Ghibli Once, Ghibli Twice, Eating Tempura and Rice

Yes, I know I went to the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Tokyo, the other day, but I couldn't resist the opportunity to go and see the new (indeed only partly finished) Ghibli Park near Nagoya, too, since it was 'on my way', more or less, from Odawara to Kyoto. (The makes it sound like a casual, spur-of-the-moment decision, but in fact snagging the tickets had required a degree of cunning, forward planning, and Japanese language skills.)

The first thing to say is that Ghibli Park is big - or rather, that it's spread over a large area, comprised of the Expo 2005 Aichi Commemorative Park. So far, the main attraction (and the one I had a ticket to) is the Ghibli Grand Warehouse, but eventually it will consist of zones built to resemble the milieux of various films. A couple have already been built - for example, Whisper of the Heart (pictured) and My Neighbour Totoro, but it's very much a work in progress.



The other thing that's different is that in Aichi, unlike Mitaka, photographs are allowed (with some exceptions). Indeed, the place seemed to be set up for photo opportunities in some respects. Here, for example, are a few scenes from the Arrietty section, where you too can see things from a Borrower's point of view. (Generally I try to exclude people from my photographs, but in this case I left one or two blurry ones in for scale.)



For all the money they spent on this, however, I was surprised that Ghibli didn't invest just a little extra in checking the English translations of their signs. The Japanese here reads "The House Under the Floor", alluding to the Japanese title of The Borrowers, The Little People Under the Floor. Would it have been so hard to look up 床 in a dictionary?



Anyway, there were lots of fun things to see, including replicas of (e.g.) Yubaba's office and the Philosophy Club from From Up On Poppy Hill. There was even a catbus, which (unlike the one in Mitaka) was open to adults to enter - somewhat uncanonically, but who's complaining?



As I was wandering around randomly, I came across a doorway marked おしまい (oshimai), which for some reason I absentmindedly read as "sisters" (which it admittedly can mean) rather than "exit" (which in context it obviously did mean). Intrigued, and thinking I might find something related to Mei and Satsuki, I wandered in, and found a series of rooms set up for visitors to pose in iconic scenes from various films. This was really the highlight of the place, or would have been if I'd had someone with me to photograph. As it was, though, I did get to catch Shita from Castle in the Sky, thanks to a kind fellow visitor:



It was only when I got to the very last room (which was actually the first), containing the train from Spirited Away and a chance to cuddle up to No Face, that I realised my mistake and that I'd inadvertently jumped a forty-minute queue of Japanese people waiting patiently without. I was of course duly abashed, though after all my torii-gate queueing of the day before I might have skipped it otherwise. "May one be pardon'd and retain the offence?" In the age of digital photography, the answer is Yes.

Oh yeah, to justify my title, here's the tempura and rice I had yesterday in Nishiki Market - but in between were visits to Nara and Fushimi Inari Taisha, and they will have to wait a little.