Feature
Studio Ghibli in Tokyo: Museum to Totoro's Woods
The Mitaka museum and places tied to Spirited Away, Totoro and Whisper of the Heart, over two days.
- Western Tokyo
- Parks and woodland
- Official shops
Hi, I'm Toraco 🐯 Plenty of people come to Tokyo loving Studio Ghibli films without knowing where the related places are, or how many there are. Most of them aren't in the city centre at all. They sit on the western side of Tokyo, in Mitaka, Koganei, Higashimurayama and the Tama area, and that's exactly why I wanted to gather them for you.
In this feature I've brought together 12 stops: the studio's own museum, the buildings and woods that fed into the films, the neighbourhood known as the model for one of them, and the official goods shops. At the end there's a two-day route through western Tokyo that you can add to your trip in one go.
Mitaka: The Studio's Museum and Inokashira Park
The heart of a Ghibli trip is the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka. It sits right next to Inokashira Park, so you can walk there through the park from Kichijoji Station. Finish with a meal by the station's north exit and your whole day flows neatly ✨
Ghibli Museum, Mitaka
Art · Mitaka & Kichijoji
A museum designed with Hayao Miyazaki's involvement, with recreated animators' studios and short films screened nowhere else. You can check how to get in on the spot card.
¥1,000
Inokashira Park
Anime & Manga · Mitaka & Kichijoji
The metropolitan park next door to the museum, with rental boats on the pond and a small zoo. It's an easy walk before or after your visit.
Free entry
Harmonica Yokocho
Anime & Manga · Mitaka & Kichijoji
A dense warren of roughly 100 tiny bars and eateries right by Kichijoji Station's north exit. A nice place to end the day with dinner.
Free entry
Koganei: The Buildings Behind Spirited Away
A short way west of Mitaka, inside Koganei Park, you'll find the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum. It's an open-air collection of relocated and restored historic buildings, known as a reference Hayao Miyazaki drew on for Spirited Away.
Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum
Art · Other areas in Tokyo
Thirty historic buildings stand here, and Miyazaki drew on its bathhouse and old merchant houses for Spirited Away. He also designed the museum's mascot, Edomaru.
¥400
The Sayama Hills: Totoro's Woods
On Tokyo's north-western edge, along the border with Saitama, the Sayama Hills hold two green spaces tied to My Neighbor Totoro. Both are quiet stretches of old woodland, so take a walk and picture the film's countryside 🐯
Fuchi-no-Mori Green Space
Anime & Manga · Other areas in Tokyo
The riverside woodland where Miyazaki is said to have worked out the ideas for My Neighbor Totoro. He donated money to save it from development, and it still keeps the Sayama Hills landscape seen in the film.
Free entry
Hachikokuyama Green Space
Anime & Manga · Other areas in Tokyo
The woodland said to be the model for Shichikokuyama, where the girls' mother stays in hospital. The Shinyamate Hospital inside it inspired the hospital in the film.
Free entry
Two More Towns: Whisper of the Heart and Kiki
Ghibli connections in Tokyo go beyond the museum and the woods. Seiseki-Sakuragaoka on the Keio Line is loved as the model for the setting of Whisper of the Heart. And over on the east side, in Edogawa, there's a literature museum devoted to Eiko Kadono, the author of the novel behind Kiki's Delivery Service.
Seiseki-Sakuragaoka (Whisper of the Heart Setting)
Anime & Manga · Other areas in Tokyo
The station rotary, the surrounding shops and the hillside housing estate in the Atago district that inspired Shizuku's home are all pilgrimage stops.
Free entry
Kiki's Museum (Edogawa City Eiko Kadono Children's Literature Museum)
Art · Other areas in Tokyo
A children's literature museum on Eiko Kadono's work. Kengo Kuma designed its all-white building on a hill in Nagisa Park.
¥700
The Official Shops: Donguri Kyowakoku and GBL
Donguri Kyowakoku, Studio Ghibli's official goods chain, has five branches in Tokyo. The Tachikawa branch fits neatly into a western Tokyo day, and there are also branches at places such as Tokyo Station. Tokyo Station has a store for GBL too, a grown-up apparel and lifestyle brand built around the films.
Donguri Kyowakoku Lalaport Tachikawa Tachihi
Shopping & streets · Other areas in Tokyo
The Tama-area branch, in the same western direction as the Ghibli Museum, so it slots into a western Tokyo Ghibli day.
Free entry
Donguri Kyowakoku Tokyo Station
Shopping & streets · Tokyo Station & Marunouchi
The branch in Tokyo Station Ichibangai, gathering character goods from across the studio's films in one place.
Free entry
GBL Tokyo Station
Shopping & streets · Tokyo Station & Marunouchi
A store for GBL, the grown-up apparel and lifestyle brand built around Ghibli films, with a focus on carefully chosen materials and design.
Free entry
Donguri Kyowakoku Tokyo Skytree Town Solamachi
Shopping & streets · Oshiage & Ryogoku
A shop split into a forest-like space and a Western-style room. It carries lines for individual films, such as Calcifer and Heen plush toys from Howl's Moving Castle.
Free entry
Do this route
Two Days of Ghibli in Western Tokyo
This is how I'd go around them! Add them all to a trip and change anything you like later 🧳
More spots for these titles
Day one covers Mitaka and Koganei, and day two runs from the Sayama Hills down into Tama. Add this route to your trip first, then rearrange it to fit your dates 🧳
