Ghibli museum

While in Tokyo, I went to the Ghibli museum in Mitaka. I highly recommend it to fans of Miyazaki animation. It's not a big museum, but it's gorgeous, well laid-out, and seems almost infinitely detailed.

From Japan Trip

I would have liked to provide some photos from the inside, but the museum policy is no photography. That seems harsh given the beauty of the place, but I think Miyazaki knows his fellow countrymen. The temptation to do posed photos in from of all the wonderful scenes, props, and characters would be overwhelming and get in the way of simply having fun there. Photos of the blue-hat kids (probably first or second graders) romping on the replica catbus would have been too cute for words.

Visiting the museum requires getting tickets in advance; you can't get them at the museum. I think they do this to keep from getting too crowded. Lawson's convenience stores all over Japan have ticket machines you can use to make a reservation. To the best of my knowledge, the menu is only in Japanese. There are web sites that explain the menu system, but I opted for efficiency and got our guide to help me with this.

BTW, the ticket you get at the museum in exchange for your Lawson receipt contains several frames of animation.

A rebuttal to Pascal's wager?

"Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones."

-- Marcus Aurelius