Becoming tiny in the world of Borrowers, visiting Mei and Satsuki's house, posing with Laputa's robot… these are the immersive experiences offered at the new Ghibli Park, which opened on November 1, 2022, near Nagoya, Japan. IGN France visited the park recently, and we’ve assembled our impressions of the experience for those who are considering attending.
Avoiding the media hype around the opening of Ghibli Park within the Expo 2005 Aichi Commemorative Park (aka Moricoro Park), we entered the venue with tickets purchased personally. Hence, our introduction to the park was very much under normal conditions, including many visitors, queues, screaming children, etc.
As of now, Park Ghibli offers three areas - Grand Warehouse, Hill of Youth and Dondoko Forest. The staff is large and handily directs visitors to make each activity flow smoothly - there are no attractions to speak of, but many photo spots. Barring exceptions, the waits are never too long.
Ghibli's Grand Warehouse
The Grand Warehouse area, found completely indoors, is the largest of the three. We wandered through a maze of colorful constructions, and the setting hides very specific mini-zones.
In the center, you will find small rooms reserved for the youngest children, with a Cat Bus to climb on, mini-stores, and plenty to let off steam!
Fans of the Arriety movie will be delighted with not only a rather successful giant garden setting and its share of original pictures, but also with a small, slightly claustrophobic interior that makes you dive into the bowels of the house.
Not far away, a path on the side serves as a retro shopping street, with a model shop and another selling sweets from another era. If you want a collector's ramune, this is where you can get it.
In a corner of the Warehouse there is a soldier robot from Laputa (The castle in the sky) inside the false vegetation. A fast queue will lead you to your photo shoot.
A significant part of the Warehouse is the Orion cinema, designed in the art deco style. It's a great surprise because this is a room where you can discover the exclusive short films of Ghibli (after the Tokyo Ghibli museum finally). The room is also beautiful, large and comfortable. The 10-minute short films change cyclically, so it's hard to know what you're going to come across. Be aware that there are no subtitles that we discovered (even if there is a lot of dialogue as in “Kojiratori: The Whale Hunt”). Take it as an ode to the imagination of children. No big deal – we still get it…
The temporary exhibition is another must-see in the Grand Warehouse. Or at least, the one we have seen about food in the Ghibli films. It’s an interesting subject that also makes you hungry, represented in restaurant fronts from the films, frame-by-frame chewing sequences that allow one to appreciate the animation of various scenes, and more. Indeed, entire kitchens, like that of the flying ship of the Laputa pirates, are reproduced with a meticulousness that arouses curiosity. We opened cupboards and drawers so as not to miss anything. But we were also disappointed by the fact that we weren’t allowed to take pictures in these magnificent settings.
The exhibition ends with a commemoration of the production of Studio Ghibli, with plenty of posters and even DVD/Blu-ray boxes from all over the world. We took another picture in front of the famous logo (because it's allowed again) and then we were off again. This is also where we found the big Cat Bus that can "carry" several visitors (it's a bit of chaos for photos).
Since this exhibition was really making us hungry, let's talk about the cafeteria. This is the only food outlet in the place (aside from the candy shop). It's up to you to bring something else to snack on if you’re between two Ghibli areas if needed, but don't forget to take your packaging with you: There are no trash cans in the park, as is often the case in Japan. Otherwise, there is also a Lawson (a small cafe) in the vicinity, which does not hesitate to play the Ghibli card.
The Warehouse cafeteria is chic and simple, perhaps too much so for those hoping for a Ghibli theme. Here, apart from the little flags planted in the excellent sandwiches and slices of pizza, there are no frills in sight. The most original dish is the tonkatsu-miso pizza, but that's more due to the proximity of Nagoya than to Ghibli…
Do not forget to check out the surprising warehouse where various creations from the Ghibli universe are stored for exhibitions, events, and so on. The atmosphere is almost disturbing, but it is very intriguing. Hopefully it expands over time.
Finally, there are several activities where you are allowed to climb into a set to recreate a scene from a Ghibli film in place of one of the characters. But access to this area is so crowded that we gave up the idea of trying it. A shame. Allow yourself more time than we did in the Warehouse (perhaps four to five hours) because the place deserves a few twists and turns (and breaks) to be fully appreciated.
The final stop to shop is very chaotic. Larger than the one at the Ghibli museum, but too small for the influx of visitors, the shop does not share the ergonomics of the rest of the Warehouse. Unless you are looking for Grand Warehouse exclusives, we would almost advise you to avoid it and just find one of the many Ghibli stores in Japan to do your shopping. Ideally, Ghibli should reserve this store for Warehouse exclusives and open a larger shop elsewhere. Note that Moricoro Park also has a shop, which is accessible to all and well-stocked with Ghibli products.
Hill of Youth
The Hill of Youth is a very small area near Grand Warehouse and nestled high in a wood. It is simply a reproduction of the house seen in Whisper of the Heart, a mix of dwelling, antique shop and luthier's workshop.
The house itself does not look like much from the outside, but the interior immediately transports you into the film. As with Mei and Satsuki's house from the other area, don't expect to find any fantasy elements or characters in this setup. The place is meant to be realistic, so in addition to conjuring up images from various key scenes from Whisper of the Heart, it's also a careful testament to another era, a time machine - the home appliances of the kitchen are crazy! Once again, photos are not allowed in this marvelous setting.
However, a few other sets taken from the film can be found outside at the entrance, such as an old phone booth, a bus stop and especially the little cat café one can notice from the window.
The Hill of Youth can be visited quickly and only offers a mini shop with postcards and stamps. We can guess that the interest in this area isn’t as high for those who are not big fans of this Ghibli film in particular. Nevertheless, it remains an interesting part of the park with a nice atmosphere.
Dondoko Forest
Dondoko Forest is a wooded area where Mei and Satsuki's house is located, the first and only Ghibli setting in Moricoro Park for years. The author of this article visited it a few years ago and the second time is as memorable as the first, especially since you can now stay as long as you want and take photos of the interior. It’s not always easy to get a clear shot, but with a little patience, it is possible.
Although a bit small in appearance, the house replicates what you see in Totoro as best it can, again with no characters or creatures, just immersion in popular scenes and another era. Ghibli has really loaded the place with accessories and Easter eggs, and we had a lot of fun opening all the cupboards and drawers to discover Mei's bento box here, Satsuki's hairbrush there, etc. The wonder is multiplied by the number of times you have seen the film. It can go very high.
But then why Dondoko's Forest? Dondoko looks like Totoro except he has a big hat. It sits on top of a hill behind Satsuki's house and welcomes the children who can climb inside (if it doesn't scare them too much). That's pretty much all Dondoko features, except trying to sell us some exclusive Dondoko goodies. A path also runs through the forest to go down the hill behind it (unless you take the cute little train), but only nature awaits you there. It's a small part of your journey within the park.
Two areas of the park have not yet opened: Mononoke's Village and Valley of Witches (focused on Kiki and Howl's Moving Castle). There is no doubt that these will include more immersive constructions.
If you’re wondering whether or not going to Ghibli Park is worth it, it is very important to understand that you will be getting a lot of immersion, but little interactivity. If you're OK with that, then you'll have a great time, although younger kids might be less impressed (which explains some of the reserved activities).
Keep in mind, however, that the price remains very fair in relation to the content. For the moment, access to the ticket office is not open outside of Japan, so you will need to find a contact on-site to order tickets. It's not that easy to manage, especially since the park is popular and gets sold out months in advance. But if you are planning a trip "for when plane tickets are cheaper," you have time to look into it now.
We wouldn't be against a more pronounced invasion of Moricoro Park by Studio Ghibli, with more designs from the movies hidden in nature. Who knows what the place has in store for us once the two additional areas are completed? This is just the beginning for Park Ghibli and it certainly won't be the last time we visit. And next time, we won't miss a thing.
Erwan Lafleuriel is IGN France's Chief Editor. A slave to video games for more than 40 years now, he only escapes to lament about his defeats on Twitter.
source https://www.ign.com/articles/we-visited-ghibli-park-and-this-is-what-we-saw