Ghibli Park and the Ghibli Museum: How to Get Tickets

There are two Ghibli attractions in Japan and visitors routinely confuse them. The Ghibli Museum is a small building in a park in Mitaka, west Tokyo, open since 2001. Ghibli Park is a set of five areas inside a large park outside Nagoya, built from 2022.

A ticket for one is not valid at the other. Neither sells tickets at the gate. Both put tickets on sale on the 10th of a month, and both can sell out in minutes at the busiest times of year. If you want to go, the booking is the trip-planning task, not the visit.

Which one to go to

The Ghibli Museum is the more personal of the two: a building designed by Hayao Miyazaki himself, a spiral of small rooms, a reconstruction of an animator’s studio, a cat bus for children to climb on, and a short film shown only there and changed through the year. No photography indoors. Two hours is right.

Ghibli Park is bigger and is not a theme park: there are no rides and no queues for them. You walk between five areas in a public park, going inside recreated buildings — the Grand Warehouse, the house from My Neighbour Totoro, Howl’s moving castle, the witch’s valley. It asks for a full day and a lot of walking.

If you have one spare morning in Tokyo, the museum. If you are travelling between Tokyo and Kyoto and can give a day to Nagoya, the park.

Ghibli Museum tickets

Admission is 1,000 JPY for adults, 700 JPY for ages 13 to 18, 400 JPY for 7 to 12 and 100 JPY for 4 to 6, with younger children free. The price is not the obstacle; the release is.

Tickets go on sale at 10:00 Japan time on the 10th of the preceding month — so the whole of December goes on sale on 10 November. They are sold online through Lawson’s ticketing system, and in some countries through an appointed agent.

What works: create and verify your account the day before, know the exact date and entry time you want, be on the page a few minutes early, and have a second choice of date ready. Entry is by half-hour slot and the museum is closed on Tuesdays.

It is a fifteen-minute walk from Mitaka station through Inokashira park, or a short community bus ride from the same station.

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Ghibli Park tickets

Two passes, both dated and timed:

Standard covers the Grand Warehouse, Mononoke Village and the Valley of Witches grounds, but not the buildings inside the valley: entering Howl’s castle costs another 1,000 JPY, and the Okino residence and the house of witches 400 JPY each. Premium includes all of them. Children under four go free.

Tickets are sold online only, through Lawson Ticket or an authorised overseas partner. You can buy one ticket type once a month, up to six tickets at a time; a party of seven or more has to split into groups with separate named applicants.

The rule that catches people out

Both places issue named tickets. The person named on the ticket has to be there and may be asked for identification, so carry your passport. Buying on someone else’s behalf is not allowed, resale tickets are void, and refunds and date changes are not available.

This matters if you are tempted by a resale site when the official release sells out. The ticket will not get you in.

Getting to Ghibli Park

The park is in the Expo 2005 memorial park at Nagakute, east of Nagoya. From Nagoya station take the subway to Fujigaoka, then the Linimo magnetic-levitation line to Ai-Chikyuhaku-Kinen-Koen — about an hour in total. Nagoya is 100 minutes from Tokyo and 35 minutes from Kyoto by Shinkansen, which makes the park a feasible stop on the way between them if you are not carrying luggage.

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When to go

Weekdays in term time are quieter and cheaper at the park. Both places are busiest in Japanese school holidays — late March to early April, Golden Week, August and the New Year — and those are the releases that sell out fastest.

The park is largely outdoors, so it is better in spring and autumn than in a Nagoya August, which is one of the hottest places in the country.

Questions people actually ask

Can I buy tickets when I arrive in Japan?

No. Neither place sells tickets on site, and both normally sell out in advance. Plan the booking before you fly.

Is Ghibli Park worth it for adults without children?

Yes, if you know the films. It is a walking day built around recreated interiors and detail, closer to a set visit than to a theme park.

Can I take photographs?

Not inside the museum. At the park, yes in most places, and there are designated spots for the famous ones.

How long does Ghibli Park take?

A full day for the Premium pass, with several kilometres of walking between areas. Standard works in half a day.

What if the date I want is sold out?

Check again in the days after release, when unconfirmed purchases drop out, and consider a weekday in a less busy month. Do not buy from a resale site: the tickets are named and will be refused.

Is there a combined ticket for both?

No. They are run separately and the tickets are not interchangeable.