ジブリ美術館（Ghibli Museum)

Friday, Dec. 4th

Before going to Microsoft Japan we headed to the Ghibli museum in Mikata. Only so many people are allowed to enter in a day so tickets have to be purchased ahead of time. Tomuro sensei said that our tickets had to be bought about a month ahead. Pictures are only allowed outside the museum and not inside.

My favorite part of the museum was a room which contained a a very large spinning disc. At different distances from the center going around were mini figures placed evenly apart in slightly different poses one after another. Basically like frames or drawings for animation. When spun really fast it would appear as if the characters were moving.

There was a girl riding a unicycle, a girl jumping, mini totoro like rabbits squashing up and down and moving around the outer most part, and bats flying in the air.

The same type of spinning figure animation was done at the Pixar Exhibit I saw in Japan the last time I was here, and I remember now that it said that it was inspired by the one at the Ghibli museum.

I also enjoyed these cut out pieces of art work which were than layered standing up with space between to create a sense of depth inside of a box with a clear glass front. I liked the forest one the best because of the many trees and the way they seemed to recede far into the distance.

There was a mock room setup to look like Miyazaki's drawing room and there were drawings covering the walls. Seemed to be a lot of neat stuff there too but almost too much for me to take in at the time.

The last thing that really hit me was a small animation about the evolution of life. Starting underwater with two organisms competing with each other, growing out from the water and racing each other. One eventually grew wings and tried to snatch the other one, but the second one hides in the water emerges and goes from rat to monkey to human. At the end it kind of turns into a love story as the small boy climbs a mountain and gives a flower to a young girl.

The animation was neat as well with a lot of moving backgrounds. Everytime I see an animation I now I can't help but think about the work that goes into making it.