The Ghibli lover’s guide to Tokyo: 8 best things to do for Ghibli fans

Essential for any Ghibli lover, this museum in Mitaka is like stepping into a Ghibli movie. No photos are allowed inside, so you enter the museum unmediated – and it feels like you’ve stepped into a Ghibli fantasy world.

Filled with steampunk elements, hand-painted illustrations and original stained glass, the museum showcases seasonal exhibitions – you might catch a showcase on the delicious meals featured in the movies or see original production sketches. The permanent exhibition explains how a movie is made, and each room has little Ghibli Easter eggs hidden throughout. 

The Saturn Theatre is the in-house cinema showing short Ghibli films only released at the museum. The films rotate on a monthly basis, so you might catch a film about an egg princess or a nursery school on a whale hunt.

Tickets go on sale around one month in advance. For example, tickets for July go on sale on June 10 at 10am JST from the English-language Lawson Ticket site. Do note that advance tickets are necessary and sell out fast.

Designed by Hayao Miyazaki and the Ghibli team, this giant clock outside Shiodome’s Ni-Tele Tower is a spot of whimsy in the bustling business district. This steampunk clock looks like it grew two legs and walked right out of ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’. Much like in a Ghibli film, the clock comes to life at 12noon, 3pm, 6pm and 8pm (with an additional 10am show on weekends and public holidays) and puts on a performance of music and dancing clock creatures.

This outdoor museum in Koganei has preserved structures and trains from bygone eras, with most of the buildings dating from the Meiji period (1868-1912), when Japan first began Westernising. While so many of Japan’s historical buildings have been destroyed in war or natural disasters, this museum preserves the structures in all their glory. Spend the day wandering in and out of old buildings, including the Kodakara-yu sento bathhouse. 

The museum feels like a town devoid of any residents, much like the creepy town Chihiro stumbles upon in ‘Spirited Away’. In fact, it’s believed Hayao Miyazaki visited the museum to reference landscapes used in the film.

‘Whisper of the Heart’, a lighthearted film starring Shizuku, an aspiring young writer, takes place in the Tokyo suburb of Seiseki Sakuragaoka, about 30 minutes from Shinjuku on the Keio line. The hilly landscape will be familiar to any fan; you’ll recognise the suburb that bores Shizuku, until she finds its hidden secrets, which include a mysterious antique shop and a violin-crafting boy. Get there at sunset to climb Mimioka, or Whisper Hill, the same location of the final climactic scene.