Reid Main

Unsurprisingly my "plan" of staying up for 24 hours to beat jet flag failed spectacularly. After falling asleep at 9pm I woke up at midnight, tossed and turned until I fell back asleep at 3am, woke up again at 4:30am, and then faded in and out of consciousness until finally getting out of bed at 7:30am. For future trips I really should just bite the bullet and try some of the intense sleep aids to defeat my jet flag.

Anyway, there is only one reason why Elsie and I chose Nagoya as the first stop on this trip. We are both huge fans of Studio Ghibli and have wanted to visit Ghibli Park since its opening in 2022. After making a quick stop at a konbini for an egg salad sandwich and Pocari Sweat we boarded the Higashiyama Line and headed to Fujigaoka Station. From there, we transferred to the Linimo Line and continued onward to Ai Chikyuhaku Kinen Koen Station.

The most important thing to know before visiting Ghibli Park is that you must buy your tickets in advance. For us that meant queueing up at 1am EST two months ahead of our trip. Make sure you check their English ticketing website to get the exact release time for your trip.

The second most important thing to know is that Ghibli Park technically is a public park. There are large stretches of green spaces and hiking trails that are used by the locals. But built amongst them are a number of gated off themed areas that require a wristband to access. According to their website you can redeem your ticket for a wristband at any gated area. But when Elsie and I arrived we saw a very obvious line forming at the "Valley of Witches" so we simply lined up there. After 20 minutes we had our wristband and were inside our first area.

The last bit of important information is that one of the areas, Ghibli's Grand Warehouse, has timed entry. When you buy you ticket you need to pick an hour for when you want to enter. I highly recommend doing this earlier in the day because you're probably going to spend a decent amount of time inside. Elsie and I took about 90 minutes to see everything we wanted.

I should have led with this but just in case it wasn't obvious, Ghibli Park contains life-sized recreations of elements from Studio Ghibli films. At the time of our visit there were five themed areas and if I had to rate them from best to worst it would easily be:

1. Valley of Witches
2. Ghibli's Grand Warehouse
3. Dondoko Forest
4. Mononoke Village
5. Hill of Youth

The Valley of Witches and Ghibli's Grand Warehouse were the clear standouts. They were so much more densely packed when compared to the remaining three. Walking through Howl's Moving Castle was an utter joy and the attention that was paid to every little detail was mind blowing. The Grand Warehouse is a tightly packed maze of all sorts of Studio Ghibli exhibits and they even have a cinema which shows films that can only be seen there. For us it was Boro the Caterpillar. This isn't to say the remaining three areas were bad, they were just not as actively engaging. They were more like walking through a preserved historical site. It was interesting to see those famous backdrops from Ghibli films in real-life but those moments were fleeting when compared with Howl's Moving Castle.

After raving about Ghibli Park I really want to set expectations because this is not a Tokyo Disneyland or Universal Studios Japan. This is a public park that was retrofitted to have a bunch of interesting Studio Ghibli attractions strewn about it. I can completely understand how some people would complain about the amount of walking or the lack of content. This isn't meant to be an overwhelming sensory experience. It is a relaxed journey though the worlds of Studio Ghibli.

On the way out the park we stopped at Soyogo Coffee for a quick pick me up before heading back to the train. As has become tradition during our trips to Japan, if we are within range of a Pokémon Center we must visit and so a quick stop was made at Pokémon Center Nagoya before retreating to our hotel. After a brief rest we searched for a place to eat and found Yabaton just around the corner which served a local Nagoya speciality, misokatsu. This was where I received my first culture shock of the trip as I had forgotten if you do not yell for someone to come take your order they will just let you sit there forever.

After managing to order and devour a delicious meal we got back to our hotel room around 7:30pm and took a shower. By 9pm it was time for bed and a prayer to any god for relief of my jet lag. Spoiler warning, it didn't work.