Ghibli Park
We left Fukui quite early as we had a catch a train and change a couple of times before we arrived at Nagoya. We were stopping here on the way back to Tokyo so that I could visit the Studio Ghibli Park as I have been a fan of the films for a long time and had read about the park.
I won’t go through all the details of getting the tickets as they are very well explained on https://ghibli-park.jp/en/ticket/ . One thing to note is that you must pre buy the tickets as none are on sale on the day. They sell a whole month’s tickets on the same day 2 months in advance so don’t worry as I was 15,000 in the queue and still got the day I wanted.
We left our cases in a luggage locker at Nagoya station and followed the directions on Google to the correct trains for the park.
The layout of the park was not what I expected as it is a massive public park that has 5 private areas that are the different zones and these can only be accessed if you have tickets. There is also the Grand Warehouse which is the only zone that you select the entrance time when buying the tickets. It was a very hot day and we only managed the two zones that I wanted to see and the warehouse.
The Valley of the Witches which contained buildings from Kiki’s Delivery Service and Howl’s Moving castle was excellent, with a fully created Howl’s castle. You can also buy bread in the bakery that Kiki lives in.
The Dondoko Forest is the homage to My Neighbour Totoro with a recreation of Satsuki and Mei’s house. (I enjoyed it so much that I even appear in the picture)
The Grand Warehouse is a collection of different exhibits from various films and projects as well as a cinema showing an original film and of course the gift shop.
I really enjoyed the whole day but I think to appreciate it fully you should be a fan of the films, but it is still a very nice experience for all as a peaceful day in a lovely park.
We returned to Nagoya, retrieved our bags and got our train to Tokyo where we got off at Tokyo Station. As it was our final two nights of the holiday I had booked a slightly more expensive hotel above Tokyo Station. The hotel was on the 27th floor of a tower and had spectacular views from the bar and restaurant area. We checked in and went for a short walk around the local area and then headed to bed.
