Now, properly ensconced in downtown Tokyo, Cosette and I made our way through the veins of this city-made-of-cities. We educated ourselves on navigation by the neon-glow of numerialphabetical names of the NYC subway. Japan’s systems may have different symbols, but the pace of people walking, the steadiness of trains rushing, that calming up-down-up so like zero-g as you hurtle through the dark? We know those feelings. And we love them in Tokyo, familiar and new all at once.

Our first stop?

The Ghibli Museum.

Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki have meant a tremendous amount to me throughout my life. My first and only Ghibli for a while was Princess Mononoke, which imprinted itself on my writer’s heart with the force of a comet. Sure, I was a little too young, but I feel like that’s how it’s supposed to be. Miyazaki’s themes, illustrations, talent, insight, and dedication to the craft of storytelling rung through me, and it was by his bittersweet blade that I began to start defining my own ideas of story. From Ponyo to Totoro, Spirited Away and the Boy and the Heron, Ghibli films use wonder, color, motion, and magic to explore harm, pain, trauma, and change.

Once I’d gotten wind of this special place in the Mitaka district of Tokyo, I knew we had to go. It’s a tough place to get tickets to; you’ve got to be ready to buy a month beforehand, on the 10th of that month, at 10am Tokyo time. And as fate would have it, we got them!

As we navigated out to Mitaka, Cosette and I got our first taste of suburban Tokyo. Aboveground train line, dozens of homes with statues and flowers and decoration tucked into cozy asymmetric hidey-holes along the walking path. And upon arriving, we ran into the Totoro behind the kiosk and knew we’d made it.

Something I appreciate about the Museum is that absolutely no photos are allowed inside the building. It captures the spirit of Miyazaki and as you can see by his guidelines below, is totally in line with what he hoped this kind of place would be.

Let’s Lose Our Way Together.

A simple idea that the builders and workers of this museum spun out into gold. Around every corner, there is a little secret; a little doorway to nowhere, a display case full of trinkets, moving images and sketches and stained glass windows, my god, the windows! To see moments stamped on your heart distilled into light-rich glass. Surrounded on all sides, from all angles, by the riches of Ghibli’s history, you’re allowed free rein to wander. To discover. To love the way a dead-end makes you feel; like there is still more to be found.

There’s even a private theater where the museum shows a singular piece of original animation meant only to be viewed there. We watched “Mon Mon the Water Spider,” and it was the perfect encapsulation of what makes a Ghibli film so magical: rich, detailed environments, non-human characters who you empathize with immediately, moments of silence and expression as nature goes about it’s business, danger in the cycles of the world, and how working together can do more than protect each other—— it can make you soar. I loved it, and so did my wife.

One of my favorite aspects of the museum is how close you were allowed to get to the work. There’s a section recreating a Ghibli artist studio, and not only is there a person working, showing the exact process of animation, but the wall is plastered with piece after piece of art by the man himself, Hayao Miyazaki. Think of it like . . . a massive puzzle whose shape is known by one person, and that person will never tell you. And so each image is beautiful in what it means and where it’s placed, and it will stay beautiful because you, as the visitor, make it so.

To stand within inches of a sketch of San, masked and holding her knife next to her wolf-mother from Princess Mononoke, will remain one of the honors of my life.

Also, there’s a room that just has a giant plush Catbus for the kids to play around on, and if that ain’t perfect, I don’t know what is.

It was a really tremendous day, and while we went and had some great food and enjoyed the sights and sounds of downtown Tokyo, our time at the Ghibli Museum truly took the cake. We’ll go back someday, because of course we missed things, little secrets and hidden magics that maybe we can only find by going back.

And either way, I’m so grateful we got a chance to lose our way, together <3