Ghibli Exhibit at the Iwate Museum of Art

    My family's recent trip northward hinged on this very important exhibit at the Iwate Museum of Art. My husband had read reviews of the exhibit as it had been displayed in larger cities in Japan and was excited for our chance to see it.

    We arrived twenty minutes after the museum opened to find the parking lot full already with eager museum goers. This standing in line activity would be a trend throughout the day. Around twenty minutes later, we had parked and headed inside to be told that the wait was already an hour and a half if you had tickets, which we did not.

The line outside.

The line inside.

    Half an hour went to waiting in line for tickets and then another two hours in waiting for entrance to the exhibit itself in a line that stretched and looped outside in the cold, then up through the building and under a gorgeous rendition of a massive floating city from a movie I have yet to watch. Rigged up on an automated or remote controlled pully system, the ship would come down, nearly landing on the little city below, and then take off back up to the rafters. It was amazing to watch.

    The exhibit itself was off limits photographically but totally worth the wait, showing early sketches, the desk and work-space of the famed animator, and many large renditions of characters from many of the best loved classics from this terribly influential media company.


    The exhibit will be in Morioka until February 16th, so if you're in Tohoku and want to see it, go early and prepare for lines.