Ghibli Park sits inside the Expo 2005 Aichi Commemorative Park — universally called Moricoro Park — in Nagakute, east of Nagoya. It is not a walled resort. It is a set of buildings and installations distributed across an existing public park, which you reach on foot along ordinary park paths, past ordinary families having ordinary picnics.
Understanding that layout is the whole thing. There is no gate you pass through into a themed world, no central street, no castle at the end of it. The park's own framing is that you are walking in the world of the films rather than being carried through it.
The five areas
Ghibli's Grand Warehouse
The indoor hub, and the largest area by content. It was converted from a heated swimming pool building left over from the site's earlier life. Inside are recreated film sets you can walk through and photograph, rotating exhibition rooms, a small cinema called Cinema Orion that screens the studio's short films, and a great deal of detail rewarding slow walking. If the weather turns, this is where the day goes.
The Hill of Youth
Near the park's main entrance: an elegant building based on the antique shop from Whisper of the Heart, with an old-fashioned elevator tower beside it. Small, and the most architecturally satisfying thing on the site.
Dondoko Forest
A faithful recreation of Satsuki and Mei's house from My Neighbor Totoro, built with period-appropriate construction, plus a wooded hill path leading up to a wooden Dondoko-do figure. The house is a genuine piece of craft: real tatami, real drawers that open, a bathroom with the right fittings for the era.
Mononoke Village
Opened in November 2023. A charcoal-burners' settlement with a very large boar figure, and the area with the most physical, hands-on activities on the site.
The Valley of Witches
Opened in March 2024, the newest and second largest area, drawing on Kiki's Delivery Service, Howl's Moving Castle and Earwig and the Witch. Howl's castle exterior stands here at full scale, alongside a recreation of Kiki's home and bakery, and a small merry-go-round. This is where the park is at its most theatrical.
Why it does not feel like a theme park
| A conventional park | Ghibli Park | |
|---|---|---|
| Main attraction | Rides with queues | Buildings and interiors you walk through |
| Layout | Enclosed, themed zones off a hub | Areas spread across a public park, connected by ordinary paths |
| Pace | Scheduled, high throughput | Timed entry per area, then unhurried |
| Characters | Costumed performers | None |
| Failure mode | Long waits | A lot of walking between areas |
The consequence, which several people warned me about and which I am passing on: distances between areas are real, the site is hilly, and the weather is not negotiable. This is a comfortable-shoes day.
Getting there
From Nagoya Station, the usual route is the subway east to Fujigaoka and then the Linimo magnetic-levitation line to Ai–Chikyūhaku-kinen-kōen station, which puts you at the park entrance. Budget roughly an hour from central Nagoya. Nagoya itself is about 100 minutes from Tokyo on the Tokaido Shinkansen, which makes the park a plausible day trip from Tokyo but a long one; staying in Nagoya makes for a much better day.
What has been announced since
In August 2026 Aichi Prefecture said publicly that it is developing a third-phase concept for an indoor facility based on Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, following consultation with the studio, which supervises the park's design. As of writing there is no announced opening date, budget or construction start — only the concept. Treat it as a signal about direction rather than something to plan a trip around.
Separately, since July 2026 the park's cinema has been screening a Ghibli short made specifically for it, which is the sort of detail that tells you how the studio thinks about this place: not a licensing exercise, but a venue it makes new work for.
Museum, park, or both
If you are coming from the United States and this is a two-week trip, both are feasible — Tokyo for the museum, a Nagoya night for the park — but they are not interchangeable and neither is a substitute for the other. My own bias, stated openly: the museum is the more interesting building and the park is the better day out with a family. The questions page has the side-by-side.