The Ghibli Museum in Mitaka City is a one of a kind museum about animation. It was created around the stories and the characters Studio Ghibili animators and directors have created. Fortunately, it's not a Totoro theme park but designed by Hayao Miyazaki, the studio's top director, from the ground up as a museum to show how the magic of animation is all put together.

Fans of Studio Ghibili's films will immediately recognize the design of the museum building as reminiscent of Miyazaki's films. It is simply a delight to wander around and look at the little bits of detail. The museum's displays are only written in Japanese but the museum is a mostly visual experience so this shouldn't deter anyone from visiting.

Pay no attention to the giant Totoro manning the fake reception booth past the gates and head off around the building to the real reception area. After handing over your prepurchased ticket you are handed your real ticket - three frames of film from a Ghibli film. Take a look up at the roof of the reception area because its covered with a gorgeous mural and if you're a Ghibli fan take three long breaths and calm down. You've got a whole building to explore.

The lower floor of the museum tells the history of animation and the science behind it with the use Ghibli's famous characters. The most interesting display (it has its own 'the making of' display) uses a series of models of characters from Totoro which are spun around at high speed. Stroke lights hit the spinning models and suddenly it looks like cat busses are running around a tree.

After, you can check out the large open space and look up the show times at the theater. To enter the theater you need to present your ticket which they stamp to prevent people from watching twice.

The second floor is Miyazaki's idealized animation studio brought to life. It is really a large art gallery crammed into a small space. The walls of the studio are simply plastered with hundreds of Miyazaki's sketches and watercolor paintings. It's visual overload at an extreme and it's hard to even take in half the pictures there. The section ends with a description on how all these drawings are turned into an animated feature.

The top floor has a temporary gallery, the cat bus playroom and the gift shop. You can also take the stairs to the roof and look at the statues from Laputa. The gallery was showcasing Heidi when I went. The book by Johanna Spyri spawned a popular animated series in Japan that has remained popular and treasured in Japan. The Alps became a popular tourist destination for Japanese people because of the series.

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