Japan Trip Day 3 - Museum Ghibli and Totoro Cream Puff!

This was the main reason I insisted of going to go to Japan, even going through months and plenty of calls to convince my mom to join me. :)

You can browse the Museum Ghibli website to find some useful information beforehand.

I have read Anna The Red's blog that you have to book the tickets beforehand. She has the most amazing experience at Museum Ghibli; read all about it in her blog. It will just make you smile :)

I almost wanted to cry when the JTB agent (where I bought all my tickets) said the Ghibli website was down and he couldn't book the tickets. He called in to the office and got the date confirmed, but there were no tickets yet. Another way is to buy the tickets at Lawson (a convenience store in Japan), but I don't want to take risk for many reasons. A week plus later he finally called me and said that I could finally got the tickets on hand. Yay!

Haha, I think I bugged Snowfern a lot about it. Xp

We took the JR Yamanote line from Ikebukuro to Shinjuku and change to JR Chuo Line to Mitaka. There is bus available to the museum, but I wanted to walk along the "Kaze no sanpo michi". There was a policeman who saw me holding maps and my Totoro hat, so he helped to show the way (even though he can't speak English). So nice of him :)

this was more or less the distance that we have to walk

footprint

we are getting closer! :)

totoro and makkurokurosuke

look at the long queue!

At first my mom kept on complaining because her friend kept telling here that we cannot take photos at all and there were not much too see. But I practice the deaf ear to her nagging. It proved her wrong anyway!

Everything inside the museum are magical! I explained to my mom few of the scenes from the movies that I know. We did explore the whole museum and we went a little bit loose on the shop, even my mom who never knew who Totoro was before going into the museum! XD

My loots from the shop (I think I mixed in few from other shops as well, I forgot). I do covet the Totoro jewelries; if only they weren't priced ¥12.000++ for each! T_T

They also have cute totoro plates and mugs, but I don't want to worry about carrying it home and I would never use it anyway. Maybe I'll change my mind the next time I come back. ;)

I haven't opened the package yet

postcards, charms, and stamps

We queued for The Straw Hat Cafe for almost 2 hours. Imagine how hungry we were when we got in. My mom kept joking to me that she would offer her seat for ¥200.000 XD which she took back soon after the foods arrived! Yep, the food was -that- delicious!

the menu

they have collection of children books to keep us busy while queueing,

unfortunately they're all in Japanese

keema curry on brown rice (with surprise!)

my mom loves it so much

beef and veggie soup; just nice to eat in the cold weather

the fluffiest strawberry shortcake ever!

fruit and chocolate parfait

I play "spot-the-totoro" everytime I see the glass window :)

me with the Laputa robot

We left the museum at about 4 p.m. and quickly rushed in to go to Tabata station. I don't exactly remember which train we took, but we arrived anyway. XD

And here is the Totoro Creampuff factory of which I have made the minis few years back.

I was dancing with joy because many have wrote how hard it is to find the place. The shop keeper and one customer were laughing because I kept on screaming totoro and went all over the shop to take photos.

custard cream, chocolate, and chestnut flavor

the cookies; I haven't open the package yet

Continue to Japan Trip Day 4...