World of Ghibli Exhibition Jakarta 2017

A few months back I received an email about World of Ghibli exhibition in Jakarta. My skeptical brain immediately thought, "Aah, how good could it be... I've visited the museum in Mitaka  and it's probably not going to be any better."

Fast forward to August, a few of my Japan loving friends mentioned that rumours said that the displays are very good, made by Indonesians in cooperations with Ghibli representatives from Japan. In fact, so good that the Japanese company plans to take the displays and give them a home in Japan. Well hearing this from several different people definitely piqued my interest and I decided to check it out. It turned out that Miss Kiki and DH also wanted to go so I bought tickets from Traveloka because they had a sale. 

In the morning of our visit day, I asked Miss Kiki if she wanted to dress up as Kiki when she goes and she excitedly said yes. I made her a red bow headband with Cotton and Steel's Supreme Solid in Bandana and we paired it up with a deep navy dress that she already had. It was polka-dotted, but well, good enough. 

I picked her up from school that day and went straight to Pacific Place. It was perfect timing, because Cocola sugar wax have their half price UOB promo on that day as well. Miss Kiki patiently waited for me with some brush markers and a book. DH arrived from work just a few minutes before I was done.

And up we went...

The Pacific Place mall had a big Totoro display hanging from the top ceiling. It looks a bit weird though....

We entered the Ritz Carlton area and got our wristbands. They were very slow in processing the booking. Luckily there were no lineup at the ticket booth. We each got a fan as a souvenir.

Someone is very excited

Picture-taking was not allowed in the first part of the exhibition. They were photos and stories about Studio Ghibli and each of their films. I found that there were two recent ones I have not seen: Up on a Poppy Hill, and The Red Turtle.

In the second part of the exhibition, we were allowed to take pictures. There were a lot of photo ops with the display. In a way it was much more satisfying than visiting the museum where pictures were not allowed at all indoors.

The first few displays were from Laputa, Castle in the Sky. They had the castle, the big flying ship, the small insect-like ship, and of course the robot on display. I was surprised they were not too stingy about visitors touching the displays. They even provided ladders and platforms for posing with the displays.

The flying castle

Flying Ship

Across from the flying ship was the oh-so-familiar red bridge and building from Spirited Away. 

From Porco Rosso they had the trusted red plane.

Though not as famous as the other films, they had a display from When Marnie was There.

Then.... Miss Kiki reached her home... It's a life-size building made just like in the anime. They had a broom outside the door that you can take pictures with. There was a long queue to enter the bakery. It moved really slow because you can only enter one group at a time and there was no time limit. Looking at this building, I thought about Miss Kiki's last birthday cake. It was pretty close!

We didn't spend too much time inside because Miss Kiki complained about the smell of the wooden display. I think it was freshly varnished so it was quite strong. Next to Kiki's house was the Tonari no Totoro set. They had the house, a big Totoro, and also the Cat Bus. I was told that the decorative items inside this house was brought from Japan. They didn't have real tatami mats in the house though, that was a pity.

I just HAD to do this pose... lol. 'Cause what self-respecting Totoro fan wouldn't do it when she has a kid to piggy-back under an umbrella next to this magical creature?! :D

Next to Totoro was the Cat Bus. Visitors were free to enter and take pictures.

And the house... Complete with books in the father's study and also dust bunnies in the house. Miss Kiki was disappointed that there were only two dust bunnies though...

We back-tracked a bit to Arriety's vent... They had her sugar cube and pin as props.

Next on display was the castle of my most favourite wizard ever: Howl's Moving Castle. The castle on display was not life-size but quite large regardless. It didn't walk around like in the movie but it had some moving parts. Pretty cool I must say.

Near the exit were insects from Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Like in the film, they had red and blue lights to indicate whether they are happy or upset..

The last display we saw was the forest from Mononoke Hime.

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We spent almost 2 hours at the exhibition, and thought that it was quite good. It would've been better if they had more displays, of course. They had left out some really good ones out... Maybe something from The Cat Returns, or Whisper of the Hearts... Something from Ponyo would've been cool too. Anyway it was fun, we ended the evening with Ramen from Ikkado Ichi.

Kiki earring. The other side was Jiji.

Thanks for reading!