The Studio Ghibli Museum showcases the work of the world-famous animation studio responsible for popular films like Howl’s Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbour Totoro, Spirited Away and Kiki’s Delivery Service.

The museum was designed by Hayao Miyazaki, the director of many of Studio Ghibli’s best-known films. It is said to have been modelled on the hilltop village of Calcata in Italy. There are spiral staircases, balconies and elevated exterior walkways, and the museum is surrounded by trees.

The museum has been called “a portal to a storybook world” and its slogan is “let’s get lost together.” It is packed with life-size characters, sketches and illustrations made for Studio Ghibli films.

You can enter one of Laputa's flying ships and there’s a life-size, five-metre-high copper-plated statue of the Robot Soldier first appearing in the final episode of Lupin the Third, Part 2 (but most famous for its role in Laputa) in the garden on the roof of the museum.

On the basement floor is an exhibition dedicated to the history and evolution of techniques of animation, which is illustrated by an outsize version of ‘Bouncing Totoro.’

On the first floor, you’ll find a mock-up of a real-life animation studio, where you can learn about the stages of producing an animated film, from sketches to storyboarding, keyframing, clean-up, colouring and background painting.

You can watch Ghibli short films in the Saturn Theatre, which you’ll find in the basement. The theatre has windows with automated shades that drop when a film starts and rise again when it finishes. Hayao Miyazaki designed the theatre with small children in mind, and he was worried that they would get scared going into a darkened room.

The museum has a bookshop-cum-reading room called Trihawks (the name is a pun on Mitaka 三鷹, the town where the museum is located - Mitaka means ‘three hawks’).

There’s also a souvenir shop, where you can buy classic animations from around the world. To round off your visit, you can have something to eat and drink at the Straw Hat Café. But be warned: queues to the cafe can be long.

So as to regulate the number of visitors, tickets to the Studio Ghibli Museum can only be bought in advance. You are advised to book well ahead of your visit, as the museum is often booked up for weeks at a time, particularly during school holidays and at weekends. Tickets go on sale on the tenth day of every month at 9 am for reservations the following month.

You can buy tickets at the Lawson Ticket Online Shop. Ticket prices range from ¥1000 for adults to ¥700 for children between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, ¥400 for children between the ages of seven and twelve and ¥100 for children between the ages of four and six. Entry is free for children aged four and under. Visitors should note that photography is not allowed in the museum.

The Studio Ghibli Museum is open between 10 am and 6 pm daily but is closed on Tuesdays. You’ll find it on the edge of Inokashira Park in Mitaka. The address is 1-1-83 Shimorenjaku, Mitaka-shi, Tokyo. It’s a 15-minute walk from Mitaka station, or you can take the museum’s dedicated looping bus service.