In the past, I’ve written about Studio Ghibli-related places you can visit in Japan, one of those being the ever-popular Ghibli Museum in Tokyo. For theme park goers and Hayao Miyazaki fans, the opening of Ghibli Park in Aichi Prefecture last November has now changed the game for Ghibli-inspired travel. Here, I’ll compare the Ghibli Museum with Ghibli Park, examining how it makes use of similar design elements in places.
Parks and Recreations (of Totoro, Robots, and Such)
On May 1, 2023, six months to the day after the park’s grand opening, I did a review and photo tour of Ghibli Park for /Film. It covered all three areas that are currently open in the park: Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse, the Hill of Youth, and Dondoko Forest. Two other areas, Mononoke Village and the Valley of Witches, are set to open at a later date.
Having Ghibli Park somewhat fresh in mind prompted me to swing by the Ghibli Museum again yesterday. I had lunch in Kichijoji … with apologies to the deer of Nara and the Deer God of Princess Mononoke, it was deer soup curry at Suage, a restaurant I’d eaten at once before in Sapporo. The Ghibli Museum is within walking distance of Kichijoji, so I stopped by there just to take some pictures of the exterior, since I have a better camera now than when I scouted the museum for my very first /Film article back in June 2017. That year was the 100th anniversary of Inokashira Park, where the Ghibli Museum is located.
As noted in my full photo gallery for Ghibli Park and the Ghibli Museum:
Both the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo and the new Ghibli theme park in Aichi are integrated into existing metropolitan parks. The museum is next door to a tennis court, while the main area in Ghibli Park — Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse — is next door to an ice-skating rink. […] This goes along with the recurring environmentalist themes in Ghibli’s films and Japanese culture in general, the idea being to exist in harmony with nature and the community rather than upset them.
Outside the Ghibli Museum, you can see the whiskery furball from My Neighbor Totoro at the box office window. A Laputian Robot Trooper from Castle in the Sky stands on the roof, whereas Ghibli Park has another such trooper entwined with roots and moss at a photo op on the wall in Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse. For his part, Totoro shows up there as a prop in the Open Warehouse and outside as a piece of playground equipment in Dondoko Forest.
Inside the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Tokyo
On the Ghibli Museum website, there used to be a message stating, "We ask that you experience the Museum space with your own eyes and senses, instead of through a camera's viewfinder." You’re still not allowed to take pictures or shoot videos inside, but during the pandemic, the museum offered fans a short virtual tour of the facilities in a 12-volume video series on the official Ghibli Museum YouTube channel.
Note the spiral staircase in the museum’s Central Hall, below. It’s similar to the red one outside the Central Exhibit Room at Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse.
That’s not the only way Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse takes after the Ghibli Museum, either, as it also has a screening room, Cinema Orion, which shows short films previously shown at the museum.
We visited the Ghibli Museum in July 2018, buying our tickets the month beforehand through Lawson Tickets. (They go on sale the 10th of every month, and there’s no way to access the museum without an advance reservation.) At that time, the museum's own on-site screening room, the Saturn Theater (see below), was the exclusive venue for Boro the Caterpillar, the first new Hayao Miyazaki short film in five years.
You can see the theater’s current and future screening schedule on the museum’s website, along with the list of current and past special exhibitions the museum has run. When we were there, they had the “Delicious! Animating Memorable Meals” exhibition going; it’s now running in the Special Exhibit Room in Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse at Ghibli Park.
How Do You Live?, Kobe Exhibition, and Ghibli Museum Access
Short films are all well and good, but in just over a month, Hayao Miyazaki's feature-length coming-out-of-retirement film, How Do You Live?, is set to hit Japanese theaters—without any trailers or images to promote it. The domestic release date for "How Do You Live?" is Friday, July 14, 2023.
Meanwhile, if you’re in the Kansai region and can’t get tickets for the three different areas at Ghibli Park (which are, alas, sold separately), the Kobe City Museum has a special Ghibli Park exhibition running from now until Sunday, June 25, 2023. It looks back at the work of the park’s director, Goro Miyazaki, in bringing it to life. (He’s served as the Ghibli Museum’s director, too.) It also has some of the same photo ops, like the Catbus from My Neighbor Totoro, and Yubaba’s office and No-Face on the train from Spirited Away.
You can learn more about Ghibli Park in my aforementioned review and photo tour. As for accessing the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo, it’s almost equidistant from Mitaka Station and Kichijoji Station. Either way, it’s about a 15- or 20-minute walk from the station to the museum. Alternatively, you can look for the yellow buses with Ghibli Museum decorations on the side, and those will also take you to the museum from Mitaka Station.
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