The Ghibli Warehouse opened last year in 2022. It is located in Aici Park, a large sports park with bike rentals for a bike-riding route, an ice skating rink, and more. I was confused at first, because I had thought it was called “Ghibli Park”. What were all these sports things?
The Ghibli warehouse is located across from the ice skating rink. You cannot re-enter the Ghibli warehouse if you exit.
Some exhibits and items were moved from the museum in Tokyo. I recognized the food exhibit, which is about how food is emphasized and given careful attention for emotional impact, and a tall spiral stairway encased in a cage.
My travel companion was most interested in queueing in twos to get into the photo opportunity area. There are large life-sized versions of scene settings so that guests could take the place of the characters in the movies and take photos. There was a hold-up right at the start because the very first scene was No Face on a train from Spirited Away. At least one person in every forced pair of two wanted to take photos in that setting.
A ticket to see the current short film was provided for each warehouse admission. One of 12 shorts would be shown every month on a rotating basis. October of 2023, when we went, involved an egg in a dress and a cruel witch who forced the egg to be her servant. A very large piece of dough who the egg princess rescued from being the witch’s meal was the last main character, and he had quite the transformation rising and baking into a more intimidating piece of bread, after which he rescued the egg princess.
I liked the children’s area and think that children definitely would enjoy their Ghibli warehouse visit. There is a play area of a soft catbus and a larger play area with multiple houses and buildings to go in and out of. Adults without children were not allowed into the larger area, so I am not entirely sure of what is inside.
The cafeteria was okay. Most options were something in a sandwich, something on a pizza (with the unusual options being apple pizza and seasonal fruit pizza), and various drinks.
There is a small section meant to imitate an old side street with small shops. One has books, one has models, and one has candy. None of the candy was Ghibli-themed.
The gift shop did not have many good shirts. One of my friends lamented that he probably would have even bought a low effort movie poster on a shirt.
I think any Studio Ghibli fan should visit at least once.
