Review of Ghibli's Grand Warehouse in Nagoya - Worth it?

In September 2023, I took a trip to Nagoya to finally visit the Ghibli Warehouse. At the time, the park was still incomplete and certain sections of the park were still not opened. However, as of March 2024, all the available areas are now available to visit and you can learn more about these areas on their website:

https://ghibli-park.jp/en/about/

As you can see, the Ghibli Park, located in the vicinity of the Expo 2005 Aichi Commemorative Park is divided in 5 separate areas:

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

At the time of my visit, only 3 areas were opened and each area needed separate tickets to enter. You can get a package to visit all 3 areas, but there were also options to only visit the Ghibli's Grand Warehouse, or a ticket that paired the Warehouse with one other area.

The ticket options are vastly different than before and I encourage you to read the details on their website as their English website is quite informative:

For International Tourists: https://ghibli-park.jp/en/ticket/

Residents of Japan: https://ghibli-park.jp/en/ticket/domestic.html

(there are two websites not because of price differences, but simply because there is an option for locals who may have already done the first 3 areas like I have previously and only wanted to finish up the other 2 areas - plus, the option of a Japanese language-only purchasing website: Boo Woo Ticket)

Like the Ghibli Museum tickets in Tokyo, these tickets NEED to be purchased in advance.

Arguably, they are easier to obtain as many travellers on forums and reddit often complain that the Ghibli Museum tickets are quickly sold out and require third party assistance to obtain. In my experience, the Ghibli Park tickets were nowhere as competitive. I did not have to wake up at some ungodly hour, and be the first one on a certain date and time to buy a ticket. When the slots opened up for the month, I was leisurely browsing a few days after to see that there were still tickets available to everything.

Unfortunately though, I did it too leisurely though because the 3-area options DID eventually sell out and I was only left with the option that only allowed me to enter the Ghibli Warehouse - which wasn't the end of the world, as I have been to the Mei & Satsuki's House (part of the Dondoko Forest) before plans of the Ghibli Park had been announced.

So that's why I will NOT be mentioning/reviewing the other areas of the park. But that is to say it does sell out, and you will need to reserve ahead of time - earlier the better to secure your desired dates & times.

And yes, when you purchase, you will need to reserve with a day & time in mind. So when you are planning your trip, make sure you know which day you will allot for this adventure because yes, you WILL need the full day to see the entirety of the park.

The Ghibli Warehouse alone took me 4 hours to leisurely roam through, which I will talk more about now!

Ghibli Museum VS Ghibli Warehouse

Lots of questions on the internet are mostly about these two places as people are often confused about the differences and whether or not they are two different things.

Yes, these are TWO separate locations.

The Ghibli Museum is located in TOKYO.

The Ghibli Warehouse is one of five areas, part of the Ghibli Park in NAGOYA.

However, before we jump into other differences, let's get some similarities out of the way first:

They are both indoor exhibits. And they both need to be reserved in advance, with a specific date and time in mind when making your purchases.

They both feature various Ghibli works and both of them have a small theatre that screens unreleased short films by the studio that changes based on the time of the year, so the film you watched when you visited in May may be different than the film your friend watched when they visited in November.

But, the Ghibli Warehouse is vastly larger in scale than the Museum. At least it seems like it. The Museum is divided into 3-stories which makes it seem more intimate and smaller. The Warehouse also has different levels, but it's built inside a bigger space like a Costco Warehouse (hence the name - warehouse).

You are allowed to take photos of everything inside the Ghibli Warehouse other than the kids area, whereas only certain designated areas of the Ghibli Museum are opened for photos.

So if photos are important to you, you may want to consider the Warehouse instead.

The contents inside the Warehouse is much more varied too. As the name implies, there is a warehouse in the facility that houses a bunch of old school props - which I think fans will enjoy seeing. It's not a big storage, but you might be surprised to see what you can find in there.

The biggest difference of course is that the Warehouse is a part of a larger park, as I said in the beginning. There are other areas you can gain entry into that's more specific to a certain title of Ghibli. And those are all mostly outdoors.

Prices

If you live/lived in Japan, you know that a lot of these themed things often come with a premium price tag. I'm mostly not just talking about the price tag, but also the goods they sell. For you folks coming from overseas, the prices might still be cheaper than what you can get back home, but as a resident of Japan for a number of years - I have to say Ghibli goods has one of the most insane mark ups compared to say... Pokemon goods, Snoopy, or pretty much any other character goods out there.

For example, a normal umbrella costs 1000 yen. That same umbrella with a Ghibli design on it might now be 5000 yen.

Maybe I'm just not a huge enough Ghibli fan to say that's worth it, because I don't know... that is an insane mark up. (feel free to disagree)

But anyway, all I'm saying is that if you're planning to spend at the souvenir shop at the Warehouse - which is probably one of the biggest Ghibli shops I've ever been inside (and trust me I've been to a lot) - be prepared to SPEND.

The Queues...

In line with our theme of "insane"... the line up are, of course: IN.. SANE.

Warehouse entries are all timed. You choose a time to enter. So of course so does 100s of other people. And those 100s of other people, maybe along with some several 100 who arrived a tad bit early, are queuing or waiting by the side to enter into this Warehouse.

I bought one of the earliest entry tickets, not knowing how long it would take to roam the entire Warehouse and I wanted to make sure I still had the rest of the day to do other things in Aichi (I drove as this was part of a bigger trip towards the Aichi coastline, which I hope to write about next!). I believe it was a 10AM entry.

Of course, I had already planned on arriving early because I know Japanese people and their habits - they're not afraid to line up and they will do it early. After all, if you're on time, you're basically late in Japan. And I ain't risking not being able to enter at all. So I got there at around 9:30AM?

We parked pretty close to the Warehouse location. I'd been here before and I had a vague idea of where the Warehouse was going to be. It was still a good 5-10 minute walk from the parking lot to the entrance. If you're taking public transport, the walk is quite a ways away and I'll talk about that in a bit.

When we got to the entrance, there was already a line formed that was 3 snake curls deep. This was maybe 20 minutes before the place even opened. This means there's people who had been here at least an hour earlier to queue for this. Even with a ticket. The only good thing is that the queue is away from the elements, so there is shade but you're still outside in the summer heat if you have decided to start queuing early.

But is there even a plus side to queuing early?

Why not just show up with a ticket at the time allotted?

You're actually kind of right. There really isn't that much benefit. The only thing I can think of is if you're literally the first batch of people to enter like I was, it may save you some time from more queues INSIDE.

Oh yeah, there is definitely one more area where you will need to queue.

When you immediately enter and turn right, you may or may not already see this queue happening.

I won't spoil it with photos, but this is essentially the queue to take a photo with No Face on the train from Spirited Away. It essentially leads you to a larger photo ops area with most if not all the Ghibli titles - but here is my brotip for you because I have seen people do it.

If you're not that keen on taking a photo with No Face, you can actually just go to the front where the entrance is, ask politely to enter to see the other photo ops and explain you don't want a photo with No Face. They will let you skip the queue (at least when I was there they allowed it and the staff actually encouraged it at the front of the line). There were at least a few couples that did this when we were there.

Make sure you do go inside here because whether or not you do want photos, you'll be missing out of these highly detailed displays if you don't go:

The bottleneck is mostly where No Face is, so skip the line or don't be discouraged! Make the most out of your buck while you're there :)

Other queues inside might involved just slowly following through traffic through narrow areas or waiting for other interactive photo op areas. Another place you'd want to keep track of is the short film screening. Head to the theatre on the top floor and see when they do the showings so you don't miss out on it. There won't be a line for this, but people will be in this little "waiting area" just before doors open to get a good seat, so there that too.

All in all, if you're used to the ways of an amusement park in Japan, this won't be anything new. But if you're a tourist not knowing the language, this can be a little overwhelming and overly orderly. (but now that you've read this - you know better!)

Park Size

This park is HUGE.

That's really it. This park is absolutely massive. If you're arriving by the monorail from Nagoya, you will understand the sheer size of the Expo Park once you start your trek into it. Make sure you leave plenty of time to walk from the station to the Warehouse if that is your first destination of the park. Even if it isn't, still leave plenty of time to walk because none of the Ghibli areas are actually close together, the further being the Dondoko Forest.

Just... prepare plenty of time to walk between areas.

Prepare to walk in general. LOL.

The distance though means that the areas are quite decently sized too and creates a more immersive experience in my opinion.

Overall: Should You Go?

Casual fan or die-hard fan, I do think this park is worth putting on your travel schedule to visit. I wouldn't try to squeeze it and go out of your way for it unless you are on a journey to see all things Ghibli - but if you've have some extra days in between going from Tokyo to the west end of the country or back, consider this park as a pit stop. Or just Nagoya in general.

There are a few other kid-friendly things to do Nagoya like the train museum and Legoland, so if you are up for the extra few steps of walking.

If you are a die-hard Ghibli fan, check out this Thatch guide I put together of all the nationwide tourist attractions of all things Ghibli: https://www.thatch.co/guide/3d6i0ssubw84h/view

I personally really just enjoyed taking photos of everything and seeing everything probably to the size that it's suppose to be.

What about you? Have you been to the Ghibli Warehouse or the park? What are your thoughts?