Ghibli Museum

Up early this morning to meet Michiko-san and Fumiko-san at Mitaka station. Fumiko-san asked us to be there at 9:40 a.m. She had reserved tickets for the four of us to the Ghibli Museum with an entrance time of 10 a.m. It seems you can't just show up and buy an admission ticket. This museum, dedicated to the works of Hayao Miyazaki of Spirited Away fame, is so popular that you must apply for admission in advance. I'd been to the museum four years ago when it first opened. I'd hoped the crowds would have died down by now, but the place was thronged with museum-goers. I was shocked to see how much the brightly colored stucco had weathered in these few years. The dark streaks on the outer walls gave the fancifully designed building an almost dreary aspect. But inside all was as bright and cheery and delightful as before. There were some wonderful displays on Miyazaki's movies, animation in general and on some other animators as well. We were both quite intrigued by the display on a movie that is due to be releasde on March 17 in Japan. It is the creation of a Russian animator named Alexandre Petrov. I'm having trouble digging up info on him on English-language websites. His animation has the look of impressionist paintings and is totally mesmerizing.

Both Michiko and Fumiko needed to attend their English-language class this afternoon, so after the Ghibli Museum we headed to Chofu (where Fumiko lives and the class is held) for lunch. We ate in one of the restaurants in the Parco department store. This time we had katsu, another type of Japanese food: breaded and fried pork, shrimp or chicken usually served with finely shredded cabbage and potato croquettes. This restaurant had a fresh approach to katsu. Each place setting included a small mortar filled with black sesame seeds and a pestle with which to grind them up. You add the sesame to the katsu sauce. And instead of the potato croquette we were served rice. It was tasty Japanese comfort food.

After lunch, Michiko and Fumiko scurried off to their class. Brad and I spent a little bit of time browsing in Parco and then headed back into town. We decided to go back to Shinjuku. We stopped off for coffee at Segafredo, one of our favorite coffee shops in Tokyo, then I went to Isetan while Brad went shopping at Tokyu Hands. We met back later at the apartment. Dinner that night was at our favorite noodle shop again.