Studio Ghibli: the real places
Two places, and the same warning for both: you cannot turn up. The museum in Mitaka sells no tickets at its door and none on the day — they go on sale on the tenth of each month, at ten in the morning, for the following month, through Lawson, and they are for a named hour. The park in Aichi is reservation-only as well. Every year people fly to Tokyo, take the train to Mitaka and stand outside a building they cannot enter, so this page leads with the booking rather than with the buildings. What is inside is worth the planning: a museum Miyazaki designed himself, with a short film you can see nowhere else, and a park built into the grounds of a world's fair.
3 places
Statue
The Nippon Television clock, Shiodome
Twelve metres tall and eighteen wide, designed by Hayao Miyazaki and beaten out of copper by hand, bolted to the side of the Nippon Television building. Several times a day the whole face comes alive — doors open, figures work, the music plays — and the office workers crossing the plaza stop. It is the one Ghibli thing in Tokyo that costs nothing and needs no booking, which is why it belongs on this page next to two sites that need both.
- Address
- 東京都港区東新橋 汐留シオサイト 日本テレビタワー
- Getting there
- Toei Oedo or Yurikamome, Shiodome, at the tower
At the Nippon TV tower in Shiodome Sio-site, straight out of Shiodome station on the Oedo line or the Yurikamome. Outdoors, free, and the mechanism runs to a posted timetable.
On the map · Official page · read on September 26, 2026
Museum · Rules of its own
Ghibli Museum, Mitaka
Mitaka's municipal animation museum, designed by Hayao Miyazaki, in the corner of Inokashira park. It holds a short film made for the building and shown nowhere else, the workshop rooms, and the Cat Bus. It is a museum that asks you to look rather than to photograph, which is unusual enough to say out loud.
- Address
- 東京都三鷹市下連雀1-1-83
- Getting there
- JR Chuo line, Mitaka, about 15 min on foot through Inokashira park
About fifteen minutes on foot from Mitaka station through the park. Entry is at a named hour — 10:00, 11:00, 12:00, 13:00, 14:00, 15:00 or 16:00 — and you have an hour from it to arrive.
Rules of its own. No tickets at the door, none on the day. They go on sale on the 10th of each month at 10:00 Japan time, through Lawson, for the following month, and they sell out. Book before you book the flight, not after. Photography is not allowed inside.
On the map · Official page · read on September 25, 2026
Park · Rules of its own
Ghibli Park
Five areas built into the grounds of the 2005 world's fair outside Nagoya: the Grand Warehouse, the Hill of Youth, Dondoko Forest, the Village of Mononoke and the Valley of Witches. It is not a theme park with rides — it is buildings you walk into, which is why people either love it or expected something else.
- Address
- 愛知県長久手市 愛・地球博記念公園内
- Getting there
- Linimo line from Fujigaoka, Ai-Chikyuhaku-Kinen-Koen
The park's own page gives 10:00 to 17:00 on weekdays and 9:00 to 17:00 at weekends and on holidays. Reached on the Linimo maglev from Fujigaoka, about half an hour from central Nagoya.
Rules of its own. Reservation only, like the museum: the page says so plainly. Areas are booked separately, so decide which ones before you buy rather than at the gate.
On the map · Official page · read on September 25, 2026
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