Studio Ghibli Straw Hat

Hi All,

I tried to get Ghibli Museum tickets for October for my trip to Japan, 6 days in Tokyo. I was only able to get tickets for the day my flight leaves. I really want to eat at the Straw Hat Cafe before I go, but I need to leave the Ghibli Museum at 12:30 so I have time to catch my flight. I will be able to enter the museum by 10am.

Does a line start to form before the cafe opens? If yes, when should I go line up?
Is there enough time to eat?
Thanks

I have not been to the cafe at the museum, but checking on a visitor's blog: the cafe opens at 11:00 (or a bit earlier if it's expected to be crowded), and people lined up and occupied all "waiting queue" chairs by 10:30. (And those waited outside could get in in the first seating.) This visitor also states that people spent average of 40 - 50 minutes from getting seated until leaving. By the time she left the cafe, she adds, the queue said "2 hours wait".

So... if this is the only day you could go, I would spend the time (2 hrs 30 minutes in total is all you have!) seeing things around, rather than the cafe :)

I can only give my experience, but when I went there, we ended up waiting in line for at least a half hour for the cafe. It was good, but I don't know that it would be worth waiting for vs. exploring the rest of the museum. I didn't even think it was exceedingly busy (it was a weekday) but there's limited seating.

Hi
We were there yesterday around the time you will be and you should have plenty of time. There was no queue at all around 10.30- 11am.

Hope that helps and have a good time!!

Hi Nikki,

Yes, that does help. Thank you!

I suggest you "play it be ear" so to speak. Certain days, such as weekends, are definitely more crowded. You didn't put which day you would be visiting the museum, so that's a consideration. There's no guarantee you'll get a line-free day like the above poster, especially since we don't know what day you'll go or what day that poster went.

So when you go, just judge for yourself on the day. As many others have said, you have such a short time there already, do you really want to wait a long time just for the cafe? If there is no line when you go, then eat, but if there is, just skip it and enjoy the rest of the museum.

When we were to Ghibli museum in early July 2013 we had to wait for 30-40 minutes I guess, as other posters mentioned. If this is your only chance to visit Ghibli I would suggest you to check out the museum instead, not to forget the special Ghibli theater movie available. 2,5 hours would make a good pace to see it all IMO.

Hi Everyone,
Thanks for the tips and advise. Just to fill in some information to clarify, that I did not think to mention earlier, I will be visiting on Wednesday October 21st. I will need to leave Ghibli by 12:30 to have time to go back to my hotel at Ueno and grab my luggage and get to Narita in time for my flight. I got my tickets at JTB, so I can get in right as they open.
Thanks for all the help and advise!

If you want to spare some time not having to pick the luggage up you can send it by takuhaibin to Narita, but it must be done 2 days before so if it is a good option for you or not you have to decide.

Then you could go directly to Keisei-Ueno, Nippori or wherever you are going to the airport from. I think you can go by NEX from Shinjuku as well (transfer from the Chuo line from Mitaka) as well as from Tokyo.

When are your flight leaving by the way?