Buckle up! This is long
Ghibli Park
Today was a day I had been looking forward to for a while. We were going to visit Ghibli Park near Nagoya. Since they don’t allow large bags and don’t have much storage, we had decided to ship our bags for this part, so that we wouldn’t be stressing about finding somewhere to store them. We still had to store 2 backpacks, one with camera equipment, husband’s carry-on with his laptop, a duffle with toiletries and dirty clothes from the previous day, and a duffle full of Kit Kats. We took the subway to Kyoto Station, since we didn’t have as much luggage. We took the shinkansen from Kyoto to Nagoya and just bought tickets at the station. When we got to Nagoya, we had to find the lockers. Again, Google Maps is not good with such small scales. We found a small bank of lockers, but there weren’t enough, since they were small lockers. So, we kept trekking to find a larger bank of lockers. After what seemed forever, we finally found them near the Marriott. And score, there was enough
!!! It was super easy. We just used the Apple Pay Suite on my husband’s phone. It even remembered which lockers. We had to take the Nagoya Subway to the first stop on the Linimo train line to get to Ghibli Park. The subway trip was long, 28 stops. We walked around a bit trying to find the Linimo station after getting out of the subway but eventually found it. The Linimo stops right next to Aichi Park, where Ghibli Park is located. We walked up to a really cool clock tower building that had an elevator. This led to what looked like a normal park area. There was an indoor ice skating rink, a covered pavilion with a food truck, lots of grass and landscaping, and some very interesting stuff in the distance. The individual lands for Ghibli Park are just located around an actual park that free to enter. Each land requires a ticket to enter though. At this point is was closer to 11am, and the park opened at 10am. It closes on weekdays at 5pm. So we needed to get a move on.
We headed to the Valley of the Witches, because it seemed to have the most stuff to look at and the largest area. The Ghibli Park website shows the wait times for food and some attractions. We bought the Premium ticket which gave us access to all of the areas and some special things in each area. Here it was the Okino Residence, Howl's Castle, and the House of Witches. At the entrance to each land, they scan your ticket/entitlement. At the entrance to each place, they do the same. The tickets/entitlements are accessed day of on your phone through a link in an email. We passed the restaurant as we entered. It looked and smelled good, but they didn’t have anything our son would eat.
We did the House of Witches first with our premium pass. The level of detail in these places is insane. There was stuff everywhere. You could open pretty much every door, drawer, appliance, even the toilet (there was nothing in the toilet though
). If you looked at everything in detail, you wouldn’t make it to any other land all day. This house is from Earwig and the Witch. They basically take a cartoon and make an intricately detailed real world out of it! We did some other stuff in the area that was included in the regular ticket on our way to Howl’s Castle from Howl’s Moving Castle. This was part of the premium ticket too. It was beautiful inside and out. Multiple stories with outside balconies. Part of the outside of the structure even moved. Some of this stuff isn’t even shown in the movies, but they dream it up. I can see why they require frequent maintenance, because you are allowed to touch/open almost everything. I think there was only one thing in the whole park we couldn’t touch. We looked at stuff along the way to the next premium area, the Okino residence from Kiki’s Delivery Service; it’s where Kiki lives. Again, exquisite detail. The two rides in the area are a carousel with animals and characters from several movies and the Flying Machine from Castle in the Sky; these had an additional fee. We looked at the rest of the stuff in the land, including the Hatter’s Millinery from Howl’s Moving Castle, which had a candy/hat store and a book store. The candy was all really beautiful small hard candies that looks like stained glass. It’s called cut rock candy. It’s long small tubes that are cut into thin slices. The designs are very intricate. The tins were beautiful too. I wanted to buy some, but I have a candy tin habit
I have been good about not buying any and even got rid of a ton. I didn’t want to start up again. Plus, the candy looked pretty, but it was probably not anything special flavor/taste wise. The bakery from Kiki’s Delivery Service sold breads and snacks from the movie and other breads. I wanted some, but the wait was about 40 minutes. There was also a small hot dog stand. We hit the gift shop on the way out. Managed to find a few things. We spent the longest amount of time in this area, probably a bit over an hour. They gave us invisible/“magic” handstamps if we wanted to return. This was the only area that allowed that, probably because it’s one of the few with food.
We needed to get some food before our Ghibli Grand Warehouse time at 1pm. There was a Mos Burger food truck under the park pavilion and seating. Our son decided to eat a bar and a package of 7-11 pancakes. Husband got a teriyaki burger, and I got a fried fish sandwich, like a McDonald’s filet o’ fish. They were small but good. The line was long though, and it took a bit to cook the food. It went faster than we thought it would.
Next was the Ghibli Grand Warehouse. We had to reserve a specific one hour window in which to enter when I bought tickets. You could stay inside as long as you wanted though. This contained the main gift shop, cinema, special exhibition, children’s area, cat bus room, Minami-Machi, cafe, and milk stand. Since we had eaten before and didn’t think our son would eat anything at the cafe or milk stand, we skipped those. We saw a long line for the special exhibitions, so we decided to come back later. We decided to skip the shorts in the cinema, because there was a lot left in the warehouse and the rest of the park to see. We walked around and looked at the children’s area and the cat bus room. Adults can’t enter or play on everything though. Then we found this garden area below, not really sure what it was part of. You had to crouch to enter, and there was a little line. You were now small and in Arriety’s garden and house. We went to Minami-machi street, which replicated a traditional Japanese street. Such detail again, and whimsy. We headed back to the special exhibits, and the line still looked long. Looking closer, we realized there was no line to get into the exhibits. The line was to take a photo with No Face from Spirited Away in the train sequence. We could see the scene but decided to not wait for a photo. The exhibit had 3 parts.. First was the Becoming Characters in Memorable Ghibli Scenes. This was basically recreations of famous scenes for photo op purposes. They were cool to look at; we aren’t huge on selfies. Next was the Delicious! Animating Memorable Meals Expanded Edition. It was food scenes from different movies. These were really cool and pretty detailed. You couldn’t touch these like the premium exhibits. Last was an exhibit of posters and other materials from the movies. On the way to the gift shop, we saw the Oscar award for the Boy and the Heron on display. Miyazaki won it for best director. He didn’t want it at home or in the office, so he decided to display it there. Next to it was a recreation of Yababa’s office from Spirited Away. It had her with her glorious big head, contracts flying everywhere, and the giant green heads of the Kashira. Last was the gift shop. It was pretty crowded. I had to get some stuff for others and look for myself. They had some interesting stuff. I was hoping to get a t-shirt, but they didn’t really have anything I liked. They didn’t really have animation on them, mostly just the name of the park. They had really cool big plush heads of the Kashira from Spirited Away; they were almost the size of a pillow. They also had a big plush hat that was Ababa’s wig. They had a bunch of various sizes and types of Totoro. I got a little plush bag charm one like the one in the Dondoko Forest part of the park. Lots of cool postcards. We still had 3 areas to hit before closing. Luckily, these weren’t as big as the first one, Valley of the Witches, and the warehouse.
Next was the Dondoko Forest where Totoro lives. You had to walk a ways through a beautiful wooded area with hiking trails that were part of the public park. It was uphill too but not steep. Right before you enter, there was a stop for the Catbus. It was really a elongated glorified electric golf cart decorated inside and out like the Catbus from My Neighbor Totoro. We could go into Satsuki and Mei’s House with our premium ticket. This was the only premium thing that had a line. It’s very small, so they had to limit people. It was so cute. Again, so incredibly detailed. You had to take off your shoes to enter. You could see a pretty little garden from inside. Once outside with your shoes, you could look at the garden and pond. We then went uphill more to the main part of the area. There was large hollow Totoro, called Dondoko-do, at the top. Children could climb inside. The plush charm I bought was designed after the structure. The area also had a little gift hut and snack stand that could be accessed without a ticket for Ghibli Park. We had to walk to the other side of the park for the next area, so we decided to pay extra for the Catbus. It was kind of expensive but very cute. It’s probably the only time I will get to be in a Catbus
The Cats dropped us down the hill back near the center of the park, right in front of our next area, Mononoke Village. This area is from the movie Princess Mononoke. It had a large thatched roof structure called Tatara-ba. Inside you could pay extra to cook a gohei-mochi, rice cake, over charcoals with a dipping sauce. It looked cute, but our son wasn’t interested. It smelled really good. There was a large structure resembling Lord Okkoto, the wild boar from the movie. It was actually a children’s slide and covered with decorative tiles. There was also a large statue of the Demon Spirit. It looked like a really big concrete spider and was kind of nightmarish. It really was one of the few nightmarish things in the park. The Ghibli movies can contain some disturbing visuals. There was a little gift shop in a generic building. It sold little plush of the boar and demon, Princess Mononoke’s hat, jerky, and some other little souvenirs. This area is the smallest and least detailed of all of them.
Last was Hill of Youth near the entrance. It’s from several movies. The elevator tower at the entrance to the park is part of it and influenced by Castle in the Sky and Howl’s Moving Castle. It open to the public. The World Emporium is inside and accessible with the premium ticket. It’s the antique and repair shop from Whisper of the Heart. It was really cool. This was one place where we couldn’t touch somethings, because they were fragile. This was in the living portion. The workshop was in the basement. It was so cool. Lots of tools to see and touch. There was even a piano that worked. The Cat Bureau from The Cat Returns was little house where you could look inside the windows and see the the cats living with their furniture and household goods. When we entered, there was a phone booth with a phone that would say something in Japanese. There was a red old fashioned mailbox from which you could mail a postcards purchased in the Grand Emporium. This area was cute but also small.
We finished at the park before closing. Bought some water and used the park entrance restrooms right outside the station. This is where the park lockers are. There was actually a decent amount, but I don’t know if any were very big. We had to head back to Nagoya Station to get our stuff and hop on the train to Tokyo. Took the Linimo back to the subway station. On our way to the subway, I saw a Beard Papa. So we bought our first and only cream puffs in Japan. Mine was good, but my husband’s chocolate and matcha had different dough texture. Mine was just regular matcha. On our way to the lockers in Nagoya Station, we realized we should be some food and drinks for the train. We couldn’t find a 7-11 easy, so we just grabbed something from a no name konbini in the station. Our son didn’t find much that he wanted except oreos. My husband and I got onigiri and probably sandwiches, egg sando and breaded chicken cutlet with tarter sauce. I think I got a strawberry sandwich too. We got soda and bottled tea. Found the ticket machines with our carry-ons and snacks and got to the platform. My husband had upgraded to the Green Car this time. We hadn’t done it before. It was definitely roomier. The seats were nicer. Not that the reserved seats on the shinkansen aren’t nice and roomy, but these were even better. We started eating and realized that we hadn’t bought any alcohol. You can order drinks and alcohol in the Green Car. They bring it to you, along with actual napkins, which are a rarity in Japan. Usually the napkins are plastic or waxy and don’t really absorb liquid, just kind of pushes stuff around
They even take your garbage, like on an airplane.
It was after 8pm when we got to Tokyo Station. Since there would’t be a 7-11 nearby at Miracosta, we had to find one so that our son could get his supply of emergency pancakes
I just stopped near a column while they ran around the station trying to find one. They came back with a bag of like 6 packages. I think they bought the place out
Since we didn’t have all of our luggage, (it was shipped the day before from Kyoto to Miracost and the AirTags showed them at the hotel), we took the Keiyo line to the Tokyo Disney monorail. We bought 4 day passes. We should have waited. 4 days is the max pass. We would only use it once that day, but we could have used it twice on our last day. We got to the hotel. They took our luggage, and I waited to checkin.
Checkin was a bit slow. We had a complicated reservation. A room only night in Habor View, a 3 day/2 night package in Harbor View, a 2 day/1 night package in Harbor View, and a room only in a Harbor View, but this one had a cruise bed so a different room type. They had to charge us, explain the packages, explain the Happy Entry tickets, moving to a different room for our last night, breakfast, and I’m sure a lot of other things
While we were waiting for them to take us to our room with the luggage we had brought with us, we met Flossbina from the DISboards. She came up and saw my blue hair
We talked for a bit, but they cast member was waiting to take us up to our room. We unfortunately never saw them again
As they were about to take us up, my husband mentioned the luggage that was delivered. I had decided to specifically come back to get it once we were in our room, but I hadn’t told him. So they insisted on finding it and taking everything up at once. So, we waited again.
Finally got to the room. It was beautiful and had a great view of the harbor. They left our and bags, and we started to settle in and get organized for tomorrow. Our son had to hop in the shower too. Suddenly, there’s a knock at the door. It was the cast member that took us to our room. She was very apologetic, because the paper key holder had the wrong checkout date. It had our final date, not the room change date. I had seen this but knew what I needed to do. She had to get on the radio and explain the situation. There was a lot of back and forth. She would type something into her phone and then translate it to English for me. After what felt like an eternity, probably actually 20 minutes, she asked if I was fine with not changing it and understood when I needed to move rooms. I said yes. She communicated on the radio, said thank you several times, apologized profusely, and left. I thought it was pretty hilarious all the fuss over a piece of paper that most Americans would never even look at or keep. At least they are thorough
We finished getting organized and went to bed.
It was such a short stop too. All we could do was wait to see where the next stop was. We stayed in the area between cars near the exit. The conductor came by and we showed him our tickets to explain that we missed our stop. He said it was an hour away to the next stop at Tsuruga, which was probably the end of the line. He graciously let us sit, since there were empty seats. Unfortunately, the luggage was just rolling and sliding around, so my husband stayed with the luggage. We didn’t have to pay for the extra stop, but we did have to buy a ticket to get back to Kyoto. We managed to get back. We were up with our bags at the exit 15 minutes before the stop
.
