What a difference a day makes! From the glorious clear blue skies yesterday to a day of grey clouds and either persistently annoying light drizzle or torrential downpour!
So a bit of further research last night lead to the discovery that the beer museum doesn't open on a Monday. The next thought was to spend the morning at either the Tepco Electric Energy Museum or the National Science Museum. Choice was first helped by the fact that the National Science Museum doesn't open on Mondays, but then hindered by the discovery that Tepco have shut all but one of their museums in light of last year's incident at one of their nuclear plants as a result of the earthquake and associated tsunami. I'm not quite sure of the reasoning behind this, but it left me with no ideas on how to spend the morning. In the end, I didn't really feel like doing too much on account of the weather, so after a late start, a wander around the Shinjuku station area (including finding a CD I've not been able to find anywhere else, even as MP3 download) I eventually made my way to the pre-planned afternoon visit.
The afternoon was a visit to the Ghibli Museum. A friend of mine back home is a fan of the Ghibli Studios. They are one of the many animation studios in Japan, but not the sort of output you initially think of when it comes to Japanese animation. Their output seems to be much more family-friendly, not involving tentacled bringers of doom and school-girl heroines! In fact, the artwork is a lot more detailed that you get from the Manga-style anime - there is a lot more texture in the colours used rather than just being bold blocks of a solid colour. This doesn't mean that they haven't come up with some weird ideas. One of their most well-known appears to be the catbus... A 12-legged cat, that is a bus. They even have a play area for younger visitors that consists mostly of a large catbus!
Sadly, the museum don't allow you to take photography. Then again, given how packed it is (despite there being a strict quota system on tickets requiring you to pre-book for a specified day, and for entry at a specified time) I think it would be even more chaotic if you had people trying to take photos of everything. The lower level has a room about some of the basics of animation. The upper level contains a permanent exhibition which is set out like an animator's studio with walls covered in rough artwork and a number of books. There are also examples of the books of storyboards used in creating an animated feature, as well as equipment related to the animation process. There is also a temporary exhibit which seemed to be mostly about artwork from books. Unfortunately, there is no English signage or leaflets, so a lot of it is difficult to follow.
Finally, the ground floor also has a small cinema where they show a short feature from the Ghibli Studios. Your ticket, which is a piece of card with 3 film cells from a Ghibli production, allows you 1 entry to see the day's feature (they just stamp the card so you get to keep it). Today's feature was called "Chuzumo" which is a story about an old couple who grow and harvest rice. One night the old man goes outside to relieve himself and notices a group of grey mice. He follows them and it turns out they are going to a sumo competition against some much larger white mice. All the grey mice lose their bouts and return to the old couple's home. In the morning, the old man suddenly finds a new burst of life which also happens to his wife (even though they never exchange a word) and they set about creating a feast for their mice. That night the mice return to the sumo competition, followed by the old couple. In fairly a fairly predictable turn ov events, the grey mice narrowly lose the first of 5 bouts (on a judges' conference) before winning the 2nd and 3rd. They then lose the 4th to leave the score at 2-2. The final bout is a long-lasting affair that requires a stop for a water (and food) break. On the resumption the grey mouse triumphs, much to the joy of all the spectators and the frogs who act as referee and judges, and the mice and the old couple return to the cottage, laughing along the way. It's a nice little story, if a little predictable. The narration is all in Japanese, but the story-line is pretty self-evident.
Finally for the day, I managed to locate a bar in Shinjuku called Zoetrope. This place is a must-visit for any whisky drinker. It's a tiny place with seating for about 20 people and shows silent movies at one end of the bar while playing soundtrack music from more modern movies. But most importantly they have (they claim) over 300 different Japanese whiskies! (They also have some other internation whiskies from the likes of Scotland and Ireland, as well as some other spirits including rum and brandy, and a few bottled beers.) The place was dead for most of the time I was there - just me and the barman who spoke enough English to have some whisky-based chat with. The ones I had while I was there were:
* Toa Shuzo - Golden Horse Chichiibu 8yo
* Eigashima Shuzo - Single Malt Akashi 12yo
* Mercian - Karuizawa Pure Malt 12yo
* Venture Whisky (Ichiro's Malt) - 1990 Queen of Spades / Port Pipe 18yo
* Mars Whisky - Komagatake Single Malt 10yo Sherry
All very tasty whiskies, and nice to see them served in proper Glencairn glasses, and a separate glass of water provided.
Anyway, hoping for a drier day tomorrow so I can do the open-top bus tours around Tokyo! Finger's crossed!