A visit to the Studio Ghibli amusement park just got easier to fit into your schedule and budget.

The appeal of Ghibli Park is easy to see, as it’s a theme park where you can immerse yourself in the art and environments of Studio Ghibli’s beloved anime films. It’s the park’s ticket system, though, that you need to put on your thinking cap to understand, and it’s about to get switched up again, but thankfully in a way that adds a lot of flexibility and affordability.

Ghibli Park is made up of five areas. The first three to open were Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse (a sort of compact alternate version of the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo, with plenty of Ghibli character statues and photo spots), Dondoko Forest (i.e. the My Neighbor Totoro zone), and the Hill of Youth (with settings from Whisper of the Heart). The next to start welcoming visitors was Mononoke Village (inspired by Princess Mononoke, of course), and the final section, Valley of Witches (for fans of Howl’s Moving Castle and Kiki’s Delivery Service) opened in spring of 2024.

Ghibli Park has changed its admission system multiple times in its short history, and while there’s always a top-tier ticket that gets you access to all five zones, the park has gone back and forth on offering lower-priced ones for visitors who’re only interested in, or only have time for, a single portion of the park. These tickets were especially handy for people who might have previously visited Ghibi Park before all five sections were completed, and wanted to make a second trip just to check out the new-to-them areas. Unfortunately, when Ghibli Park updated its ticket system following the Valley of Witches opening last year, it did away with the smaller-scale tickets, but they’ll be coming back this spring.

▼ Mei and Satsuki’s house inside Dondoko Forest, where the kitchen and bath actually get used for full authenticity

Starting at the top, though, the Ghibli Park O-Sanpo (“Big Stroll”) Day Pass Premium will continue to be available, at an unchanged price of 7,300 yen (US$47) for adults on weekdays and 7,800 yen on weekends and holidays (Ghibli Park’s kids tickets are half the price of the adult versions). This gets you into all five areas, and also every building inside the areas (more on that in a minute). You’re also free from the requirement of having to make a reservation for what time you’ll be entering the areas, with the exception of Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse, when you’ll need to set an on-the-hour entry time between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., with 9 a.m. also an option on weekends.

The previously offered Ghibli Park O-Sanpo Day Pass and Ghibli Park Sanpo Day Pass tickets are both being discontinued and will be replaced by the new three-area Ghibli Park O-Sanpo Day Pass Standard. At 3,300/3,800 yen for adults this is a significant savings over the Premium ticket, and since it gets you into Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse, Mononoke Village, and Valley of Witches, it seems like a great fit for people who visited Ghibli Park around the time it first opened and want to see the newer additions.

▼ Mononoke Village’s Demon Spirit and Lord Okkoto, with the walls of Tatara-ba beyond.

However, Valley of Witches also requires additional tickets for those wishing to go inside its recreations of Howl’s Castle, the Okino Residence (Kiki’s house), and the House of Witches (setting for Earwig and the Witch). The supplementary adult ticket for Howl’s castle is 1,000 yen, and they’re 400 yen each for the two other buildings (again, half those prices for kids), so if you’re planning to visit all three on a Ghibli Park O-Sanpo Day Pass Standard, you’re actually going to be paying 5,100/5,600 yen. What’s more, only a limited umber of supplementary tickets are available each day, and they can’t be reserved prior to your visit, so you’ll probably want to start your day by grabbing those. The O-Sanpo Day Pass Standard also comes with the same reservation requirements for Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse as the Premium ticket does.

▼ The interior of Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse

And now we come to the new Area Day Passes, starting with a ticket for just Mononoke Village and Valley of Witches, priced at 2,000 yen for adults regardless of the day. Like with the Ghibli Park O-Sanpo Day Pass Standard, holders of these tickets will be required to purchase supplementary tickets to go inside the three above-discussed Valley of Witches buildings. Single-area tickets will also be available for Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse, Dondoko Forest, and Hill of Youth, and while Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse costs 2,000 yen all by itself, the Dondoko Forest and Hill of Youth tickets are just 1,000 yen each, making them the most affordable way to get a taste of Ghibli Park.

However, the Area Day Passes do come with what could be a significant drawback, as each of them requires that you make a reservation for one of two time blocks, with the earlier only granting you admission until 1 p.m. and the later block being from 1 to 4:30 p.m. Still, with some advance planning, the new ticket options look like they’re a plus for those looking to tailor the amount of time and money they’ll be spending at Ghibli Park to meet their personal tastes. The new ticket system goes into effect for tickets to be used from this April onwards, with the first such batch being available through the Ghibli Park online reservation system starting February 10.

Related: Ghibli Park
Source, images: PR Times
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