Unfortunately, I’m the kind of person who will go literally berserk upon encountering crappy internet connection. It makes me want to cry. It infuriates me more than to cry. Lord knows how far I’ve forced my patience into having to wait minutes for every darned Google search— and he knows that I’m not patient, too. He’d know how fed up I was to the point of postponing this project for days over the deadline because I couldn’t get over how bad the Wi-Fi was is (and I still haven’t).
I feel guilty though, because I’m supposed to be happy. I mean, I’m about to recount my experience of one of the world’s most whimsical museums. It’s the kind of place that’s supposed to pull out your inner child and make you forget all about the horrors of the world; I did, in fact, forget all the horrors of the world during the several hours I spent visiting and marveling over the artworks in the museum. It made me wonder just how thin is the line between an art museum and an art gallery. If I hadn’t searched it up, I wouldn’t have thought that there was any difference at all.
“Typically, a gallery displays artwork for a limited time before offering it for sale. “Art museums are public institutions that house and protect artwork for public appreciation, education, and scholarship.”
—[How to Differentiate an Art Gallery From an Art Museum](https://mayagallery.com/art-gallery-vs-art-museum/#:~:text=Typically%2C a gallery displays artwork,appreciation%2C education%2C and scholarship.), Maya Gallery
Have you ever watched anime? Of course, you have. Everyone has. Have you ever watched a Ghibli anime though? If you haven’t, then you should at least start watching one movie before Hayao Miyazaki dies for good— one of Studio Ghibli‘s best filmmakers. He’s a very old man and an indecisive one at that. At his old age of 83 years old, he’d already attempted to retire multiple times, at least three times to date, only to barge his way back into the studio every time because he’s like, “Oh, never mind. I got a new movie idea!” Legends say he’s actually an immortal vampire who’s planning to use the remaining of his lifespan to write movies for kids, probably to redeem his sinful deeds in the past of consuming human blood.
No, I’m joking. Literally, nobody has ever said that. I just made that up. Good news though: No one’s actually complaining that he’s never retiring for good. That man’s got an irreplaceable talent. Not only would Studio Ghibli, but Japan itself would lose a lot if he were to stop making movies entirely— whether it be because of death or retirement.
Second good news: Thanks to the old man, I’ve got an interesting museum to visit. The Ghibli Museum.
The Ghibli Museum (Japanese: 三鷹の森ジブリ美術館, Mitaka no Mori Jiburi Bijutsukan, Mitaka Forest Ghibli Museum) is a museum showcasing the work of the Japanese animation studio, Studio Ghibli. It is located in Inokashira Park in Mitaka, a western city of Tokyo, Japan. The museum combines features of a children's museum, a technology museum, and a fine arts museum, and is dedicated to the art and technique of animation. Features include a replica of the Catbus from My Neighbor Totoro (1988), a café, a bookstore, a rooftop garden, and a theater for exclusive short films by Studio Ghibli. Did I copy-paste this paragraph straight from Wikipedia? Yes, I did. I’m assuming that plagiarism shouldn’t be the biggest no-no with this assignment when all my job’s here just to recount my time in a museum.
Directional map on how to get to the Ghibli Museum, sourced from its official site, Hours and Directions.
Layout of Ghibli Museum.
It's safe to say that I don’t actually understand more than 75% of the contents from both maps above. When I was handed the brochures, pamphlets, and other paper-stuff referencing anything about the museum or Ghibli anime in general, I wished at that moment that I could just pull out some of my ex-classmates from thin air and make them translate stuff for me. I don’t care if they don’t actually speak Japanese, I’m gonna make them do it for me anyway (I think it’s just an excuse I’m trying to make to have them around again because I miss them very much). As I walked past Totoro’s Reception and into the lift, my mind couldn’t help but wonder just to what extent do some of my friends understand Japanese. Yes, this is the recount of my experience in the museum, or rather a very detailed log of my train of thought during the event. I’m a very easily distracted girl, you see. Mayumi, Misaki, Ryou, and Natsumi— is it wrong for me to automatically assume that they understand Japanese to a certain extent just because they have Japanese names? I mean, surely, they’re also Japanese by blood. Am I just overthinking it? Maybe. Probably. Or maybe not at all.
I decided to push these thoughts away, however, as I set my mind to try and fully immerse myself in the Ghibli experience. The truth was that I’d only ever watched one Ghibli movie in my whole life— and it was so long ago that any memory pertaining to this movie is all but blurry and chaotic. But for some reason, it seemed to stick with me so well that I might as well call it one of my core memories. I remember parents turning into pigs, and a weirdly masked ghost, and an ugly grandma with a giant nose, and a white-clothed boy with his equally white-coated dragon. It all felt like a fever dream, really, until I searched it up a few years ago and realized that I wasn’t hallucinating the whole thing after all and that it was, in fact, an actual movie and not a figment of my imagination.
It’s No-Face! From the iconic train scene!!
Obviously, I was very happy to finally meet the “weirdly masked ghost” in real life—the man of my dreams—or, more specifically, the very image that has been haunting my mind ever since my early childhood. Apparently, his name is actually No-Face, or Kaonashi (Japanese: 顔無し, Kaonashi, Faceless) if you want to take the more original approach, and in case you haven’t realized or searched it up yourself, he’s from this movie called Spirited Away, which tells the story of a ten-year-old girl who, while moving to a new neighborhood, inadvertently enters the world of spirits in Japanese folklore. To put it simply, it felt as if I was stepping back into the imaginative world of my younger self, like revisiting an old life that I should’ve left behind long ago. Of course, it’s just nostalgia, but I’m a sucker for being sentimental. The funniest worst part was that I’ve seriously only ever watched one Ghibli movie in my entire life, so most of the other referencing exhibitions just flew over my head. Oops, my bad.
—Except I kind of decided before my trip to Japan that I wouldn’t watch the other movies. I mean, I’m sure that Ghibli’s a great studio that produces equally great films, I really do, but I also feel like the feeling of confusion upon entering the museum would be better than the feeling of satisfaction after understanding each and every movie reference presented in front of my face. I know it’s not preferable for most people, but I personally love an element of surprise (or maybe this is just another one of my excuses to be a lazy bum and not binge-watch the movies). I mean, I could just watch them eventually when I reach home with a pirated site, so it’s no biggie either.
Anyway, that should be it for my recount text. I’d give this museum a good rating, although no specific score, and I’d recommend bringing in young kids here. Yeah, maybe watch a movie or two and not repeat my mistake.