How to book the Ghibli museum ticket in advance?
 

I’m planning to visit Japan on this summer and want to visit ghibli museum, but I’ve heard we should book tickets in advance. I know there are some ways to buy tickets from outside of japan in advance, but the procedure is too complicated for me.
Does anybody know the ticket service reserving tickets for me in Japan?

P.S. I know voyagin is doing the kind of tickets service, but voyagin is too expensive for me. i want to know any other services providing much cheaper than voyagin’s service.

This seems a good place to start.....http://www.ghibli-museum.jp/en/ticket-information/
Or ask the concierge at your hotel.

did you look at this:
http://www.lawson.co.jp/ghibli/museu...t/english.html
?

You can book at any Lawson via the machines but it is only in Japanese -- you will need a clerk or friend who knows a little English to help you. Maybe the cheat sheet indicated by the link in the above post is enough but if anything goes the slightest bit wrong...

I had the same problem for the last time I visited Japan. In my case, I wanted to reserve Doraemon museum tickets, but I couldn’t find any procedures to reserve them from outside of Japan, so I used the ticket ordering service to make sure my ticket reserved from outside of Japan.
japanticketbuying
I recommend you using this service. Their response was really fast and the staff’s English was so fluent. In addition, the tickets were much cheaper than voyagin. Hope I answered your question.

Also keep in mind that tickets for a particular month go on sale at 10 AM on the 10th of the month prior. So for example, tickets for April will go on sale on March 10. And they will run out fast.

I went at 9.50 am on the 10th to buy 2 tickets for the following month, and there were already 2 people ahead of me in line for the Loppi machine. One lady must've bought at least 10 tickets.

In my experience it is next to impossible to find any tickets for the month you are in. I bet March is all sold out already.

According to the museum's website:

So tickets for July will go on sale on April 1st.

I believe this is referring to ticket sales outside of Japan. For Lawson Loppi sales, they go on sale the 10th of the month prior. I will double-check again and report back, could be they changed the system since last year.

Edit: On the Lawson website in Japanese here (http://www.lawson.co.jp/ghibli/museum/ticket/loppi.html) it mentions that tickets go on sale on the 10th of every month, unless it's a weekend or public holiday, in which case it's the first weekday after the 10th. As is the case with many things here, the English version of their webpage misses this key bit of information. http://www.lawson.co.jp/ghibli/museu...t/english.html

Stopped by a Lawson today. April tickets not on sale yet. Tried to buy 1 ticket for a random weekday in March for 10 AM, sold out unsurprisingly.

OP might have easier time buying these outside Japan, unless planning on being here 4-5 weeks. Or just pay the scalpers their higher prices if you don't want to wait.

Interesting, the one time I made an inquiry at that Loppi machine, it had tickets available for the very next day, at virtually all hours. Maybe it's gotten more popular since I tried, that was a while back.

Buying outside of Japan through the official agents listed on the official museum site is more difficult, as these agents only get allotted a small number of tickets.

i.e. these foreign agents (usually JTB) would be sold out for the month when Lawson online site says available. Well reported on various travel boards.

The English "cheat sheet" posted on the official website is inaccurate and essentially useless, probably wasn't updated for years.

You can ask your friends in Japan (if any) to buy for you, or hotel concierge (add ~1000 per ticket), online shops (check tripadvisor forum, for example)

When I went maybe 2 years ago, tickets were available on select time slots within the week via online or loppi machine - they have the same inventory and it's real time.

The museum (just a tiny western style mansion) was packed. The gift shop was the worst - more crowded than rush hour Shinjuku Station. Awful experience, probably because I am not a huge Ghibli fan to begin with.

Am curious about this, since have no experience buying outside of Japan. According to the information posted upthread, overseas JTB offices sell tickets for a given month plus 3 months in advance. This means at the moment if you want you can reserve April, May, or June tickets.

Whereas within Japan, Lawson will only let you reserve tickets for at most one month in advance, depending on the date. April tickets won't go on sale until March 10. So if a tourist were looking for April, May, or June tickets, wouldn't it be easier to try getting them overseas? They have availability earlier, even if their daily allotment might not be as big.

One advantage to buying outside of Japan (JTB) is that you can show up any time at the museum and gain admittance. If you buy tickets within Japan at Lawsons or similar, you are allotted a time slot and you have to be there at that time.

Not sure where you are based, but I am in Canada and it is about as simple as you can get. You can order by phone or website..just as an example, here is the website in Canada I would use
http://www.jtb.ca/eweb/index3.aspx?id=HE52

Naturally you should use the service in your part of the world.