Mitaka, Tokyo - Ghibli Museum and Hedgehog Cafe

Now that we're in Tokyo, its time to do some touristic things!

We went to the Ghibli museum today. Getting tickets for this was extremely difficult. Basically you need to:

• Camp on the website at a specific date and time (once a month)
• Smash f5 to refresh the page
• Server crashes
• Server goes up
• Manically add the ticket to your shopping card
• Smush the credit card number in
• Server crashes

Over and over again, until you get your ticket. You're competing against thousands of other people in the entire world rushing to get tickets, from an underpowered, undersized server that crashes every month at the same time.

...We got the tickets in the end though!

Our bus to the museum. I (really) hate taking buses in Japan, but with the SUICA, Apple Wallet (on the watch), as well as eSIM for data, its super easy now.

The line stretched all the way around the building. It gets busier and busier non-stop until the close at the end of the day. Everyone loves Ghibli!

As you line up, a gigantic Totoro glares menacingly from behind a window.

The entire building is meticulously designed, with a lot of thought put into every nook and cranny. Its kind of like Disneyland, but less pomp.

We went to the cafe early, because waiting any longer will meaning infinite wait times.

There was a giant Laputa automaton on the roof! Again the line was ridiculously long so I just took a photo of someone else posing in front of it...

Everything around is so nicely kept, and a pleasant move away from the intensity of Tokyo.

Little things in different nooks and crannies to explore.

This... is from one of the movies that I haven't seen probably.

We bought a lot of soft toys, but its for the baby I swear!

We lunch we just grabbed some soba from a random shop, it wasn't very good but I just wanted to show you the vending machine! Food doesn't actually come out, you just get a ticket that you give to the chef guy.

Harry Hedgehog Cafe, Harajuku

We went to Harajuku to visit some Hedgehogs.

They look like small spikey blobs.

We're given gloves to handle them, for obvious reasons.

They're surprisingly warm, basically spikey heatpacks. You probably don't want to put them inside your pocket though.

The hedgehogs basically sleep all day.

I panic whenever I handle animals, but luckily my gloves provided me with the armor and confidence I needed.

Steph is a lot better with animals than myself.

They're pretty cute though, even when they're snacking on some grubs.

Yeap, kinda boring yet relaxing, watching spikey blobs sleep.

In case you're wondering, hedgehogs are not legal to have as pets in Australia.

There were a couple of active ones!

I stuck my phone into the box and it thought I was giving it some food! Mwahaha, foolish hedgehog!

Oh yeah there was a meerkat too. Sadly leashed but it was a really small space. It seemed pretty happy tho.

Steph picked up this hedgehog and it started snoring softly. She sat in this position for about 10-15 minutes, too scared to wake it!

There were some hamsters too. As typical with me, I can't really read the minds, thoughts and feelings of animals very well. I picked one up (it was running away) and it bit me! Well, bit my glove, so I was fine. In its defense it REALLY didn't want to be picked up. I just didn't realise, cause me.

We were given some baby ones to play with. I think they were about 1 or 2 months old? Also they're not prone to chomping on my fingers so that's nice.

In case you're wondering, hamsters are also illegal to own as pets in Australia.

Wtf Australia?!

Apparently they're ecosystem destroyers! Look at how evil it is!

Its scheming and ready to multiply and take over the Australian ecosystem, should you give it a chance.

Its begging! Maybe I should've gotten it some snacks...

Man they're cute.

Takeshita Street

We went out to the street in Harajuku to Takeshita street. This is the 'main' street of Harajuku, and we visit pretty much every time. The shops are different every time too basically.

We grabbed some... rainbow cheese dogs?

I got a chip... cheese... tomato dog.

Yeah they were both really awful and bland. Also they put sugar on the savoury dish! My tastebuds were very confused.

The clothes here are louder than pretty much anywhere else.

There's AN OTTER CAFE. We didn't end up going in, but what a cool novelty. Cooler than hedgehogs perhaps?

The shoes are loud too!

This particular shop was extra edgy.

Yet the quality of the clothing itself was off-the-charts impressive.

There was a coffin for extra edge.

Afterwards we got some glazed grape/strawberry stick things.

I'm personally not a fan of getting caramelised sugar stuck between my teeth, but everyone else seems to like it.

There's lots of silly novelty things around the place.

Out the front there is a giant camera that shows you up on the gate. Again, another novelty but still pretty cool.

Discrimination

Our first direct confrontation with discrimination! We were desperate for some damn good yakitori, late in the evening, while in Harajuku. We find a place. All yakitori places have a very similar structure, basically a C shaped cluster of benches with high chairs that you sit on. There's a chef in the middle and you can either make conversation with him, or just order some food.

In this place there was an "old chef" and a "young chef"

We wait outside the door and some customers leave. Half the place is empty. Old chef invites us in. As I walk inside Young Chef says "please wait a moment". After some talking amongst themselves, Young Chef says "sorry, we're full" with a smile on his face. The place was half empty!

Its probably obvious to you what happened. The young chef was 'defending' the atmosphere this small shop, with the customers who are conversing in Japanese, and hearing only Japanese.

I'm annoyed it happened, but I get the reasoning. What would you have done, reader?