It was finally the day that we both had been waiting for... A visit to FUJIKO・F・FUJIO MUSEUM (Doraemon Museum) and Ghibli Museum in one day! The tickets to both museums had to be purchased in advance. While Ghibli Museum tickets can be purchased online or at certain agents outside Japan, tickets to Doraemon Museum are only available through the Lopy Machines at Lawson in Japan. At the time we were there, the Lopy Machines were only in Japanese so it would be challenging if you can not read at all. One of the staff at Lawson is usually happy to help you though.
We started our day with a walk to EXCELSIOR CAFFÉ 新宿三丁目店 in Shinjuku for breakfast. It was around 8:30 am and many people were out and about doing work.
We ordered their breakfast set, which was between 550-600 yen for sandwich, salad, and coffee of your choice. It was pretty good considering that a cup of latte there cost close to 400 yen.
There are a few options in terms of how to get to the museum. There are Odakyu trains that would take you to a station closest by distance to the museum, and some JR Trains can take you to the Noborito Station that is farther but with direct shuttle bus service to the museum.
We opted for the Odakyu train and walked the distance so we got to see some of the Kawasaki area. It was a cloudy day so it was not too hot to walk outside.
Kawasaki felt like a very small city compared to Tokyo. The streets were emptier and there weren't too many people on the street.
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| Interesting parking spots |
The Doraemon Museum is officially called FUJIKO・F・FUJIO MUSEUM. He was the talent behind Doraemon series and many others. The museum's permanent exhibit focuses on his life story and we were there during their 5th Anniversary Event.
Pictures weren't allowed in the permanent exhibit area but we were able to take pictures of the displays in the event area. For the anniversary event they displayed the original drawings of some of the popular chapters from the series. Can you guess which one this one was from?
There was a funny story about this one in particular. At the time this was created, one of Mr. Fujio's assistant was given instruction to colour the hair "midori no kurokami" which was usually used to refer to women's shiny black hair. However, "midori" alone in Japanese means green. The assistant misunderstood and coloured the deity's hair green. When he saw that, he actually liked it and left it green :)
Outside the exhibits, there were other areas with many photo ops. It was a lot of fun!
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| Memory Bread |
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| Where they always hangout |
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| The Anywhere Door |
We had snack and coffee at the museum cafe, because we just HAD to take our own pictures of their cute food and drink, right? ;) Their food was surprisingly good, though!
From the museum we took the Shuttle Bus to Noborito Station. If I remember correctly, the bus ride costed 200 yen per person.
Look, I met Doraemon himself at the train station! :)
Next destination: Ghibli Museum in Mitaka
