Ghibli Park in Aichi prefecture fully opened in 2024 and it has been attracting droves of Ghibli fans. A chance to visit Ghibli Park led us to make a detour to Nagoya to visit the Ghibli attraction.
For those who may be thinking of paying a visit to Ghibli Park in Japan, here are some useful things to know in order to orientate yourself and prepare for your trip to Ghibli land!
1. Overview of Ghibli Park
Ghibli Park is not to confused with Ghibli Museum in Tokyo. Located in Aichi, the closest big city to the park is Nagoya.
Ghibli Park is a theme park located within the Expo 2005 Aichi Commemorative Park. But it is not your typical theme park with amusement rides and shows. Instead, it is a place where fans can immerse themselves into the world of Ghibli with walk-in buildings and places that look straight out of the animated movies.
The Expo 2005 Aichi Commemorative Park where Ghibli Park is located is a public park that anyone can access. However, Ghibli Park is made up of five ticketed areas within the public park that only ticket holders can access.
The five ticketed areas that all ticket holders can get access to are:
- Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse
- Hill of Youth
- Dondoko Forest
- Mononoke Village
- Valley of Witches
These five ticketed areas make up Ghibli Park. Four of them are located relatively close to one another. Only the Dondoko Forest is a distance away.
Just a side note that there is no fixed sequence to exploring the five areas. You can appreciate each of them for what they are.
2. Ghibli Park Tickets
Ghibli Park tickets are notoriously difficult to purchase. There are a limited number of tickets available and while this help to manage the crowd levels, it does mean that they run out very quickly.
There are two types of Ghibli Park tickets:
- Ghibli Park O-Sanpo Day Pass
- Ghibli Park O-Sanpo Day Pass Premium
What’s the difference between the two types of tickets? While the Day Pass allows you to access all the five areas of the park, it will not allow you to enter into specific buildings within the park.
To gain access to all the buildings within Ghibli Park, you will need a Day Pass Premium.
Passes go on sale two months in advance, on the 10th of the month at 2 pm (Japan time). For example, Ghibli Park tickets for entry in March will go on sale on 10 January at 2 pm.
International visitors can purchase tickets via an online portal or via Klook.
Take note that park tickets cannot be purchased onsite at any area of the Ghibli Park. You will need to purchase them in advance.
As of December 2024, the price of the Day Pass starts from 3,500 yen for adults on weekdays. The price of the Day Pass Premium starts from 7,300 yen for adults on weekdays.
Of course, we recommend getting the Day Pass Premium as it allows you to full access to all the areas at Ghibli Park. However, these sell out fast. Personally, we had to settle for the regular Day Pass. Nonetheless, we still had a great time at Ghibli Park.
Once you have bought your passes, you can view them online over your mobile phone. You should bookmark the page with the passes because you will need to present the QR to enter each section of Ghibli Park. The staff will scan the ticket to allow you to enter each section.
3. Getting to Ghibli Park
From Nagoya Station, it takes around an hour and two trains to get to Ghibli Park.
First, you will need to ride the Higashiyama Line subway line to the last station, Fujigaoka Station. This takes around half an hour.
Then exit the station and take a short walk to the adjacent Linimo Station. You will know that you are on the right track because the station is decorated with Ghibli images.
You can then ride the Linimo train six stops to the Ai-Chikyuhaku-Kinen-Koen Station and enjoy the change of scenery out of the window as the urbanity of Nagoya falls away to the countryside. This second train ride takes around slightly less than half an hour.
Ai-Chikyuhaku-Kinen-Koen Station is adjacent to the plaza at Expo 2005 Aichi Commemorative Park.
Look out for the Elevator Tower close by where an elevator will take you down into the park.
4. Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse
Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse is the anchor attraction within Ghibli Park. It is an indoor facility where you can immerse yourself into Ghibli stories.
Both the Day Pass and the Day Pass Premium allow you access to Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse. Take note that entry to Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse is timed. It is the only part of Ghibli Park that has timed entry. This meant that you will likely have to plan your day around the entry timing for the Warehouse.
If your entry time is in the morning, then you can spend the rest of the day explore the other four themed areas. If your entry timing is in the afternoon, then you can explore the other areas first before proceeding back to the Warehouse.
There are a number of areas within the Warehouse. Take your time to wander and explore the different corners of the Warehouse and the various photo spots. You can also watch a Ghibli short animation at the Cinema Orion. However, it may not have subtitles so if you don’t speak Japanese, you may be left trying to piece together the plot without the words.
Here are four things that may be useful for you to know about Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse.
When you first enter in and head down the stairs, you will find a long queue to the left. We joined the queue and spent 45 minutes standing in the queue to enter a red building known as the Central Exhibit Room.
The queue turned out to be to take a picture with No-Face in the classic train scene from Spirited Away.
If this photo opportunity is not high on your priority list, you can enter the building from a side entrance.
You can then move on to the 13 other photo spots within the two-storey building.
Next, there is a kiddy play area known as The Cat Bus. Even though it for kids, it is still plenty of fun for adults to wander through. Unfortunately, no photos are allowed inside the play area.
However, you can take a picture with the Cat Bus at a Special Exhibition Area.
While photos are not allowed at most of the special exhibition area, there are some photo spots towards the end of the exhibition and this includes the Cat Bus that even adults can climb inside.
Thirdly, when it comes to food options within Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse, there is a “Transcontinental Flight Cafe” where you can get sandwiches and pizza.
However, if you are looking for more iconic Ghibli food, there is a milk stand located close up the stairs and next to the gift store.
It sells the cake with sweet beans like the “Siberia” from The Wind Rises. This is only available till it is sold out, so head there first if you want to sample it.
Our last tip for Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse is that you can also buy gifts from the South Street section of the Warehouse. While most people will do their shopping at the gift shop at the end of the Warehouse, South Street has shops that sell gifts like scale models and Ghibli books. If that is something that you fancy, you can pick something up from there too!
5. Hill of Youth
Hill of Youth is located directly to the left of the Elevator Tower. You will have to climb up a short flight of stair to reach the entrance to the themed zone. This area draws upon The Cat Returns and Whisper of the Heart.
For those with the regular Day Pass, you can peer into the Cat Bureau.
You can see Baron and Muta relaxing surrounded by cat-sized furniture and other household items.
Only Premium Pass holders can enter the World Emporium antique repair and resale shop that Shizuku Tsukishima stumbles upon in Whisper of the Heart. It is a two-storey building where details are painstakingly recreated, just like the rest of the Premium-only buildings around Ghibli Park.
6. Mononoke Village
Princess Mononoke is one of our favourite Studio Ghili films so of course we had to pay a visit to Mononoke Village.
Entering in, we were greeted by Lord Okkoto and the Demon Spirit from the film. Lord Okkoto is actually a slide the children under 12 can enjoy.
The main experience at Mononoke Village can be found inside the Tatara-ba. It is a hands hands-on activity centre where you can make Gohei-mochi (rice cakes) on a charcoal grill. This requires an additional fee and takes around 20 minutes to complete.
Personally, we ended up not spending much time at Mononoke Village as we wanted to spend the time covering the other lands.
7. Valley of Witches
Valley of Witches is located next to Mononoke Village. This was our favourite of the four outdoor themed lands and is also the one which is packed with the most things to see and experience. So you should allocate more time to it.
Valley of Witches is based on Ghibli’s witch-related films such as Kiki’s Delivery Service, Howl’s Moving Castle and Earwig and the Witch.
Upon entering in, you will come to the restaurant Flying OVEN. However, be prepared to queue if you wish to dine here.
Other food options inside Valley of Witches include Hotdog Stand “Hot Tin Roof” which has cute cat’s paw hotdogs and Guchokipanya Bakery where you can imagine that you are setting foot inside the bakery from Kiki’s Delivery Service.
The Premium-only houses inside the Valley of Witches include The Okino Residence where Kiki lived, The House of Witches from Earwig and the Witch, and Howl’s Castle from Howl’s Moving Castle.
Ordinary Day Pass visitors can get a little taste of the attention to detail in these houses by entering the Tower of Aviators. Children 12 and under can climb up to the second floor of the house.
Take note that photo taking is not allowed inside the houses.
Even without being able to go inside the Premium-only houses, we still enjoyed wandering around and enjoying the theming and there are photo spots, such as with Turnip Head, that will thrill Ghibli fans.
You will also find a couple of amusement rides inside Valley of the Witches. These require an additional fee.
8. Dondoko Forest
Dondoko Forest is based on My Neighbor Totoro. It is set a distance away from the rest of the lands of Ghibli Park can be reached by either a 15-minute walk through the park, or a bus ride.
The main attraction here is Satsuki and Mei’s House. However, this entire area, i.e. the house and its garden area, is only open to Premium pass holders. If you don’t have a Premium pass, you can only admire the house from a distance.
The other thing that non-Premium pass holders can do is to take a hike up the hill trail.
Follow the acorns as you make your way up.
You will arrive at a 5-meter-tall Totoro that children 12 and under can play inside.
Also, just a note that when you first head towards the Dondoko Forest area, you will come to a T-junction where you can choose to go either left or right. Taking the right path will lead you to the area with Satsuki and Mei’s House. Even for those without the Premium pass, the right path will take you to the nicer-looking stairs to get up to the giant Totoro.
9. Getting Around Ghibli Park
While four of the lands at Ghibli Park are fairly close to each other, Dondoko Forest is a distance away.
If you want to save your energy, instead of making the 15 minute walk through the park to reach Dondoko Forest, you may wish to consider taking the free bus instead. You can board this bus at the bus stand close to Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse and it will drop you off at Dondoko Forest.
A fun alternative to the free bus service is to take a Cat Bus. The bus stop for this is in between Mononoke Village and Valley of Witches. Additional fees need to be paid to ride the Cat Bus but it is a memorable experience.
10. Shopping
Of course you will want to take away some souvenirs from your visit to Ghibli Park.
There are several gift shops located in the park. These can be found at Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse and the Valley of Witches. There is also a small kiosk selling keychains and amulets at the giant Totoro at Dondoko Forest.
What we observed is that the merchandise being sold at the gift shops are unique to the specific gift shops. So what you find at the Witches Coven 13 at Valley of the Witches will be different from what you find at Adventurous Flying Squadron gift shop at Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse.
If you see something that you like, you may want to purchase it at that gift shop rather than thinking you can purchase it somewhere else.
Thankfully, if you do want to purchase Ghibli merchandise as you head out of the park, there is also a Ghibli gift shop at the plaza next to the Ai-Chikyuhaku-Kinen-Koen Station for your last minute purchases.
Or if all else fails, there is also a Lawson’s convenience store next to the Ai-Chikyuhaku-Kinen-Koen Station that sells Ghibli merchandise.
Have Fun at Ghibli Park
We hope that these tips have been useful and will help you to plan out your visit to Ghibli Park. We certainly enjoyed ours!
Visit the Ghibli Park website for more information.
If you enjoyed this story, we think that you may also enjoy this other story about a road trip through Central Japan or this other one about visiting Miyazaki with kids.
