk. Thank goodness we spoke Japanese because this guy was so confused as to what we had done.

It started to really pour down at this point and Emily and Erin still wanted to do some shopping. So we got umbrellas and crossed that world famous intersection then headed up a little bit. Me and Pac whent to Tower records while those two were close shopping. We then got some food, rested up, then made the long trip back. I some how managed to get all of my stuff into the bigger suitcase and hopefully emily will help me out and put here three bags into my smaller suitcase and use that one.

got the night bus to look forward to still!