Our final day and a half were spent heading first to Nagoya, where we spent the night, then on to Ghibli Park, which is a Studio Ghibli theme park just outside of Nagoya. If you’re a fan of Studio Ghibli movies, this is a must-see. No photos were allowed inside most of the buildings, but there were still plenty of photo ops. You’ll want a full day at Ghibli Park, so spending the night in Nagoya is a good idea. Note: There is also a Ghibli Museum in Tokyo. This is a large theme park, although parts are very much like a museum.
Buying Tickets + Getting There
Before I go into how to get to Ghibli Park, let’s briefly talk about tickets: they sell out fast. Also, you *must* buy your tickets in advance, as there are no ticket sales on-site at the park. So, don’t show up hoping to score a last minute ticket. Not only will they have been long sold out, but there’s literally no way to buy a ticket on site. When we bought our tickets, the way it worked was tickets would go on sale on the 10th of the month *three months in advance*. Here’s an article going into more detail about buying tickets, and here’s the official website for buying tickets. I highly recommend doing a trial run a month out from when you actually need to buy tickets, so that you get the timezone change correct, and will know at what time (your local time) the tickets go on sale.
Here’s a guide to getting to Ghibli Park from Tokyo. We went the night before and spent the night in Nagoya, which I highly recommend. We took the bullet train from Tokyo to Nagoya. There was a great view of Mt. Fuji along the way. If you do want to spend the night in Nagoya, the Nagoya Tokyu Hotel is legit. We had a very nice stay, and an incredible breakfast buffet.
Ghibli Park
We absolutely loved Ghibli Park. It’s not a ride-filled theme park, it’s more of a nature preserve with buildings, statues, and other bits and pieces from Studio Ghibli movies sprinkled throughout. The main attraction, though, is the Grand Warehouse, which will take up most of your time at the park. It’s huge. There’s a movie theater in the Grand Warehouse that was showing a cute animated short while we were there. Other areas of the park are definitely good, but don’t short-change your time in the warehouse. Also, as noted in one of the linked articles above, your entrance to the Grand Warehouse is a timed entrance, while the rest of the park is open to you at any time – depending on your ticket type, some areas may not be accessible, but that’s generally the inside of certain buildings.
Words can’t really describe how great this was for the four of us, all of us being big Studio Ghibli fans. So, I’ll let the pictures do the talking. But first, here’s a good Guide to Ghibli Park.
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