The first time I went to Japan, I was in the air longer than I was on the ground. It was for a press event and while I walked around a bit, between sleep and work I didnt really get to see anything. So when Lucasfilm announced that Star Wars Celebration was going to be in Japan in April 2025, I took it as a sign. Im turning 45 in April and a trip to Japan for a Star Wars convention sounded like a fun way to celebrate. But I wasnt gonna make the same mistake againno quick trip in and out. This time, Im staying longer, giving me a chance to visit the number one place on my Japan bucket list: the Studio Ghibli Museum. The Ghibli Museum in Mitaka (not to be confused with the park in Nagoya) is somewhere Ive wanted to go for as long as Ive known it existed. Not many of my favorite film studios (Lucasfilm, Pixar, Marvel, Amblin, Aardman) have dedicated tourist locations you can visit without knowing someone on the inside, so this was something I wasnt going to miss. As soon as the decision was made to actually travel to Japan, I started saving upand doing my research. I found out that museum tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Tokyo time on the 10th of the month before. So, probably back in August 2024 or so, I put the words GHIBLI MUSEUM TICKETS MARCH 10 as the only thing to do on my calendar this past weekend. As the date got closer, I dug a bit deeper. I found the website. Signed up for something where I had to S P A C E M Y N A M E like that before realizing it was the incorrect website (possibly the one for local sales) and didnt need to do all that. I watched a few YouTube videos (this one in particular was good), found the right site for international sales (this is the right site), and waited for the day in question. But what day was I looking for? I soon realized that 10 a.m. in Tokyo is the day before in the United States. Plus, my specific weekend was the first day of daylight savings time. It wasnt until the morning of March 9 that I could confidently say that the tickets would be available at 6 p.m. local time in Los Angeles, California. I was ready. The image at the top of the museum page. Studio Ghibli Now, before I break this down in more detail, a few important things. You have to know what days you are available to attend. The tickets are sold in specific time and day blocks and some of the more popular days/times sell out quickly. Also, its usually closed at least one day a week. So look at your trip and figure out at least one or two days that are flexible enough that you can get tickets at any time and still be happy. Thats one.The other thing is practice. If you can, try and go through the process in the month or two before your days become available, just so you are familiar with it all. I did not do this and it added to my stress, which is crazy because Ive been buying limited-edition posters, toys, all that kind of stuff for basically 20 years. Im also something of an expert on San Diego Comic-Con hotel reservations, a notoriously difficult task. Buying two tickets to a museum that accommodates thousands in any window over two full days didnt feel like an impossible task. I have experience. The issue was if I didnt get them, there wasnt any good second option. The Ghibli site is pretty clear about secondary market tickets not being ideal and the names on the tickets have to match your name. Surely, if I spent more, I could figure it out. There are always ways. But I didnt want to deal with that. In my mind, I had one shot at this and I wish I had practiced. The day arrived. A few hours before the tickets went on sale, the site added the April dates and gave you a look at what specifically you had to click. You can select dates, times, and even see the types of tickets before the site stops you. So I did that a few times as anxiety continued to build. The key moment, however, is 30 minutes before the sale. Thats when the site gets taken over by Queue-It. Queue-It is a devilish company that I hate very much because it does a very good job at being very fair about high-demand events like this. Its the one Ive been dealing with for years for Comic-Con hotels. So while Queue-It is my enemy, its an enemy I respect.An admittedly crude screencap of my computer screen in the queue io9/Gizmodo In this 30-minute window, the key is to open as many different devices or browsers as possible. You cant just open different tabs. They have to be different profiles entirely. Each of these has to be open to the ticketing site that you can see counting down 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 rest you have open. If so, thats good. Thats its own entry. You want this because each browser/device is another roll of the dice. Once the countdown hits 0, Queue-It takes every single person on that page at that timeno matter when they arrived on the page, mind youand sorts them into a random order. So someone will instantly get put onto the ticket page and others will see that there are tens of thousands of people ahead of them and the wait is over an hour. The Queue-It site keeps you well-informed on all that with an evil little person walking. But, if you have multiple devices/browsers all open to the page before the on-sale time, each one counts as a different entry. One might get 35,000, and one might get 1,300, which just so happen to be the highest and lowest numbers I got on my series of devices. So while I let the higher numbers run as a backup, I focused on my best and lowest entry.The Ghibli Museum, the reason were doing all this, is usually open six days a week and has four time slots per day (10, 12, 2, 4). I was aiming for either a Thursday or a Friday, with the earliest slot available. So, after 10 minutes of waiting, 1,300 people ahead of me checked out and it was my turn. A screenshot of the, now sold-out, April Ghibli Museum calendar. Studio Ghibli Hopefully at this point, youve already done this partbut if not, its go time. You click a few pages and get to the big calendar with all the dates. On here youll see all the time slots with one of three symbols. An O is available. A triangle means close to selling out and an X is sold out. The 10 a.m. slot on my first choice day was already a triangle but I foolishly went for it anyway. I filled everything in, got to the credit card and, alas, it sold out. Onto noon I went. At this pointand this has changed over the years you need a few things. You need a date and time, of course. You need to know which kind of tickets you want (its age-dependent). You need the email and name of the primary person responsible for the tickets (of which you can only buy six), and you will need to know which airport you are flying in and out of in Tokyo. Why? Im not sure. But youll have to fill that out along with your nationality.Youll also have to set up an account with a four-character password (you cant do this before I dont think, but its super easy and on the same page) and then pay. The tickets are relatively cheap (only 1000 yen for adults, which is about $7) but can only be purchased via credit card. Now, this is a key I learned from the YouTube videos. Most credit card companies will see a seemingly random charge from a foreign country pop up, flag it as fraud, and your card will be denied. This is not a good thing, especially when theres a ticking clock. So, call your credit card company a few days early (or maybe two if you have them) and tell them that on this day you are going to buy something from Japan. And while you have them on the phone, give them your full travel dates too. It cant hurt. Once the credit card is accepted, voila! You have tickets to the Ghibli Museum. You then have to access them with your new account info and print out a confirmation with a QR code (its stressed that you should print it out, probably so you dont have to worry about phone data). Thats your ticket. Nothing but happy faces at this point. Studio Ghibli After months of anxiety and stress, the actual ticket-buying process only took me 15 minutes. I was very lucky but I was also prepared. I got my first-choice day and second-choice time. My other browsers, however, were not so fortunate. Just as an experiment, I let a second browser that had a number in the 20,000s count all the way down. It took a little over an hour to access the tickets and while there were some times still available for my Thursday and Friday, they were later in the afternoon and most weekend dates were sold out. An hour after that, the whole month was gone.To recap, here are my biggest tips to get Ghibli Museum tickets on the official website. Do as much research as possiblewhich youre already doing if youre reading this. High five! If possible, do a test run the month before your tickets go on sale to familiarize yourself. Pick multiple days and times that work for your trip and make sure the museum is open on those days (all info thats on the main site). Open multiple browsers/devices to the ticket page between 1 and 30 minutes before the sale. Have all your travel information on hand. In previous years, people have had to put in local addresses and even passport numbers. That isnt the case now but could be in the future. Call your credit card company to let them know a foreign transaction is coming and is approved. Its as simple as that. Yes, Im joking. But, hopefully, all the stress was worth it. Ill find out next month when Im in Japan. Want more io9 news? 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