Thursday, March 28, 2024

I may have mentioned it before but I am a big “Studio Ghibli” fan. They create the most beautiful animated films with amazing stories and characters. Examples of these films are “Spirited Away”, the classic “My Neighbour Totoro”, “Pom Poko”, and “Howl’s Moving Castle”. I have visited the “Ghibli Museum” in Tokyo several times but the online ticketing system they now use resulted in my being unable to acquire tickets. What is the system? For international visitors tickets for the museum go on sale two months ahead of time and are for the whole month. So, on February 10, 2024 at 1 am in the morning (UK time) tickets went on sale for the month of March. I was inadvertently a few minutes late and ended up in a queue with more than 11,000 people ahead of me. They dramatically restrict visitors to the small museum so I had no chance of getting any tickets. By the time I was first in the queue, an hour later, they had sold out. So, no chance of showing Mel the Ghibli Museum which is a shame as it is really quite a great place to visit.

However, not all was lost. There is a new attraction in Nagoya that opened just last year: Ghibli Park. This is a theme park rather than a museum with various Ghibli-themed interactive areas on site. I was able to get tickets for this though only the standard “O-Sanpo Day Pass” rather than the “O-Sanpo Day Pass PREMIUM” though I was assured that it was unlikely I could see everything the premium ticket provided which was access to more buildings and the like.

Unfortunately, Ghibli Park is not in the centre of Nagoya but more towards the outskirts so we had to first catch a train from Kyoto to Nagoya (51 minutes) then a local subway to “Fujigaoka Station” then finally take another local train (“Linimo”) to “Ai-Chikyuhaku-Kinen-Koen Station”. The park opens at 10:00 am so caught the 7:51 train from Kyoto station (of course, we had to take the subway from the hotel to the station) to get there at about 9:30. Arriving early at Kyoto station we went in search of coffee but the shop was closed so we took pictures of the magnificent station in the daylight and had a look at Kyoto Tower a short distance to the north.

We asked for assistance to find the Shinkansen trains and were directed to go up the escalators and follow a long corridor to the far side of the station where they have the Shinkansen tracks. We kept warm in a small waiting room on the platform.

It was not a terribly nice day, quite cloudy, but it was not raining as we caught our three trains to the park. The last subway we caught in Nagoya, the modern “Linimo” line, is the recommended line to get to the park, dropping you off right at the main entrance. Its subway stations were all decorated with Ghibli images from the park so there was no mistaking you being in the right place. The line is elevated quite a ways above the city so it did offer great views.

Ghibli Park is located on the former site of “Expo 2005”, called “Expo 2005 Aichi: Commemorative Park” with a round Lawson convenience store and gift shop greeting us as we left the subway station and walked along the wide sidewalk towards the entrance.

It was obvious where we were with a very Ghibli-esqe steam-punk dark brown elevator tower that takes visitors down to a lower section of the park that contains many of the attractions. We opted to walk down a ramp off to the side to get a better view of the elevator.

The area is dominated by a large lake with an outdoor stage to the left and two massive buildings on our right which turned out to be a skating rink and “Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse”, the later we had a timed ticket to enter at 11 am, an hour later (the staff told us to come back). We continued past the large buildings where there is a covered area with a number of food trucks and the “Mikazuki Rest Area” building which has tables and chairs intended a bit of quiet away from the park where we stopped to use the toilets.

Beyond the rest area building there was a large queue of people lining up outside the entrance of one of the themed areas “Valley of Witches” which is based on the Ghibli animated film “Kiki’s Delivery Service” featuring a young witch moving to a big city and starting her own business delivering food. This is the newest section of the park and tickets are required. We would visit later when we had more time. Outside of this there was a really interesting looking “witch mouth” feature - A sculpture of a witch with a big mouth that you could walk through done subtly accented with blue and red tiles - A piece of art in it’s own right that obviously keeps the children interested while waiting for entrance to “Valley of Witches”.

To the right of the “Valley of Witches” we took this time to visit the charming, small “Ineromon” temple which includes characters from the film “Spirited Away” which features a young girl in a world of magical spirits working in a bathhouse struggling to escape and save her parents.

By this time we felt it was worth returning to “Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse” to join the queue where our tickets were scanned. It was a bit of a wait before we were allowed in during which time we had a look into the ice rink building to note that there was a full sized hockey rink in the middle with a strip of ice surrounding it that people were skating on.

We waited in a queuing area off to the side as others with priority passes and earlier entry tickets entered but, bang on time, at 11:00 am we were let into the garish, dark green, imaginative looking door on the side of the otherwise plain grey exterior of the, well, warehouse.

Inside our tickets were scanned and we were shown an English language sheet of instructions that included things like no food or drink and no re-entrance once we have left. We were also given a timed ticket to see a film in their small cinema upstairs.

The “Grand Warehouse” turned out to be the best thing at the park. Inside there were interactive areas themed on various films with the attention to detail being simply astonishing. Everywhere you looked there were beautifully created small features. For example, the first thing we saw entering the warehouse was a room crammed with books, art and knick-knacks meant to mimic one of the animator’s offices.

Off to the left we visited an “exhibition” that had posters from all of their films as well as a special exhibit of “eating” in the films that included storyboards and information about the foods that featured.

After this there were several set pieces from the films that you were able to walk into and interact with - A kitchen, a living room (please remove your shoes before walking on the tatami mats), a garden, etc. At one point we noticed a small hole at the base of a wall that many visitors just walked past. When we bent over to have a look we saw a small “Totoro” character looking out at us. There were no photos allowed in the exhibit areas.

At the end of the exhibit rooms there was a small lounge area where one of their famous characters “Totoro” (a giant cat-like “forest spirit”) sat behind the bar waiting to take orders. The walls were lined with artwork based on the films and staff pictures from the studio.

Mel enjoyed sitting in a cat bus chair…

After this there was a room filled with material from all of the films from all around the world - DVD cases in different languages, film posters, album covers, CDs, books, etc.

The last room had a giant soft play “cat bus” (from “My Neighbour Totoro”) feature that we queued to take a picture of with Mel hamming it up for the camera.

Leaving the exhibition we passed into another area themed around their film “Arietty” which features a family of “little people” (about 2 inches high) inhabiting a house. Here there were giant plans and insects towering over us, all done to a magnificent level of detail. We even had a glimpse inside the little people’s house and Arietty’s room before passing behind the wall and into a workshop with giant lightbulbs and buttons. Nails on the walls were massive, the huge water drops on the petals looked incredibly real, the small garden bugs looked like monsters…

We next passed by an area with several small shops selling books, toy models and small souvenirs before walking down some steps to a large open space with a wide set of tile-lined steps leading up to the cinema.

The stone flagstone floor brought to mind a town square while around the square were large plants and trees while above it was a giant airship such as those featured in “Laputa Castle in the Sky”. The area is beautiful and lit by natural light coming in from floor to ceiling windows.

There was an area off to the side that we chose to skip primarily due to the length of the queue we saw. This contained a number of full-sized sets from various films that you could have yourself photographed in. It seemed this was not terribly interesting. Would have been neat to have the pictures but there was so much else to do we gave it a miss.

We headed upstairs to wait outside the cinema for our 12:00 pm (noon) short “Mr. Dough and the Egg Princess”. The films shown here and the museum in Tokyo cannot be seen anywhere else so it makes it a bit special. The cinema (no pictures allowed) was quite nice inside with red plush seats. The short itself was only about 8 minutes long and featured an egg princess forced to work for a witch (the same witch that features in “Spirited Away”). She is freed with the help of a batch of bread dough that has come to life.

After leaving the film there was a small building with a full-sized scene from “Spirited Away” brought to life featuring the same witch at a desk working on paperwork with paper flying around her along with her hopping green head monsters (yes, they are just heads).

The building next to it housed something which was more interesting for me and that is the academy award the studio won for their most recent film “The Boy and the Heron”. It is great to see that they were so justly honoured.

Our final stop was the gift shop which, as you might expect, was very busy. I was happy to purchase a copy of the original “My Neighbour Totoro” film poster (in Japanese) while Mel took some time to select a very nice Ghibli mug. A lot of what was here I had seen before or could get elsewhere so it did not really interest me too much. My interest really is in the artistry of the films, so things like books and posters, but there were few of these (no I was not interested in any of the plush toys either).

Leaving the warehouse we headed over to the nearby “Valley of Witches” which no longer had the massive queue we had seen earlier. This is the newest attraction on the site so visitors are most interested in it. After our ticket was scanned we found ourselves walking on a wooden walkway above a large pond and could see several buildings beyond. As this was based on the “Kiki’s Delivery Service” and “Howl’s Moving Castle” these were generally in the style of old buildings from Europe beautifully recreated full size with meticulous detail. Sure, it is an eclectic mixture of styles but it still has the feel of a small village.

I was feeling a bit hungry as it was already almost 1 pm and we had not yet had lunch so I visited the “Hot Tin Roof” “Hotdog Stand” for a large hot dog in a black cat paw-shaped bun and some blood orange juice for 1,350 yen. Quite tasty, with the black bun very chewy if not terribly large.

The landscaping is wonderful with a central square fountain and elaborate tiling work on many of the paths.

We visited the “Tower of Aviators”, a small cottage done up as a workshop on the ground floor with the first floor being a play area for children.

A small tower beside the cottage provided great views of what has to be the main attraction in this section of the park: A real life recreation of “Howl’s Moving Castle” - A tall hodge-podge of a various buildings stuck together at odd angles, with giant insect legs to allow it to move and gun turrets poking out from it. Our ticket sadly did not allow entry but we were able to have a close look at it. We spent some time just taking in the huge amount of detail.

Later in our visit we found a better view from the top of the “Clock Tower”, itself looking out over the “Avenue of Ruins” with the castle beyond.

Overlooking the castle is a character from the film: “Turnip-head”, a white-faced scarecrow dressed in a tuxedo.

Nearby there are a couple of buildings that serve as toilets but even here, they were built to fit into the rest of the buildings with great attention to detail including posters plastered to their walls and one with a sign: “The Great Wizard Jenkins” which features in the film as well.

Mel stopped to give the life-size statue of another character “Heen”, a “Petit Basset Griffon Bandane” (french hunting) dog, a pat as it walked along the path.

Nearby we visited the gardens in front of “The Okino Residence” which was the two-story house that “Kiki” from “Kiki’s Delivery Service” lived in with a small garage on the side. The garden has several paths and a stream running through it. It must be amazing in the summer when the plants are out.

Mel gave a broomstick a try but was unable to take flight. The house also required a ticket to visit that we did not have.

The carousel is amazing, featuring characters from many of Ghibli’s films set in a clearing surrounded by decorative cobblestone paving. We sat for a while watching it go around, enjoying the music it played (also from “Howls’ Moving Castle”) and taking in the view of the buildings around us.

The “Guchokipanya Bakery”, a classical German-style bakery, also from “Kiki’s Delivery Service” had a huge queue of people waiting to enter to buy some bread so we gave it a miss.

Next door was the “Hatter's Millinery” (from Howl) which featured some amazing looking hats but they sold amazing looking sweats from their tiny shop.

Before we left “Valley of the Witches” we stopped at a gift shop looking for gifts for friends. There were some amazing pieces of art but much of it was what we had seen at the gift shop in the warehouse.

We walked the short distance around the corner to visit “Mononoke Village” (we enter we had to again present our ticket) from their film “Princess Mononoke” which we found nowhere near as good as “Valley of the Witches” though it did have a cool statue of a “Demon Spirit” and “Lord Okkoto” from the film in a sandy area that was part of a playground. Again these were meticulously recreated from the film with colours provided by some exquisite tile work including haunting red eyes…

The main building here is the large village meeting hut “Tatara-ba”, surrounded by a wooden stake fence and topped with a grass roof. Here they offer various food-making experiences which require a reservation (that we did not have).

Nearby the “Mononoke Village Rest Stop” sold a few local specialities including interesting looking crackers. We were told off for sitting on the rocks and soon left the area as there was nothing more to see here.

We were just in time to catch one of the frequent land train shuttles that take visitors from one side of the park to the other. The crowed train (with annoyingly repetitive music) took us past “Valley of the Witches” then “Ineromon” temple, off to the side of the “Ghibli Warehouse”, then around to the far side of a small hill to it’s final stop at “Dondoko Forest” based on the forest where Totoro lives in Ghibli’s first major film “My Neighbour Totoro”. To get to the forest we had to pass through a wonderful “Japanese Garden” in a valley with large decorative evergreens, huge rocks and water features throughout along with a tea house for you to take in the views…in the summer months preferably.

Following the path through the garden we came to a recreation of “Satsuki and Mei's House” from the film beside a small lake on the side of a small hill with another big queue (visiting also required a ticket we did not have).

There was, however, a set of steps leading up the hill behind the house. At the top of the hill was “Dondoko-do” - A full sized “Totoro” (wood spirit) that was a children’s play area. Throughout the area we spotted waist-high stone plinths topped with carved acorns which also feature in the film though, admittedly, they looked like something else.

There is also “Dondoko-go” - a small vernacular railway created to look like a classic Nagoya tram that takes you from the top of the hill down to near where we came into this section of the park at the Japanese gardens.

We chose to walk down the hill then past the gardens to where the land train had stopped. Wanting to see a bit of the landscape we chose to walk over the hill to the main section of the park we had visited earlier. They had some wonderful, wide, wooden walkways clearly showing the way.

We had the paths mostly to ourselves and eventually returned to the back of the Ineromon temple which we took a few minutes to explore in a bit more detail before ending up near the food trucks looking for some coffee for Mel (they had run out of milk, oh well). We were not really in the mood to eat as we were thinking about having something to eat in Nagoya central as we had heard they had really interesting food here.

We retraced our steps back to the “Linio” train station, past the amazing elevator and stopped for a few minutes to have a look around the main gift shop at the entrance. They do not sell any current guidebooks but they were selling off last year’s (in Japanese) so I picked that up as at least it has some pictures in it (though none of “Valley of Witches” which has only just opened).

It was a bit tricky figuring out the subways to catch (thank you again Mr Google) but we managed to find our way to “Kamimaezu Station” then a few streets away “Osu Shopping Street”. The surrounding area was quite grey, clean, and boring but when you come across the covered arcade it is hard to miss - Large colourful neon signs and a lot of people despite it being just before 5 pm.

There was little English here but lots of pictures of what was for sale. We hardly knew where to start so just walked around for some time just trying to make sense of it all. There were not a huge number of restaurants which seemed to cluster around certain areas anyway.

For some reason there was a group of drummers outside of a temple on a side street of the arcade (as you do) which we stopped to enjoy, deciding not to take pictures as we did not want to risk causing offence.

Most of the restaurants were takeaway only but we really wanted to sit having been on our feet all day so we ended up in an interesting looking “Honetsukidori Karaage Yakitori Gaburichicken”. Obviously we like “karaage” (Japanese fried chicken) so this was an easy choice.

The shop turned out to be a small “Izakaya” (bar) where they, really, did not speak any English and had no English menus…though they did have pictures we were able to point at. It was quite busy with many of the booths full of happy drinkers/diners. We were seated at the bar area, browsing the menu and looking to see what others had ordered. We ended up ordering a familiar favourite yakisoba (fried noodles in this case, much to Mel’s disappointment, with “bonito”, dried tuna, flakes) but also some “Teritama” fried chicken which was “salted lemon fried chicken” in a creamy hanami (cherry blossom) sauce along with a couple of watery cokes (served in tall, cold glasses).

The dishes were delivered with a tin bowl containing a salad of roughly chopped cabbage with a tangy dressing. We noticed another table had something a bit more unusual they were snacking on so we asked for that as well - A bunch of brown coloured dried spaghetti served upright in a cup for nibbling on. Odd and not terribly flavourful unlike the rest of the meal which was, of course, delicious.

It was not really a place to linger so we ate up and paid (about 3,600 yen) before leaving to find something for dessert. I remembered earlier passing by a shop selling “taiyaki” (fish-shaped Japanese cakes with various fillings) and a few minutes later we found it with Mel opting for a custard filling. It was hot, just out of the fish-shape mould these are cooked in.

It was getting cold and rainy so we ate under the cover of the arcade before a short jog to the nearest subway station for the trip home. Arriving at Nagoya station we had reservations on the 19:03 train so we had a few minutes to find a coffee and walk around the station. We were about to give up finding any decent looking coffee until we stumbled across “Doutor” which had a shop in the station with its own indoor seating. Mel ordered a latte and we were sitting there talking to ourselves when we struck up a conversation about pets with a lady nearby who spoke English. As Mel is a groomer, the lady was delighted to talk about her pet poodles.

Just before getting on our train we picked up some snacks for the trip from a tiny, narrow convenience store on the platform: A packet of spicy peanuts and biscuits for me, and a packet of “Pretz” pretzels covered with chocolate for Mel (along with a bottle of water as we did not have any with us). The train was uneventful back to Kyoto then onto the subway back to the hotel.

Our room had been cleaned today as we had turned off the rooms “do not disturb”. It was nice to come back to a tidy room and we collapsed on the bed after a very long and exhausting day of travel and walking.

All in all, we were slightly disappointed by Ghibli Park. It is quite difficult to get to and there is not really a huge amount to see. “Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse” and “Valley of Witches” were by far the best of the attractions with not a lot else there. I am sure in the summer it would be wonderful with all the flowers and trees but this year it is not at its best with the brown grass and barren trees (no, no cherry blossoms, of course!). If we were to visit again we would for sure get the “premium” pass despite the warnings about not being able to visit all of the buildings - From what we saw it would not be a problem.

Tomorrow we have no travel plans so hopefully we should be able to get a bit of sleep before heading out to show Mel a bit more of Kyoto.

 

 

>> Next: Day 14