Tours Including Ghibli Museum

So this will be my very first time traveling to Japan, and unfortunately me nor my friend speak Japanese.

Specifically, we're looking for tours that include a day at the Ghibli Museum, preferably all day where we're allowed to roam about freely.

Of course, a reasonable price is a plus. Does anyone know of good tour guides/ travel plans?

Also, concerning money, is it better to use cash or credit cards?

Thanks.

Saw this on Japanican (http://www.japanican.com/en/tour/detail/F600_/?typecd=TOU&pn=1&cpn=0). Might not be the cheapest around though.

@CL, "not the cheapest" would be an understatement, 6.000 yen for basically the 1.000 yen entrance fee and 420 yen of train tickets.

Sure, there's a guide (which you pay 4580 yen for, per person!), but I seriously don't see the advantage in that. The museum is pretty easy to find, and once inside there's no need for a guide at all. The only tricky part is getting a ticket, which can be a bit difficult sometimes. For this kind of money however you can easily buy tickets online.

About cash or credit cards, I usually only use plastic for hotels and maybe some other serious expenses, but cash for anything else.

Seems to me, you don't need a tour to go to the Ghibli Museum. You can order advanced tickets* from JTB. http://www.jtbusa.com/en/other/o-ghibli.asp
It's a little expensive, but my understanding is that it's the only way foreigners can buy advanced tickets, and advanced tickets are necessary to assure admission on the dates in question.

You can take the JR train from Shinjuku station to Mitaka Station and walk or take a short bus ride to the museum from there. My wife and I are both big Miyazaki fans, so we've planned to visit the Ghibli Museum when we vacation in Japan in March. Very excited.

My impression is that the museum itself is not that big. I currently have it taking up only a couple of hours on our itinerary.

*Actually, it's a voucher that you can exchange for tickets--similar to a JR rail pass exchange order.

Buying far in advance is the only way to guarantee admission. But if I had to guess, buying a few days in advance for a school day visit should not be a problem.

When I went there a few years ago I just bought tickets at the Lawson across the street. Just on a weekday in January.

I might have been lucky however, so buying in advance is still very much recommended.

I recommend pay the extra and ordering the ticket beforehand from JTB.

We went last September and couldn't find a single day in the 2 weeks we were there that was available. I think this was pretty unusual, but we were really disappointed not to be able to go.

I later heard, recently, overseas tour companies have been fully booking them and taking tourist there in the bus loads. Which made sense, we saw a lot of these buses offloading tourists everywhere we went.

Oh, the Museum can be enjoyed without a guide if you are familiar with the movies. It would be more fun walking around discovering things on your own and not a guide telling you what movies this and that are from.

I agree with the above.

The other thing is that when you order through JTB you have a larger window in which to enter the Museum- something like a four hour window to enter- once you're in you can stay as long as you want.

Whereas I've just had someone buy our txt at a Lawson for when we visit in a few weeks and I have a half hour window in which to arrive or "no museum for you!". Totally understand and appreciate the system and how it works- just a little nervous about making the time crunch because failing it would be hard to explain to a four yr old.

So there is an advantage to the advance purchase txt through JTB even if the price is higher.

Hope that helps.

I really can't remember the time window being that small, as far as I remember it was a 2 hour time window, which obviously is plenty when you only have to cross the road...

But I might be wrong, or it could have changed since my visit.

@CL, "not the cheapest" would be an understatement, 6.000 yen for basically the 1.000 yen entrance fee and 420 yen of train tickets.

However if you don't have a local JTB office then this may be the only way to get advance tickets and guarantee that you'll get entry on your chosen day. That's the main advantage. Otherwise, the next best option is to buy once you're in Japan and just be flexible with your days.

For this kind of money however you can easily buy tickets online.

Tickets aren't sold in English online. You can use their site to check ticket availability however (the yellow buttons at the bottom):

http://l-tike.com/pc/d1/AA02G04F1.do?STID=ghb&ALCD=1&

The other thing is that when you order through JTB you have a larger window in which to enter the Museum- something like a four hour window to enter- once you're in you can stay as long as you want.

There is no entry window restriction for people with tickets from JTB. Otherwise there is a 30 minute window:

http://www.lawson.co.jp/ghibli/museum/ticket/english.html

Tickets aren't sold in English online.
Not by the museum itself indeed, but you can order just the tickets without tour online from JTB.

I'm from the Netherlands, but when I first planned to visit the museum in 2010, I ordered tickets from JTB UK which were sent to me by (rather expensive) registered mail. Unfortunately I had to cancel that trip, and when I did visit the museum a few months later it was on such a short notice that I couldn't order tickets ahead.

I probably need to recheck my voucher, but I don't think there's a window at all on the vouchers sold through JTB, just a date on which it needs to be redeemed. Once in the museum, you can stay as long as you want until the museum closes.

I think it's still a good idea to redeem your voucher at the beginning of the usual time windows because they time the screening of the movie with them. From what I remember the theatre is near the entrance to the museum and not the easiest place to get to afterwards.