Day 4: Ghibli, and on to Hakone

Our first experience of the takuhaibin (luggage forwarding) - all suitcases dispatched to the hotel in Kyoto -allowed us to proceed with only backpacks to the Studio Ghibli museum near the JR Mikita station today.

Tickets please

Mikita is a pretty suburb of Tokyo some 40 minutes from our hotel, and the weather today is just about perfect. A 15 minute walk from the JR station before we reach Kichijoji Avenue, in the shade of the tall green trees of Mitaka's Inokashira Park in which the museum is situated, and look who is here to greet us at the ticket booth.


The museum is set in a rambling house, and feels like a set from a Miyazaki film, all organised clutter. We collect our tickets (pleasingly, made of 35mm film cells from Ghibli productions - I get one from Spirited Away, much to my satisfaction), and make our way down a staircase lined with stained glass windows depicting ghibli designs.

There's a fascinating room full of working animations, from short films to the most extraordinary 3-D stroboscopic animation I've ever seen. Then we go to the Saturn Theatre to see today's short film presentation The Whale Hunt (fortunately this whale hunt is unlikely to draw the ire of Greenpeace!).

Ghibli Beer!

After that, lunch at the Ghibli cafe (with, for once, American-size portions of fried pork cutlet sandwiches and some excellent Ghibli beer - take that Disney!), then back to the museum to check out the terrific recreation of Miyaziki's work room (complete with realistic looking cigarette butts) with lots of truly wonderful original drawings. If only I could take a few away with me.

Outside the museum are some beautiful gardens (these are becoming a running theme during our trip to Japan), and there's always a chance you might bump into a character from one of the films.

Garden Character

A visit to the museum shop results in the acquisition of one mini totoro and one cat bus, plus some lovely postcards depicting scenes from My Neighbour Totoro, a charming origami kit for Totoros and cat buses, and several beautiful books.

Time for an ice cream, then a walk back to Mikita station (we speculate as to why the road surface has been made sparkly near junctions), and on to Shinjuku station via the JR Chou line to take the JR Yamanote line to Shinagawa station.

From here we took our first Shinkansen (bullet train) to Odawara; very long platform (the trains are very long), with demarcated places for queueing for each car, and Japanese people queue very properly both here and on the Tokyo Metro and other train stations.

Our Empty Shinkansen

Our Shinkansen arrives precisely on time (trains in Japan approach Swiss levels of punctuality), our carriage empty except for us; as so often in Japan things come in fives (5 seats across the train), very appropriate for us. All the staff on board bow as they enter the carriage, and bow again on leaving; getting rid of the reflex bow is something it will take us some time to do even after we've returned to England. We get off at Odawara.

At Odawara we got the bus for Hakone; we missed our stop and had to get another bus back in the opposite direction - fortunately again Inside Japan had supplied us with a 2 day bus pass and the buses run very regularly, so this was neither a long nor an expensive detour.

Family Time, Ryokan style

The main Hakone road is narrow and twisting, and many of the buildings are set away from the road on stone staircases up the hill behind the trees, so we had to find the correct staircase, but a very friendly local pointed in the right direction to the Ichinoyu Shinkan; our first taste of a traditional Japanese ryokan.

Do I dare to drink a...

The rooms are simple but beautiful, with tatami matting. Shoes are taken off at the door, and special shoes are provided for walking around the ryokan (but not on the tatami matting; that's barefoot or socks only). There are special plastic shoes for use in the toilet (Japanese toilets are always separate from the bathroom). Green tea and biscuits/buns are provided in our rooms, and there is a hot bath outside on the balcony of each room.

I acquire a taste for Japanese vending machine drinks here - there's rather a good grapefruit one (with bits), and also a mysterious one which I take to be peach.


Rachel and the children decide to dress in traditional yukata for dinner. I can't get into mine and am too shy to ask for larger one.




Dinner at the ryokan is lovely; many courses (fish, rice, pickled Ume plums, tofu etc.), all beautifully presented, washed down by several refreshing cold beers.



Back to our rooms for some well-earned rest, and I have some companions to watch over me while I sleep.