Solo Trip Nagoya (August 2023) - Ghibli Grand Warehouse Shops

Taking a post to talk about the shops available inside the park. It was a giant shop of all things Ghibli! And as you can guess, everything is expensive! Let's start with the South Street which was decorated quite prettily. But to be honest, there wasn't much things to see there. A few shops with very specialised  collectables can be found here.

Here's one along the South Street selling cats related figurine and cats related items.

There was an outdoor cafe where food can be purchased, decorated in Porco Rosso themed. Inside, there as a dessert stall called the Siberian. There are cakes and drinks you can purchase here.

I wanted to try the milk here, but the price was just too over my budget that I skipped it. I don't think I missed out much. It was just a nice to have experience. 

There were a lot of cute collectables all over the other shops. 

One of the more interesting corner of the main gift shop was the record section. I didn't even know they sell Ghibli records! I don't own any Ghibli music. I listen to mine free via Youtube Playlist :P  I do however, own a Joe Hisaishi's CD which a friend got me :)

Lastly, before you exit, there was the main gift store, and it was like a war zone inside! Nothing was cheap, but I really wanted to get myself a souvenir. I bought one of the cheapest thing there, a tile. Yes, tiles! One for my husband, and one for myself. My husband's was with a character J for Jiji, and mine was A for Arrietty. A and J were also the first character of our real name. 

Solo Trip Nagoya (August 2023) - Ghibli Grand Warehouse Exhibition & Short Film

 

Besides seeing your favourite characters here, there are also tonnes of Ghibli related exhibitions found inside. Just look at the collection above! Amazing!

Posters of all the movies from Ghibli from the past...

As well as upcoming movies... I watched the Boy and the Heron in Jan 2024 :)

Above is Whisper of the Heart? I watched this one prior to this trip too :D And I do love it.

There was a special exhibition on food related scenes from Ghibli, with original drawings from the artist. No photo taking was allowed inside, but it was super detail! Above is the poster of the exhibition. And after visiting it, I actually felt hungry looking at all the art pieces in there! Was totally blown away by the work and effort put into these animations. 

Lastly, every entrance ticket comes with a small movie ticket that they give you when you enter the park. After I finish most of the exhibition and display, I decided to check out the Orion Cinema to watch a short film. These films are only available for viewing here. 

All I had to do was look for the cinema sign and this poster, the film that was being shown while I was there.

They actually have proper cinema inside the park!

The poster showing the film being shown. Everything look so classy!

The outside of the cinema, just as classy. No photos allowed inside. It was just a short maybe 15min film. Interestingly, it was a story about a worm who eats and shit, lol. Yes, shit! Lots of shit in the film. The kids love it. There was no language used in the film at all, only sounds, and all sound done by one single actor! Which was kinda funny, really. So in a way, the film was kids friendly, as well as foreigner friendly since no language was use. I actually enjoyed it. It was mind opening for me :P

Solo Trip Nagoya (August 2023) - Ghibli Grand Warehouse Main Characters

 

The best part of visiting Ghibli Studio is seeing all your favourite characters there. I admit that I haven't seen all the Ghibli movies ever made. I have tried to catch up as many as possible before this trip, but still, there were movies that I didn't manage to watch before I made my way here. So here is my attempt to describe some of the major scenes found here. First photo above, and also the very first display I rushed to, lol, is from Spirited Away, Yubaba's room. The detail of the display was amazing! Love everything about it. It was probably my favourite display. 

Next is this giant robot that had a long queue of people waiting to take photo with it. I haven't watched this one before, but I am guessing it's from Laputa? I didn't queue here. I use my zoom function to take the photo. Since I haven't watched the movie, I guess I felt less committed to get a nice photo with it, lol.

At the lowest floor was the miniature world of Arrietty! I have watched this movie prior to coming here, and I really love it. I saw a few visitors tying up their hair like Arrietty with a giant red clothe peg and I really wanted that peg! I looked everywhere for it, but couldn't find it being sold. It looked kinda cute and kinda ridiculous at the same time, but so adorable! Above is the garden outside her house, with giant glass jar and all!

The entrance to her house is via this crayon box door. I just adore the drawing on the crayon box!

And inside the house, there were a few rooms, and I did take a lot of photos, but I don't want to flood my blog with it. So here's just her bed room. 

I really like some of the props in her house. Like this giant soya sauce container being held by an actual kid. It's just so adorable! And the giant Nippon stamp. 

Above is the Philosopher Club room, from the movie From Up On Poppy Hill. I recall this show was also very heart warming :) Sorry for the blurred image though. I was passing by it on my way to another location when I saw it and got too excited. 

The giant room with the giant furry cat bus on it. You can go inside of it and sit on the bus. And this was not limited to children. Adults are also welcome to climb in. Many people took photos like the lady there. It was a bit hard for me to take such a photo alone though. The disadvantages of travelling alone....

Here's JiJi, my husband's favourite Ghibli Cat from the movie Kiki's Delivery Service. Interesting note, my husband's surname is Ji, yet he always forget this cat's name -_______-

Here's me with my favourite pix of Yubaba's Room :P

Solo Trip Nagoya (August 2023) - Ghibli Grand Warehouse Overview

Finally, my time to enter the Ghibli Grand Warehouse arrived. I queued up to enter, and the entrance was rather plain. There was a weird lift there, but I can't remember if we needed to go inside. I think we did, and when the door opened, you were downstairs, arrived to start your journey.

The grand hall was quite a whimsical Spanish looking deco as there were mosaic stairs in the middle of it. there was also a flying wooden plane hanging from the ceiling. The whole place was actually quite small, nothing like a Disneyland. It was, as it's name, a studio.....

I have read up on the place, and true to the source, there were long queues everywhere! People were mainly queuing up to take photos with the Ghibli Characters. The long queue at the grand hall was there all the way till closing time! I know cause I left it to the very last hour to queue for it. I think the studio closes at 5pm, and I started queueing at 4pm after seeing everything else in the studio :P

To avoid the queues, I actually went were it was most empty. The very first place was South Street, which was a row of street with shops decorated in old Japanese fashion. They sell collectibles there and was good for browsing and photo taking. Upstairs from it was the kid's section. There is a photo of it below. And there was also a miniature world of Arrietty which I will show in more detail in later post. 

Above the South Street, which was pretty empty cause there weren't any notable characters there. 

Upstairs was the children's section where a giant cat bus was available for kids to play around and in it. There was a bigger cat bus in another section of the studio. I felt a bit guilty wandering around here as there were signs saying that it was only for kids. But then again, a few adults can also be seen taking photos inside....

Probably the most famous character from Ghibli is Totoro? Well, he has his own bar inside the studio. I really like the setting of this, and you could take photo inside. The bar was classic Japanese style, and Totoro-san was the bartender behind the bar :P

Here's me at the bar :P

There were little memento of the Ghibli movies here and there. Above is one of the forest spirit from Princess Mononoke. If you weren't paying attention, you would hardly notice it just hanging there. I was queueing outside waiting to enter the most popular studio and took a nice shot of it's cute butt !  Lol. That's all for today's post. I've split up the Ghibli post to around 6 different posting as I took so many photos inside. Even though it's just a studio for photo taking, I enjoyed myself very much even though I was there alone. It was quite exciting to see all those Ghibli Characters in life size there. It's kinda like visiting your dream, but while awake. Read on.....

Solo Trip Nagoya (August 2023) - Ghibli Park Outside

Continuing on from the last post, above is what the mysterious lift looked like. I think when everyone first see this structure, they would think where would the lift lead to? There is only a clock tower feature above, and surely the whole park can't be there! Aha! The lift doesn't go up. I actually goes down! I think that's just a fantastic touch to the magic of Ghibli! 

So here is what the other side of the structure looked like. Amazing, right? 

And this is the entrance to the Ghibli Grand Warehouse. Super long queue. And these are all people who already have the ticketed, and allotted a dedicated timing! And Yes, I queued too. Cause it's limited time you get to be inside, and I didn't want to waste a minute of it. But before we venture inside, this post is actually on what you can find outside! Yup, even without a ticket, you can see all the below Ghibli related attractions!

Like this stone statue here that reminded me of Spirited Away. Or was it Totoro? Isn't it beautiful? It's inside a garden area just beyond Ghibli Park, and beyond the Food Truck area, up a slight slope.

Take note of this statue. You will also find a similar one, inside the warehouse :P

You can also find the House on the Hill structure at the park, just behind the stage area. But to go inside, you will need a ticket. And since I was a foreigner, I don't have a ticket :(   Oh, did I mentioned one month before coming to Nagoya, I actually scheduled myself to watch all the Ghibli anime on Netflix? FYI, you can't watch them once you are inside Japan. Anyway, I didn't manage to watch all, just most of the more cartoon ones :P

Beneath the House on the Hill, there is a tunnel with glowing jewel inside. Pretty cool! Do you know which movie this was from?

You can also find the above in one of the seats at the park. I think they are more, but I only found this one...

Here's me, on my way home after visiting the park. Interestingly, I had a great time there! At first I thought I would be bored. I read up on the park and it was mostly a photo taking studio where you can take photos of the characters. And since I was there alone, I might appear quite pathetic taking selfies on my own. But surprisingly, I had a lot of fun. And I only asked a family to help me take one photo of me with the iconic NoFace on a train scene. Love it. Carry on reading, we are going inside the warehouse in the next post!

Solo Trip Nagoya (August 2023) - Aichi Expo Park

 

Yay, the day came for me to visit Ghibli Park! My entrance ticket was not until 2pm, but I went to Fujigaoka Station first to check out the Aeon MaxValue store nearby. After that, I took the cat bus to Ghibli Park! Hahahaha. I wish! No, I took a separate train there, but the station where the train goes to Ghibli Park is decorated with everything Ghibli related!

It also have the map of Ghibli Park and all the attraction on it. Spoiler Alert, if you are reading this outside of Japan, do note that not all the attractions are open to you. Because for oversea visitors, you can only purchase the Ghibli Grand Warehouse ticket. For the other attractions, you need to be in Japan to buy them from Lawson. And the tickets goes on sale 3 months from the date of visit. So good luck!

Finally inside the platform waiting for the train to Ghibli Park. Isn't the pillar cute? This is how you know you are at the correct station!

So the train line is called Linimo, and it's conncted to Fujigaoka Station, but you do have to exit and enter a separate gate. After that, just take the train all the way to Aichi Expo Park, which is Ai.Chikyuhaku Kinen Koen station (L07).

When you get there, it is a super huge park! If you are walking, you will surely break your leg, and die of dehydration in the summer heat! So we are not going to the whole park. We are just going to the lunch area, and to Ghibli Park area. 

It is a beautiful place for a walk, in other weather.....

Around 15mins walk to my lunch area, which is near a pond. I took the above shot from the lunch area. 

There are a lot of facilities at the park, shops, sporting arena etc. But my favourite is this ice skating ring just adjacent to Ghibli Park entrance. I sat here while waiting for my turn to enter cause it's super cooling here! And there are seats! So, good to know! And always be ready to explore all places, even if you may feel weird doing so :P

You know you are headed to the correct direction of Ghibli Park when you see this structure, and there is a weird lift you can take to get to the ground level. I though it was pretty neat. It was pretty Ghibli World-like :P