OMG this day was so cool! by Alivia Edwards- Friday June 12

Today Tori and I went to the Ghilbi museum. Earlier Tori and I got up at about 1o: 42a or something like that. Well we walked across Shinjuku, to a hotel waiting to be picked up by Hato bus which was full of tourists. A few Brits and a whole lot of Americans. Then we were told that we were being taken to our tour bus. To get to Ghilbi we were guided by our sweet, English speaking tour guide Haruko.

We traveled by JR lines and then the subway, funny thing is, is that we went through Shinjuku station to get to the Ghilbi bus. Very circular. Haruko gave us some background on the experience, Hayao Miyazaki, the director of movies such as My neighbor Totoro and Spirited away, was aiming for when creating the museum/park. He wanted it to be for children, all about fun and play, tactile with the joy of losing yourself. There was not set direction to follow, the ground was pliable, it bended and was shock absorbent so if you fell, you were okay. You just found your own way and experience your own unique enjoyment.

Ghilbi is a very Eco-friendly environment which I loved. (Total Tree hugger ;). ) We saw how the the Studio works, how they painstakingly draw most cells, it takes 24 cells for one scond of film, and a lot of the director. The inspiration for the word Ghibli, comes from, (meteorology) A hot, dust-bearing, desert wind in North Africa, similar to the foehn. There is another source but I can't remember it now. Also known as chibli; gebli; gibleh; gibli; kibli. Miyasaki wanted to breath heat into the anime scene which is why he named his production company that.

Miyasaki is very attached to things that fly in air such as airplanes, dragonflies, etc. When creating with a deadline, he imagines that there is a dwarf like creature called a Ghilbi-ghilbi that sits on his shoulder to increase cold sweat on the animators before their dead line. He has ten in his old office that we walked through. (You have to find them as some are hidden)

We weren't allowed to take many photos for copyright reasons. Also Miyasaki, wanted kids to have free play so didn't want parents setting up cameras and slowing down the fun. (read: polite excuse to cover copyright infringement.) You get to see a short film. Ours was about a little girl on a journey and she keeps leaving apples for gods so as to stay safe. It was cute cause all the sound effects were made by human voices and when they made a sound, the kanji (japanese script) came up on screen as if it were part of the event. We also got a sneak peek of his new film, the place is a great marketing tool. Upon entering they also give you a couple of stills as your ticket, very cool - we got Kiki's Delivery and Hal's moving castle

After walking around we went to Straw Hat Cafe. Tori bought a Coffee with cream just to get a picture of the Ghibli logo design of the chocolate on top of the coffee. (Tori notes: it was so cool!) She got a little sick after the coffee she drank. She doesn't even like coffee really, just wanted the shot of the logo . After we left the museum with our guide Haruko, who did an excellent job of giving us background on the park, we headed back to Shinjuku via subway. We stopped at Tokyo center and the Tokyo Tower. It was cool. We got to go up the Tokyo Tower. The main floor and the special level (as high as you can go) are were we viewed the whole area of Japan. Seeing the sunset was amazing, it turn blood red for a few minutes; we went down to the ground level of the tower snapped a few shots of the tower at night which was majestic (almost rivals the Eiffel Tower, almost) and saw a hello kitty bus. One thing about Japan they put advertising everywhere. We then travelled to Roppogoni which is a place for ex-patriots which was more of an American western style place of Japan.

We ate at a little soba noodle restaurant where i got to share my Japanese speaking skills (which is nothing big really) by ordering the check. Once I asked for it the whole restaurant busted in a cheer. God I was so embarrassed. Tori keep telling me how amazed and proud of me she was. That didn't help my blush by getting any lighter. Interestingly, we saw the same tourists that we saw at the tower in the restaurant. Very erie. Finally we made it back to the hotel with sore feet and am really tired so blog ya later.
Ja ne, (later)

Alivia