GHIBLI PARK. The theme park in the universe of the famous Japanese animation studio Ghibli opened on November 1, 2022 in Nagakute, Japan. It immerses fans in the world of Totoro, Chihiro or Princess Mononoke.
[Mis à jour le 3 novembre 2022 à 20h23] Japanese animation studio Ghibli’s theme park, set in a seven-hectare park, opened on November 1, 2022 about 250 kilometers west of Tokyo in Japan, in the prefecture of Aichi. Ghibli Park has the particularity of not having a roller coaster or a Ferris wheel! Indeed, theobjective is rather to immerse the visitors in the middle of the decorations and fantastical creatures invented by animation genius Hayao Miyazaki, co-founder and director of the studio. The supervision of the park was also entrusted to his son Goro Miyazaki who directed 3 films for the Ghibli studio: Tales from Earthsea (2006), The Poppy Hill (2011) and Aya and the Witch (2020). Find out in our slideshow below, Ghibli Park in pictures :
Only 3 out of 5 areas have been built so far: The Dondoko Forest is a space dedicated to the iconic character of Totoro. The hill of youth is another space inspired by the universe of the film Whisper of the Heart and that of kingdom of cats. Finally, a larger area, nicknamed the Great Ghibli Warehousebrings together shops, a cinema that projects short films from the studio, and temporary exhibitions with sets and objects from the ghibli museum in Mitaka, a western suburb of Tokyo.
The management of the park has announced that the two remaining areas will open “after 2023” with the program the space the Valley of the Witchesdedicated to movies Kiki’s Delivery Service and The Howl’s Moving Castle and a reconstruction of Mononoke Village. There will still be an attraction on board with cups of tea bearing the image of Jiji, the witch Kiki’s cat.
Ghibli Park does not offer attractions. It is a theme park designed as a walk in harmony with nature and immersed in the dreamlike universe of Miyazaki’s films, which among other things address the theme of environmentalism, which is the case of the film Princess Mononoke (1997). Visitors can experience Satsuki and Mei’s house in My Neighbor Totoro (1988) or, the lair of the witch Yubaba in the Spirited Away (2001) which won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.
In the “Great Ghibli Warehouse”, visitors can find the famous Chatbus of My Neighbor Totoro or the great robot soldier of the castle in the sky (1986).
Online booking on the website of Ghibli Park is compulsory because it is impossible to buy a ticket on site. There are only tickets per zone available for sale at the online ticketing. For example, the entry for the Great Ghibli Warehouse costs 2000 yen, or 15 euros per adult and 1000 yen, or 7.50 euros per child on weekdays. On weekends and public holidays, the same ticket costs 19 euros per adult and 9 euros per child.
Good to know : tickets for the next one month are sold on the 10th of each month at 10 am (except the day after the weekday if the 10th falls on a weekend or a public holiday).
Ghibli Park is located at the Aichi Earth Expo Memorial Park, site of the 2005 World Expo, in the city of Nagakute located in Aichi Prefecture on the island of Honshū in the Japan.
The mailing address for Ghibli Park is Aichi Earth Expo Memorial Park, 1533-1 Ibaragabasama, Nagakute, Aichi. Ghibli Park can be reached in two hours by train from Kyoto city and three hours by train from Tokyo city, with the Japan Rail Pass.