The famous Ghibli Museum in Japan is currently closed to the public due to health and safety reasons, but museum staff have found a way to still let people catch a glimpse of the magical world of the works of Hayao Miyazaki and his Studio.

A picture of the main building of the Ghibli Museum
The Ghibli Museum has been closed during the pandemic but now a series of videos will let people catch a glimpse of its rooms and areas © ColobusYeti / Getty Images

Museum staff have been uploading a series of short videos on its YouTube channel, each of them exploring a little corner of the Mitaka Forest Ghibli Museum (named like this after the Tokyo suburb where the Museum was built in 1999). Since taking pictures isn’t normally allowed inside the museum, these videos are an excellent chance to explore some of the less-known corners and catch details that might otherwise go unnoticed.

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The videos range from short to very short, but a minute or even thirty seconds are enough to capture the quirky spaces of the Museum. One video focuses on the great fresco that covers the Space of Wonder room, where famous Ghibli characters like Kiki the witch and her cat Jiji, as well as the sisters Satsuki and Mei Kusakabe from My Neighbor Totoro.

A picture of the statue of the Robot from Castle In The Sky
Iconic Ghibli characters like the Robot from Castle In The Sky feature everywhere in the videos © cowardlion / Shutterstock

Another lets viewers explore the Straw Hat Café, whose mascot is Marco Pagot aka Porco Rosso. The inside of the café is decorated with quirky objects and all dishes feature Ghibli characters on them (especially the immediately-recognisable Soot Sprites). Everywhere around the Museum, you can see a variety of beautiful stained glass windows featuring all sorts of characters and settings from the more than twenty films Studio Ghibli has produced.

The Ghibli Museum was meant to reopen on 28 April, but it has informed visitors through an official notice that the reopening has been postponed to a date yet to be announced. Tickets will, of course, be refunded, and all information can be found on the official website here.

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