Receiving tickets to the Japanese Museum of Giglies was a powerful task

The first time I went to Japan, I was in the air longer than I was on earth. It was for a press conference And as I went around a little, between the dream and the work I really saw nothing. So when Lucasfilm announced that Interstellar The celebration would be in Japan in April 2025.I accepted it as a sign. I am 45 years old in April and a trip to Japan for a Interstellar Convention It sounded like a fun way to celebrate.

But I would not make the same mistake again – there is no fast trip outside and going out. This time I stay longer, giving me a chance to visit the number one place in my bucket list in Japan: the Ghibli Studio Museum. The Mitaka Museum of Giglies (not to be confused with the park in Nagoya) Somewhere I wanted to go as long as I knew it existed. Not many of my favorite movie studios (Lucasfilm, Pixar, Marvel, Amblin, Aardman) have dedicated tourist places that you can visit without knowing someone inside, so it was something I wouldn’t miss. If it was made the decision to actually travel to Japan, I began to save – and do our research. I learned that the tickets of the museum are on sale at 10 am Tokyo time at the 10th month before. So, probably in August 2024 or so, I put the words “Tickets for a Museum of March 10” as the only thing I have to do in my calendar last weekend.

As the date approached, I dug a little deeper. I found the website. Registered for something where you had to “cosmic” so before I realized that it was the wrong website (probably the one for local sales) and I didn’t need to do all this. I watched a few videos on YouTube (This one more special was good) find the right international sales site (This is the right site)And I waited for the day in question.

But on what day did I look for? I soon learned that 10am in Tokyo was the previous day in the United States. Plus, my specific weekend was the first day of the summer time. It wasn’t until March 9th that I could confidently say that the tickets would be available at 6:00 pm local time in Los Angeles, California. I was ready.

Now, before I break this more, a few important things. You need to know which days you are available to attend. Tickets are sold in specific time and daytime blocks and some of the more popular days/times are sold out quickly. Also, it usually closes at least one day a week. So look at your trip and find out at least one or two days that are flexible enough to get tickets at any time and still be happy. This is one.

The other is the practice. If you can, try and go through the process during the month or two before your days become available, just to be familiar with all this. I did not do this and added it to my stress, which is crazy because I bought posters with a limited edition, toys, all such things for a basic 20 years. I am also something like a booking expert at the San Diego Comic-Con hotel, an famous difficult task. Buying two tickets to a museum that holds thousands in each window for two full days did not feel like an impossible task. I have experience. The problem was, if I didn’t get them, there was no good second option. The Ghibli site is quite clear that secondary market tickets are not ideal and ticket names must match your name. Certainly, if I spent more, I could understand it. There are always ways. But I didn’t want to deal with it. In my mind, I had a shot at this and I wish I had trained.

The day arrived. A few hours before the tickets go on sale, the added site April dates and look at you what you need to click. You can choose dates, hours and even see the types of tickets before the site stops you. So I did it several times until the anxiety continues to build. However, the key point is 30 minutes before the sale. Then the site is taken over by Queue-IT. Queue-this is a devilish company That I hate a lot because it does a very good job and is very fair to high -demand events like this. This is the one I have been dealing with for years for Comic-Con hotels. So while the tail is my enemy, it’s an enemy I respect.

In this 30-minute window, the key is to open as many devices or browsers as possible. You can’t just open different sections. They must be completely different profiles. Each of them should be opened to the ticket site, which you can see counts to the top of the hour. The main thing to check is that the unique ID number at the bottom of the page is different from all the others you have open. If so, that’s good. This is his own entry.

You want this because every browser/device is another dice roll. After the countdown hits 0, the queue-this takes every person on this page at that time-no matter when they arrive on the page, keep in mind-and arrange them in any order. So someone will be released immediately on the ticket page, while others will see that there are tens of thousands of people in front of them and the wait is more than an hour. The queue site is keeping you well informed of all this with an evil little man walking.

But if you have several devices/browsers, all open to the page before the sale time, each of them is considered a different record. One can get 35,000, and one can get 1,300, which just happens as the highest and most numbers I have received on my series of devices. So, as I let the higher numbers be executed as a backup, I focused on my best and most entry.

The Ghibli Museum, the reason to do all this, is usually open six days a week and has four time slots a day (10, 12, 2, 4). I was aiming either Thursday or on Friday, with the largest slot available. So, after 10 minutes of waiting, 1300 people in front of me checked and it was my turn.

We hope you have already done this part at this point – but if not, that’s time. Click a few pages and reach the big calendar with all dates. Here you will see all the time slots with one of the three symbols. It is available “O”. Triangle means near the sale and “X” is sold out. The slot from 10 in the morning on my first choice day was already a triangle, but I did it anyway. I filled everything, I got to the credit card and, alas, it sold. I went to lunch. At this point – and that has changed over the years – you need a few things. You need date and time, of course. You need to know what kind of tickets you want (depending on age). You need the email and the name of the main person responsible for the tickets (of which you can buy only six), and you will need to know which airport you fly and go out to Tokyo. Why? I’m not sure. But you will have to fill it with your nationality.

You will also need to set a four -character password account (you can’t do this before I don’t think, but it’s super easy on the same page) and then pay. Tickets are relatively cheap (only 1000 adult yen, which is about $ 7), but can only be purchased through a credit card. Now this is a key I learned from YouTube videos. Most credit card companies will see at first glance by accident a fee from a foreign country, mark it as a fraud and your card will be denied. This is not a good thing, especially when there is a watch. So, call your credit card company a few days earlier (or maybe two if you have them) and tell them that you will buy something from Japan that day. And while you have them on the phone, give them your full travel dates. It can’t hurt.

Once the credit card is accepted, VOILA! You have tickets to the Museum of Giglies. You should then have access to them with your new account information and print confirmation with QR code (it is emphasized that you have to print it, probably, so you don’t have to worry about telephone data). This is your ticket.

After months of anxiety and stress, the actual process of buying tickets took me only 15 minutes. I was very lucky, but I was also prepared. I got my first choice day and a second choice time. However, my other browsers were not so lucky. Just like an experiment, I left a second browser, which had a number in the 20,000, counting all the way. It took a little more than an hour to access the tickets, and although there are several times that are still available for my Thursday and Friday, they were later in the afternoon and most of the weekend dates were sold out. An hour later, he was gone for the whole month.

To summarize, here are my biggest tips for receiving tickets for a museum of gigs On the official website.

1. Do the most research as much as possible – which you already do if you are reading this. Five tall!
2. If possible, take a test, check the month before your tickets are sold to get acquainted.
3. Choose a few days and times that work for your trip and make sure the museum is open in those days (all the information on the main site).
4. Open multiple browsers/devices to the ticket page between 1 and 30 minutes before the sale.
5. Get all your information about your hand. In previous years, people had to place local addresses and even passport numbers. This is not the case now, but it can be in the future.
6. Call your credit card company to let them know that it is coming and a foreign transaction has been approved.

It’s as simple as this. Yes, I’m kidding. But, hopefully, all the stress was worth it. I’ll find out next month when I’m in Japan.

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