Ghibli Park is NOW Worth Visiting in Japan | 316

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to episode 316 of the TDR now podcast. We are bringing you all kinds of fun news about asian theme parks and experiences, and including theme parks like Tokyo Disneyland and Universal Studios Japan. You can find us everywhere under TDR Explorer. And if you're interested about things in the city, we're starting a project in collaboration with the tourism convention called Discover Urayasu, which you can find on Instagram. My personal account is under dreamsweets. Love on Instagram and threads. This is going to be a really fun episode. And with us, as always, is the amazing Chris. [00:00:47] Speaker B: Hello, hello, hello, hello. [00:00:50] Speaker A: You've been having so much fun in the heat. [00:00:54] Speaker B: In the heat? Yeah, in the heat. Oh, my goodness. In that. Oh, I can't even describe. [00:01:01] Speaker A: No, it's just a lot. Oh, my God. It's really scary. Okay, you guys, if you're here right now, be careful. I have been, I have seen just this week alone, so many people passed out in the street. Like, luckily they were, you know, help was on, either on the way or they're already helping them, but just really be careful. It is very, very hot. Yeah. Have you, have you been okay? How have you been dealing with the heat? [00:01:27] Speaker B: One thing that I started doing for the heat. [00:01:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:01:30] Speaker B: Well, by the way, for people that are new to the podcast, my name is Chris, aka TDR Explorer, and I am the one that is running around in this intense heat when I don't know if it's smart or not. But, hey, here we are. [00:01:44] Speaker A: You just got to do it right. [00:01:45] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the one thing, okay, really quickly, my, like, way of keeping myself safe from the sun is, um, the. Well, the heat, I should say the. Those cooling rings, you know, that you put around your neck that came out in the last few years. Those have been wonderful. I don't know what they're made out of, but I just love the way they feel on my neck. Like, it's nothing like they're not ice cold unless you put it in the freezer and pull it out. But it's just meant to absorb your body heat, which helps immensely. [00:02:23] Speaker A: It does. [00:02:25] Speaker B: So it's nice. And you can reset them, quote unquote, by putting them back in the fridge or at room temperature, it'll resolidify because the material inside those developed by NASA will turns into liquid in the ring. And then, you know, once it's turned to liquidity, obviously not very helpful, but you just reset it afterwards. So it works wonderfully. I've also been using the, these biore cooling neck sheets. [00:02:55] Speaker A: Yes. [00:02:57] Speaker B: Seen in the last year, I guess. [00:03:00] Speaker A: No, they've been around. The boys in the family swear by them. They love them. [00:03:08] Speaker B: They last for about an hour and they work quite well. [00:03:10] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:03:11] Speaker B: Um, I, like, I don't use the menthol wipes as much as I maybe should, only because I'll just have to keep reapplying my sunscreen. [00:03:20] Speaker A: Yeah, true. [00:03:21] Speaker B: You know, um, so usually I'll use, like, a menthol wipe if I'm about to put on more sunscreen. So I will wipe myself down just to kind of get the sweat off and cool myself down a little bit, then reapply sunscreen. Um, and then I feel like, I think we just talked about this, but you know what? We'll talk about it again. And then obviously I use uv umbrella. The one thing I started doing is taking those salt tablets. [00:03:47] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:03:49] Speaker B: I never used to take them, but after last year, I got heat exhaustion. Not heat stroke, thankfully. I got heat exhaustion, which is still not great, but I had heat exhaustion after a day outside. And this, so far this year, the summer, I've been outside quite a bit for long periods of time, and I've been taking these salt tablets, and it has helped so much. I didn't realize. I didn't realize that, like, I would, like, I would keep myself hydrated, of course, and I would drink sports drinks, but I guess the sport, I wasn't drinking enough sports drinks. Um, so the salt tablet helps. [00:04:31] Speaker A: Yeah. I really drink a, like, water or tea. So I need to start doing the salt tablets more because I can be a bit careless in the heat because I grew up in the heat, and I think I've been a little bit too careless. I think I got just wiped out the other day. [00:04:51] Speaker B: It doesn't feel good. [00:04:52] Speaker A: Yeah, it doesn't. So just. Yeah, it's good to be careful, right? Yeah, definitely. [00:05:00] Speaker B: Yeah. And the. The salt tablets, you can get them pretty much everywhere. Like, convenience stores have them, grocery stores have them. Um, there's a lot of really cute. [00:05:07] Speaker A: Designs, retro designs, too. [00:05:09] Speaker B: Yeah. And, like, it's not just like a block of salt. That's not what you're eating. [00:05:13] Speaker A: No, no, no. [00:05:14] Speaker B: Um, like, they're kind of like candies a little bit. So, like, they'll have, like, lemon flavored, uh, like, cherry flavored things like that. And then there's salt. Salt mixed into it. So it is a little salty, but it's nothing. It's not like a block of salt. You're not doing that. [00:05:32] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:05:33] Speaker B: So that's something I've. Yeah, I've added to my mix of things. [00:05:37] Speaker A: Nice. [00:05:39] Speaker B: Oh, by the way, a wonderful listener was asking, I think it was a few weeks ago, about the. The sunscreen that you were recommending that your son wears. [00:05:48] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. He told me he uses two. [00:05:51] Speaker B: Yeah, the. The tone up one and then the light on. It's called. [00:05:56] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:05:57] Speaker B: Or whatever it's called. [00:05:58] Speaker A: I think the light on is for photograph. For, like, to take pictures. Because it reflects the light. Right. [00:06:03] Speaker B: Yeah. So I went to Don Quixote, and I found them, and I was trying. Okay. I didn't realize there was, like, ten different types of tone up. Because they all have. Because it's meant for different skin tones. [00:06:17] Speaker A: Yes. [00:06:17] Speaker B: Like, if you want to bring up more redness, I guess, blush, I suppose, in your face or, like, bring out green, which I. I don't quite understand. Tone. [00:06:26] Speaker A: It's like, to balance out. Yeah, it's like, to balance out, like. So if you have, like, dark circles, one will cover, like, the dark circles. If you have, like, a bit of redness, some will, like, even out the redness. So it depends, like, what you need. [00:06:37] Speaker B: Yeah. So I kind of. I tried it on my hands because I was just like, I just want to see what it did. [00:06:41] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:06:42] Speaker B: Because with, like, don Quixote in particular, you. They usually have, like, samples of stuff. So you can try it. Try it on. Although I get freaked out when there's, like, samples of. Oh, you can sample this mascara. I'm like, do I really don't do it? [00:06:54] Speaker A: Never. Really. [00:06:56] Speaker B: There's been lip balm, too. I am not sampling that. I will smell it. That's fine. But I am not putting that on my lips. [00:07:04] Speaker A: No. [00:07:05] Speaker B: I am not getting cold sores from somebody. That's not happening. Yeah, I did try the light on stuff. It does make your skin. It doesn't make it look oily. It just makes it look shiny, which was so interesting to me. [00:07:23] Speaker A: Yeah, the. The teens freaking love it. So I always do, like, the purikura and stuff like that, which I guess makes sense, but, like, have you seen the purikura that they're taking lately? [00:07:37] Speaker B: You know what? No. [00:07:38] Speaker A: It looks so. I mean, I guess I'm old. It looks like, you know, like, the filters, like, that you can put, like, on the phone. It's, like, maxed out filters. Oh, like, to the extreme pictures. Yeah, I have. [00:07:53] Speaker B: I have picura from when I was a student here back in, like, 2003. [00:07:57] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:07:58] Speaker B: Like, some of the filters are pretty wild. Like, they're well ahead of their time. I think back then, especially for people from the west, like, we didn't have that kind of stuff at all at the time. [00:08:08] Speaker A: I just find it so interesting because it's so far from any reality. It looks like almost like alien esque, you know. [00:08:17] Speaker B: I don't know why we're talking about skincare all of a sudden, but that's. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Another thing I tried, this has nothing to do with sunscreen, but I tried this new, or it's not new. It's been around for a while. Okay. So as I'm getting older, I have been taking care of my skin better. Thankfully, my skin is not too bad. But, you know, I'm just, like, moisturizing better, having a better routine because, you know, as a teen, um, I don't know if this was your experience, but at least for me, growing up in Canada, especially in, like, the late nineties, early two thousands, I guess more early 2000. Since when I was a teenager. Yeah. Basically we were told you wash your face with, like, those oxy pads, wiping alcohol on your face and just, like, drawing your face. That's basically, that's what I was doing as when I was a teenager, which is horrible for your skin. [00:09:09] Speaker A: Yeah, they tricked us with that. Yeah, I remember that. I was lucky enough to work for, like, I was working in cosmetics, like, for pocket money, so I used to work for Estee Lauder, so I would get all my skincare through them. Right. [00:09:24] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:09:24] Speaker A: But, like, the kids today are so savvy. They know, like, everything. Like, they know the ingredients. They know what the ingredients do and they know, like, whether it's like, low range or high range, they know, like, what the best. It's, like, so, so interesting. Yeah, but we didn't have that back in the day. [00:09:46] Speaker B: You know, it was all about. [00:09:48] Speaker A: Yeah, like, whatever was in the magazines because we used magazines and, like, as. [00:09:54] Speaker B: A result of that, my skin was so oily, but I thought, okay, well, my skin's just oily, so I need to use more of these oxy pads. [00:10:00] Speaker A: They got us so good with that. [00:10:02] Speaker B: Yeah, it was because I was using them is why my skin was so bloody oily. [00:10:06] Speaker A: Exactly. [00:10:07] Speaker B: Anyway, now I, you know, I have, like, proper face wash. I start like, I do exfoliation. I have, like, I'll put, like, toning water. I had to learn what toning water was like, putting. Using toning water with, like, a, like, I have, like, I don't have super sensitive skin, but I don't like stuff that has, like, a lot of fragrance in it. I like stuff that's very neutral. [00:10:28] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:10:29] Speaker B: Because, you know, stuff in Japan can be very perfumey or very floral, and I don't really care for that in my face products. So, you know, I have, like, a, like, toning water and then, like, a light moisturizer, and then I have, like, a beard cream as well for my facial hair, all that stuff. One thing I started using, and the only reason why I started using it is because there was Pokemon on the bloody. [00:10:54] Speaker A: On the packaging. [00:10:57] Speaker B: No, no, it was Suisan. [00:11:00] Speaker A: No, I feel like there's Pokemon in everything now. [00:11:03] Speaker B: They are of. Was it San Suui? Suisan. I can't remember the name. Something. Sui nanoplastui. It's like a little, like they come in the little pods. [00:11:11] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:11:12] Speaker B: And you put it like it's powder you put in your hand. They put as much water as you need to make it, like, either really creamy or really gritty. [00:11:19] Speaker A: Oh, interesting. [00:11:21] Speaker B: Suisan. Suis. No, it's not Suisan. [00:11:24] Speaker A: It sounds really fun. [00:11:27] Speaker B: Sizeui. It's bothering minute, you know? Anyway, I've been. I started using that, and there's, like, one for oily skin because I still do have a little bit of oily skin. So I've been using that to exfoliate my face, and it's been quite nice. [00:11:43] Speaker A: Nice. [00:11:45] Speaker B: I've been taking care of my skin, especially, like, sunscreen and everything too. [00:11:50] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:11:51] Speaker B: Do not want to burn. [00:11:53] Speaker A: I feel like we. We've gotten off, like, on the start of, like, almost like a bonus episode vibe, pretty much. [00:11:59] Speaker B: Right? Yeah, kind of did. Um. Yeah. Anyway, I don't know why I'm just, like, in the skincare. Skincare phase of my life right now. [00:12:12] Speaker A: Hey, man, it's kind of good. It feels good. It's a nice. It's nice to have a routine. You feel good after doing it, so. Yeah, yeah. [00:12:20] Speaker B: Like, I'll use stuff to, like, reduce the puffiness under my eyes because I'm on camera a lot and things like that. Things of that nature. Anyway, we should probably get into the, what we're supposed to be talking about today. [00:12:32] Speaker A: I'm so excited. [00:12:33] Speaker B: Ghibli Park. I think this is the third 3rd episode we've done on it now, I believe. [00:12:39] Speaker A: I think so because I think we did, like, the pre open first phase, and this is, like, the final phase has been completed. Right? [00:12:47] Speaker B: So long story short, Ghibli park is definitely now worth the trek 100% because before, it was kind of, like, it's a long ways to go for half a park. It was kind of a hard, like, I shouldn't say hard sell. It was just. It was so far away from everything. [00:13:10] Speaker A: It's an inconvenient sell. [00:13:12] Speaker B: Yeah. Because you. I guess, like, right off the top. Like, if you're gonna go to Ghibli park, you're probably. You. You can't really do a day trip from Tokyo. That's too much, in my opinion. [00:13:22] Speaker A: Oh, no way. [00:13:24] Speaker B: Cause on the Shinkansen Nagoya station is an hour and a half from Tokyo, roughly just a little bit over. But from there, Ghibli park is another 45 minutes by local train. [00:13:37] Speaker A: Right. [00:13:38] Speaker B: So you're gonna be eating up, you know, 3 hours, let's just say, just to get there. [00:13:44] Speaker A: And you have to get there early because things in the countryside close early. [00:13:49] Speaker B: Yes. They open at. It's usually nine or ten, depending on the day, and closes at five or six. [00:13:54] Speaker A: Right. [00:13:54] Speaker B: So you want to be there when it opens at nine or ten. So do you really want to be leaving at five in the morning? Probably not. So it's better to stay in the Nagoya area for probably two days. [00:14:08] Speaker A: Nogay also has a lot of interesting stuff, a lot of interesting history and food too. [00:14:12] Speaker B: So there's less tourists. Like, it's not as busy as other places too. If you kind of want something that's still like a city vibe. [00:14:20] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:14:21] Speaker B: Like a big. Like, nagoya is not a small city. It's not as big as Osaka or Tokyo by any stretch, but it's still a big city. Just a lot of people do kind of just go by and don't really pay much attention to it. But there's. There's stuff to do there besides Ghibli park. There's Nagoya castle. The. Well, the. The big park itself is quite nice. That the Ghibli park is in the. The Shinkansen Museum and the Toyota Museum is really nice. I did the Shinkansen Museum because it's near Legoland. Because Legoland's also there. Yeah, the Shinkansen museum was wonderful. There's like, you can. You can easily spend like, half a day there and then, like, late, like, Legoland's a full day if you want to do Legoland. [00:15:07] Speaker A: I feel like it's a really great. You know, people are always asking like, oh, what do I do in Japan if I'm traveling with kids? And I feel like that this is actually kind of like a nice area to visit because, like you said, you have the bullet train museum, you have Legoland. You have the Ghibli park, which is not just, you know, which is not just various pavilions. But it's also this really lovely park, you know. So, like, all the things like that, you know, kids enjoy. So I think it's actually a really great area. If you are looking at Japan travel with children. [00:15:41] Speaker B: Oh, 100%. And you can take it a little slower as well. It's not as fast paced. [00:15:46] Speaker A: It's not super crowded. You know, it's kind of like retro vibes. Really nice. [00:15:51] Speaker B: Yeah. And they're well known for their. Was it miso Tonkotsu? I think it's called. [00:15:59] Speaker A: Heck yeah. Good food. [00:16:01] Speaker B: Miso Tonkatsu is so good. So it's tonkatsu, which is breaded pork. But then they put like, a miso. A sweet miso glaze sauce on it. Like, that's kind of their thing. It is delicious. [00:16:13] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:16:16] Speaker B: And it's one of their, like, known foods in Nagoya. It's funny for, like, Nagoya Station. You can tell it's on a maid. Like, it's a major train line for this shinkansen. But you can. It is much smaller and easier to navigate compared to Osaka in Tokyo. [00:16:35] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:16:35] Speaker B: Even, like, even easier than Kyoto because there's, like, only a couple. There's only a couple platforms. There's not like 20, you know, or whatever. Very easy to navigate. Like, you're not going to get lost. [00:16:49] Speaker A: No. Which is great. [00:16:52] Speaker B: Yes. So. Yeah. With. Yeah. Ghibli park. Well, we just. Yeah, let's. [00:17:00] Speaker A: Let's jump on in. [00:17:02] Speaker B: So this past March, they finally opened the rest of, like, do I even want. Do you even want to call it an expansion? I don't know. [00:17:12] Speaker A: Because they open the other. Because they're pavilions. Right. They open the other pavilions. Right. Because you buy separate tickets for each area. They're like little mini areas that you can go and explore and do different things. [00:17:25] Speaker B: Yeah. That's the best way to explain. Because it's not. It's not a traditional theme park. [00:17:30] Speaker A: No. [00:17:30] Speaker B: And that it's all in one area and you get one ticket. Ticket. And everything's accessible. It's not like that. Because Ghibli park is in a gigantic public park. [00:17:41] Speaker A: Right. [00:17:41] Speaker B: That was made for the expo back in like, 20 or 2005. So the park is used for other things. There's just these little pavilions that you need separate tickets for. For Ghibli or all the Ghibli park stuff, I guess really quickly about tickets, just so people can wrap their heads around it. They now. Tickets are a lot easier to get now in terms of getting it through the website, based off of our experience getting the tickets for this time, it wasn't as hard as getting tickets for the museum in Tokyo. [00:18:16] Speaker A: Yeah, I can see that. [00:18:18] Speaker B: So I don't know why that is. [00:18:20] Speaker A: I guess maybe it's just convenience. [00:18:22] Speaker B: Yeah, I think so. So effectively, you want to get a, um, the Osampo premium ticket. That's when we got. And that gets you everything. You get to see everything in the park. You have access to everything. You don't have to think about it. You just do that. I think it's about ¥7400 or something like that, which is not bad for the amount of stuff that we're going to talk about that you get access to. But we'll go in more into, like, tickets and stuff a little bit later. But just so you know, it's the Osample premium ticket is what is what we got. Yeah. So the valley of witches is probably was the thing I was the most excited for. [00:19:09] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:19:10] Speaker B: Yeah, I was. And I went into this, I don't want to say blind. Like, I I know the films that these were based off of because I've seen them. [00:19:21] Speaker A: Mm hmm. [00:19:21] Speaker B: Well, except for the one, which I'll talk about in a second. But, yeah. Valley of the witches, it's all outdoors, and it is themed to three different films or animations. One is Kiki's delivery service. One is howl's moving castle, and the other one is earwig and the witch. [00:19:41] Speaker A: Oh, okay. [00:19:42] Speaker B: Earwig and the witch is the one I have not seen. [00:19:45] Speaker A: I have not seen that one either. [00:19:47] Speaker B: I was a little put off by the computer animation just because, like, to me, a Ghibli film is hand drawn animation. [00:19:54] Speaker A: Sure. Yeah. [00:19:55] Speaker B: Seeing like that is kind of. Okay. It's not really high on my list, but I should make a point of seeing it, though. [00:20:00] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:20:02] Speaker B: But, yeah, this, it's all outdoors, and it has all these buildings that are iconic from these films. So if you've seen the films or a fan of the films, you're gonna recognize them immediately. And, um, a lot of these places require your, the premium ticket to go inside. So that's why I say get the premium ticket, because there, there is a Osampo ticket, but it'll just get you into the area. But you can't go into certain buildings. [00:20:34] Speaker A: What? [00:20:35] Speaker B: Which is a little convoluted. Yeah, but so there's like, you can go into, like, uh, the house, uh, the earwigs house, uh, the Okino residence, which is from Kiki's delivery service house, moving castle. Like, you get to go in the actual house moving castle. And those all require, like, the premium ticket to do. [00:20:58] Speaker A: Okay. [00:20:59] Speaker B: Um, so if you want to do those, get the premium ticket, then you don't even have to think about it. You can just go in. Man, I don't even know where to start with this, because it was just so charming. We spent a good 4 hours there. I think. I think 4 hours is a little much, but I was just kind of taking it all in because there was just so much detail to see. [00:21:24] Speaker A: And I was going to say, too, like, what's kind of really interesting and what's also really kind of nice is the no photo, no video policy, which really gives you the. The chance to take it slow, explore every nook and cranny, right. And just kind of, like, you know, cut off from, you know, like, tech for a short time. Right. [00:21:48] Speaker B: Which I was like, at first, when I was told, like, no photos or videos, I was like, okay, fine. But then when I was forced to do that, it was nice just to kind of go through these spaces, not having to worry about getting the perfect picture and all that kind of stuff. Um, I guess, like, you can take pictures outside as much as you want. [00:22:13] Speaker A: Oh, for sure. [00:22:14] Speaker B: Like, they. They do have photo ops outside, like, specific things that they know people want their pictures with. That is all outdoors. Anything indoors, you can't take pictures or video. [00:22:25] Speaker A: Right. [00:22:25] Speaker B: Which is fine. That's fine. Like, I'm not mad at that. [00:22:29] Speaker A: And I think that was also the case before with the totoro house, right? [00:22:34] Speaker B: Yes. I think it's still the case, too. [00:22:36] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:22:40] Speaker B: I guess, like, going through, like, the, like, the different things you can go into. There was Earwig's house. The house of witches was the first one we went into. [00:22:52] Speaker A: I love that there's a whole witchy area. [00:22:54] Speaker B: Yeah. Like, this whole thing is just witches. It's all witches. Um, yeah. Earwig's house. Again, I haven't seen the film, so I didn't really. I couldn't really correlate anything. Um, but it's. It's the main character, earwig. It's the. Where they live. Um, so it was. It was quite nice. It looked like it was lived in neat. Like, you could. You're allowed to touch pretty much everything. Like, you're allowed to open drawers, you're allowed to open the fridge, open up cupboards and all this and just explore, which was quite nice. And it just looked like. It looked like a house that was lived in. [00:23:37] Speaker A: Cool. [00:23:38] Speaker B: I really appreciated. The other one was the, well, I guess there's the bakery from Kiki's delivery service. [00:23:51] Speaker A: I think that's one of them. It's kind of silly, but I think that's kind of one of the things I'm most excited about. If we go. If we ever go. [00:23:58] Speaker B: So, yeah, the bakery. So the bakery is an actual bakery, so you don't need a ticket or anything. It's an actual bakery that sells actual pastries. And the pastries are really good. Like, I kind of thought they were gonna be, eh, no, they were. They were good pastries. And they're not, like, don't expect them to be shaped, like, you know, gigi or anything like that. Like, they don't have things like that. [00:24:26] Speaker A: Because it's supposed to represent, like, what it. Like. Like, as in the bakery from the film. [00:24:31] Speaker B: Yeah, it's the bakery. [00:24:32] Speaker A: Really charming bakery. [00:24:34] Speaker B: It was really cute inside, and, like, it would, like, it was the bakery. And, like, that in itself is worth it, just kind of going in there, like, oh, my goodness. This is. This. This looks exactly like the bakery. Like, I love it. And you can buy baked goods. I got, like, a little cinnamon bun, and I. And another thing, and it was. It was really tasty, but then, yeah. Oh, but then this is where you. You do need, like, the premium ticket. You can go upstairs. And Kiki's room is upstairs above the bakery. [00:25:07] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:25:07] Speaker B: You can go in and look at. Which was so cool because, like, you go in there and you see this clothes, like, clothing line, and Kiki's, like, outfit is hanging there drying. [00:25:17] Speaker A: Oh, my God. [00:25:18] Speaker B: It shows. It's, like. It's really charming and just really cute. I really love that. [00:25:25] Speaker A: No, I was gonna say that, you know, we always go off on a tangent about, like, character cafes and how they're hit or miss, but I feel like the one character thing that's done is done really well, is always bakeries for some reason. Like, if you go to, like, the ampam mum bakery, it's, like, amazing, right? If you go to, like, the Moomin bakery, it's amazing. And I feel like that's, like, the one thing where usually it's always good. [00:25:54] Speaker B: Bakeries are usually pretty good. [00:25:55] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:25:58] Speaker B: And right beside the bakery is the hat shop that Sophie worked at from Hell's moving castle. Now, the hat shop, the front of it is, you can actually buy hats from, like, the hats that characters wear in the film. You can actually buy them. I. They must be handmade. I'm not sure, because they were expensive. I'm talking, like, 30, ¥40,000, like, hundreds of dollars for these hats. And they look gorgeous. And they also sold candies. [00:26:32] Speaker A: Oh, cute. [00:26:33] Speaker B: The candies were all kind of themed to different, like, the three different films within the area, plus also, like, ghibli park. So it's kind of. It's more like branded stuff, which was like, eh, that's fine. I understand why they would do that. They can't just have a shop that sells hundred dollar hat, $100 plus hats, you know, that's a little tough. It was very charming in there, but then this didn't require an extra ticket or anything. But if you just explored a little bit, if you went kind of down this hallway that's just outside of the hat shop, go down this little hallway, follow the sign that says you're going to the washroom. Just keep following it, and then you're going to have. You're going to see the washrooms on the left, but there's still, like, hallway left. If you walk down to the end of the hallway, and then I can't remember if it's to your left or your right. I can't quite remember. You're going to find the workshop that Sophie was in making the hats. Oh, and it looks identical to the film. Like, I walked in, I just felt like I just walked into Hell's moving castle like I am in this film right now. Like, Sophie sat Sofia. Sophie sat right there sewing the hats and had the hat from the one scene where she's sewing a hat, was hanging there on a mannequin, and it looked exactly like it. And that just. It just made me so happy, because it's like. I don't want to say it's simple. I think that's downplaying it. It was just so, like. [00:28:06] Speaker A: Probably like, the attention to detail, right? [00:28:09] Speaker B: Yeah. Like, it just felt like she was there at one point, right? And she left. You know, maybe she was in. She went to Hell's moving castle. That's probably where she was. It just. It just. It just, again, it felt lived in. And, like, all these little details, like, all these meticulous little details that, you know, what most people probably don't care about, but I'm sitting looking at it, and I'm like, oh, my goodness, it looks like there's a sewing kit down there, and there's, like, feathers over there, and, like, just, like, all these little details. And I just think it's so wonderful. It was just. It was. It was so nice. They actually had two. They actually have attractions, like rides that you can ride. They have the carousel of life. [00:28:57] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:28:58] Speaker B: Which was interesting. I didn't do it because I didn't feel like paying ¥1000 to ride it. [00:29:03] Speaker A: Uh huh. Uh huh. [00:29:04] Speaker B: What was it called? Tower. No, what was it called? It was just called carousel. Yeah. And it played a unique arrangement of merry go round of life. [00:29:13] Speaker A: Mm hmm. [00:29:15] Speaker B: From the soundtrack of Hell's moving castle. So I had things on there from Kiki's delivery service house. Moving castle, of course, Princess Mononoke. Um, it was. It's. It's a very beautiful carousel. It's quite beautiful. [00:29:29] Speaker A: Nice. [00:29:30] Speaker B: I just didn't think it was worth the thousand yen to ride it, to be quite honest. I was fine enough just kind of watching it from afar. [00:29:37] Speaker A: I mean, like, on top of everything. Like, if you add that in and, I don't know, the other attraction of it also has a fee. It gets. The price gets up there. [00:29:46] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:29:47] Speaker A: For a place in the countryside. [00:29:48] Speaker B: You know, the other thing was the flying machine. It's kind of like. It was almost like, you know, like Dumbo. It's that kind of ride. [00:29:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:29:58] Speaker B: But you're. You're in a flying machine, and that's pretty much what it is. Then in the back there was the Okino residence. So that is Kiki's parents house, right? Where Kiki grew up before she left when she turned 13. Because when you turn 13, which is have to leave for a year, if I'm remembering correctly, something like that. [00:30:23] Speaker A: I gotta go work. [00:30:25] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, it's big. Like, it's a full house. I'm not even. Like, the front yard is nicely manicured and everything. And there's actually a photo off to get your photo outside riding one of two different brooms, which I did. And then you get to go into the house. And let me tell you, when I walked in the. Into this house, I was hit with this wave of nostalgia for a place I've never lived in. Like, I felt like I've. I felt at home, and I felt this yearning for a past I never lived. You know, it was just such a weird feeling. And of course, it had all the, like, all the rooms were there from, that were shown in the film are there. It was just. It just felt so real. Like, again, the attention to detail in it was just so wonderful. Even to the point where in the living room there was a record player that had records from the monkeys. [00:31:34] Speaker A: Oh, cute. [00:31:35] Speaker B: If I remember correctly, the dad liked the monkeys. I think so, yeah. And you can ask the staff to put on the record for you. [00:31:43] Speaker A: That's great. I feel like this goes really well. With the trend, the retro trend that's. [00:31:49] Speaker B: Going on right now, the whole, like, showa is that. [00:31:52] Speaker A: Well, I mean, not necessarily. It doesn't have to be showa, but like, just retro in general. [00:31:56] Speaker B: Right? The whole. Yeah, kind of like when I think retro in Japan, I think like kissetan, like the traditional kiss. Like, I think of that, um, like. [00:32:06] Speaker A: Things like record players, film cameras, like those kind of things. Like, it's really on trend right now. [00:32:12] Speaker B: Um, and then you can go up to the second floor. [00:32:15] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:32:15] Speaker B: Which I think is really nice. And Kiki's room is in there. And like, when I went into her room again, that wave of nostalgia hit me and it was just like, I don't know, like, I know it's not my room. It was never my room, but it just felt like I wanted to go back to this past, to this, this time that was never really mine, you know? It's just like, I don't know, it just felt so welcoming and so something that I wanted to live, live through. [00:32:50] Speaker A: Live in, like really cozy. [00:32:53] Speaker B: Yeah, it was, it was just so nice. And if you are someone who loves Kiki's delivery service, like, this is something you need to do. Like, you 100% need to do this. [00:33:04] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:33:04] Speaker B: Yes. Like, yes. You're just walking around looking at stuff. But I, I like that. I like that experience because, you know, with, you know, things like Universal and Disney, a lot of stuff is just like, go, go, go, go. [00:33:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:33:20] Speaker B: Yeah. We have to go to the next thing. We have to go to the next show. We have to go on the next ride. Okay. Yeah. The queue is really lovely, but we have to keep moving, you know. Yeah, we have to go to the, our next reservation, things like that. So like, this was really complete opposite and it was a nice change. [00:33:37] Speaker A: Mm hmm. It's like taking it slow, just like really enjoying your time. [00:33:42] Speaker B: And it's not like the park was empty. There was quite a few people, but everything is just so spread out. It didn't feel crowded, especially outside. And then after that, of course, Howl's moving castle is there. You cannot miss that. You see that? You know exactly what that is. Howl's moving castle. And there's a photo op outside on top of this hill where you get to see, um, his name is slipping. Turnip head. That's his name. Yeah, the, you know, the scarecrow. Yeah, he's up there. And you get your picture with him and everything. It's so good. But then you can go inside the bloody castle. You can go into it, go inside and I think that, by far, was my absolute favorite. [00:34:37] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:34:38] Speaker B: And again, this was the thing that you needed the premium ticket to go into. 100% worth it. It was so good. Like, before you go in, the staff tell you to be polite and, like, knock before you go in. [00:34:53] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:34:54] Speaker B: And I was I was kind of like, okay. Why? And then I realized why. So do you do remember the film? Have you seen the film? [00:35:02] Speaker A: I've seen the film a few times. I don't. I have seen the people knocking on the door, and I have seen what happens is really cute. [00:35:10] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Well, if you've seen the film, then, uh, people should know probably what I'm gonna say next. Um, effectively, once you go inside, you can transport the castle by turning the knob above. [00:35:28] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Yeah. [00:35:30] Speaker B: Above the door handle on the door. So I like, that's why they tell you to knock. So you don't hit somebody with opening the door. Because people are turning that knob. And it's it's a practical effect. Like, it's not fancy. There's no projection mapping or anything. It's literally the one window if you're standing, like, once you go up the stairs inside the castle. [00:35:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:35:50] Speaker B: Go upstairs and there's a window. If someone turns that knob, the picture just changes to a different. [00:35:58] Speaker A: A different world. Yeah. [00:36:00] Speaker B: World. It's not high tech in the slightest, but it is so bloody charming. [00:36:06] Speaker A: It's really cute. Yeah. [00:36:07] Speaker B: It's so cute. And it is cluttered in there. Like, it is. [00:36:13] Speaker A: I mean, because how is, right. [00:36:16] Speaker B: That place is a hot mess. Just like him. [00:36:19] Speaker A: Exactly. [00:36:20] Speaker B: It was so good. The only thing is, like, you don't really get to see Kelsifer. Like, you get to see where he would be. But there's no, like, effects or anything to show him showing up, which would have been cool. But I think they were kind of going for, like, the low tech kind of experience. And to have, like, an animated flame with face, you'd have to do some screens or projection mapping or something. [00:36:45] Speaker A: Where is Calcifer? Where did he go? [00:36:49] Speaker B: But, of course, if you know Calcifer is supposed to be there, that's still good enough. Like, you look at that stove, you're like, that is where he is. That is where Calcifer is. That's where he lives. Or they live. I'm not sure what they go by. [00:37:03] Speaker A: Star or flame. [00:37:07] Speaker B: Oh, one thing I forgot to mention. The outside of the castle moves. So every so often, like, the turrets will start spinning and moving around. The mouth kind of moves a little bit, and steam comes out and hear, like, sound effects and stuff. So it, like, it sounds like it's gonna get up and start moving nice. Like, walk away kind of thing. [00:37:29] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:37:30] Speaker B: Again, very simple, but it's very effective, and I love that. Then, yeah, you get to go, like, walk around inside. You get to see the bedrooms and stuff. Then you. Then you go upstairs, and then there's, like, the bathroom before Sophie cleaned it, right before she, like, that bathroom is a hot mess. [00:37:54] Speaker A: Yeah, hot mess. [00:37:56] Speaker B: It is just, like, there's just paint and stuff everywhere. [00:37:59] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:38:01] Speaker B: And then there's, like, the bedroom. The bedroom with, like, the baubles and stuff. The baubles and, like, it just felt very, like. Yeah, it's hell's moving, castle. But, like, I was getting, like, David Bowie vibes for some reason. [00:38:17] Speaker A: Like, I can see that. [00:38:18] Speaker B: Yeah, that's where my mind went. I'm like, this is something where David Bowie would live, for sure. It just had that, like, it had that vibe to it. Right. [00:38:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:38:26] Speaker B: And then one thing that I completely would have missed, because I never would have thought to do this. There was two other people in the room, and there was this little wooden box that we were able to touch because it was, like, on this little shelf, and they went up to it. They opened it up, and there was a stamp in there. And they took the stamp, and I saw them open up a. Like, they had a stamp book. Right. Because they're collecting stamps, and I saw them stamp it, and they pulled it off, and there was nothing there. [00:38:55] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:38:56] Speaker B: Oh, it must be a black light stamp. And then there is a black light lamp conveniently neck, like, next to it. And I saw them put it under there, and it was the protect, like, the protection charm symbol thing. [00:39:09] Speaker A: Very cool. [00:39:11] Speaker B: Which I thought was so neat. [00:39:12] Speaker A: Where can you get the stamp book? That's really cool. [00:39:15] Speaker B: I think it was just one that they brought. Like, it was just, like, one that they, those people in particular, I think they're just collecting stamps from, like, anywhere in Japan, and they just wanted that one in particular for. [00:39:25] Speaker A: Oh, interesting. But there must be something that tells you, like, on the website or something. [00:39:29] Speaker B: I don't know. [00:39:30] Speaker A: I don't know if they knew to bring it. They, they knew it was there. [00:39:35] Speaker B: I would have asked them if. Well, they weren't japanese, so I didn't ask them. They were. I don't know where they were. Somewhere in Europe, so they didn't speak English or Japanese. I was like, uh, couldn't really understand. We couldn't really understand each other. So I was like, that's fine. Um, yeah, I thought, I thought it was really. That was really neat. [00:39:53] Speaker A: That's really cool. [00:39:54] Speaker B: And then you can, you can go outside as well and walk, like, on the outside of the castle and everything. It was quite, quite lovely. [00:40:05] Speaker A: Cool. [00:40:05] Speaker B: That was probably one of the highlights. And they have a lot more food. They learned their bloody lesson because before at the warehouse, there's only a couple places to get food. [00:40:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:40:23] Speaker B: And one was like, the main thing was the bakery inside the, the warehouse. [00:40:29] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:40:29] Speaker B: Which was kind of like. Or a bakery slash cafe. And the food selection wasn't very hearty, in my opinion. Like, it was very, like, light, fair, cafe type food. And, like, yeah, I don't want that for lunch. Right. I want something a little more filling. That's not just a bunch of bread. So in Valley of the witches, they have, they have a hot dog stand, which is very interesting, called hot tin roof. And it's a hot dog stand. And the hot dogs come in and cat paw shaped buns. [00:41:03] Speaker A: Okay. [00:41:03] Speaker B: And one's black and one is white. Very cute. They are expensive. It's 900 some yen for it. [00:41:10] Speaker A: That's a lot. [00:41:11] Speaker B: It was a lot for what? It was for a hotel, but it was that, like, that really good sausage, you know? [00:41:20] Speaker A: Okay. So at least it's, like a quality sausage. [00:41:22] Speaker B: Yeah. It wasn't like, you know, they didn't just go to Walmart and get a pack of hot dogs. It wasn't bad. It was a quality sausage. It was actually quite tasty. [00:41:31] Speaker A: Okay. [00:41:33] Speaker B: But they have a huge restaurant called the flying oven. [00:41:37] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:41:37] Speaker B: In the valley of witches. And this is a full service restaurant. Like, full meals. And on weekends, they will actually serve, like, breakfast. Like, breakfast food, which is nice. It's like. So it's hearty, hearty food. So they have desserts and, like, full, full meals. The one. So one was, um. What? You know, I forgot to write down what I got. Let me just pull up a picture. I I did get panna cotta in the shape of eyeballs, which was very unsettling to look at, and had that, like, not that I've ever eaten eyeballs before, but, like, it, like, it just, it felt what an eyeball would feel like in my mind. [00:42:27] Speaker A: I've only eaten an eyeball once. [00:42:29] Speaker B: Oh, no. It was like fish eyes or something. [00:42:31] Speaker A: It was a fish eye. It was not bad. [00:42:35] Speaker B: No, no. [00:42:36] Speaker A: It really wasn't. Like, but, like, it was all right. But panna cotta, fish. Panna cotta ice probably tastes much better. [00:42:45] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, the thing I got was a ketchup spaghetti quiche. [00:42:55] Speaker A: Nice. Which sounds like, kind of funny. [00:42:58] Speaker B: Yeah. With roasted potatoes. So it was like a quiche, but inside was ketchup and spaghetti. [00:43:03] Speaker A: Interesting. [00:43:06] Speaker B: And then there was, and then they. [00:43:10] Speaker A: Had, don't they also have in the bakery, like a croqueta with, like, pasta inside as well? [00:43:17] Speaker B: Yes, they did. They did. Yeah, they did. [00:43:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:43:21] Speaker B: And then they also had, like, a vegetarian option. So they like a vegetable soup with, like, seasonal vegetables and stuff. [00:43:26] Speaker A: Nice. [00:43:27] Speaker B: Which is nice because, you know, until very recently, it's been hard to find stuff that's, like, vegetarian. [00:43:33] Speaker A: Right. [00:43:34] Speaker B: Everything will have meat or something sort of in it. Um, yeah. And they, they had a whole bunch of other food options as well. Um, I took a picture of the menu I wanted to get the value of, which is shepherd's pie, but they, they were sold out by the time we went. Um, yeah. Catch a spaghetti quiche. There was a pork meat piece, dark as night. Oh, it's a curry. [00:44:00] Speaker A: It's always a curry. [00:44:03] Speaker B: Well, it's weird. The. Okay, no, never mind. Yeah. Darkest night curry. And they had fish and chips as well. [00:44:11] Speaker A: Nice. [00:44:11] Speaker B: And then they had different, yeah, and then soup with nine different fried vegetables served with homemade bread. And that was considered vegetarian. [00:44:22] Speaker A: I feel like the quiche with the, the pasta is kind of, like, a good option because it's kind of unique, you know? [00:44:28] Speaker B: Yeah, it was, it was, it was, it was a little heavy, but I can see that. [00:44:32] Speaker A: But maybe good if you're sharing with somebody. [00:44:34] Speaker B: And they had an eyeball soda float. Soda, which was a lot. I didn't have that because it just looked like a lot. And then they had, like, standard soft drinks, like coffees, teas, things like that. And then they have, um, if you're beer connoisseur, they actually have their own brew of beer. So they have a valley of which is beer. So they have a pale ale and a hime white. [00:44:57] Speaker A: Nice. [00:44:59] Speaker B: I don't know if in this context they mean hime, as in princess. I'm not sure. The Japanese is written. The Japanese is written hiragana? No, katakana. Like he me white thalidization. So I don't know if in this context hime is princess because hime is princess. Right. [00:45:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:45:21] Speaker B: I don't know. Why does it have the vegetarian symbol beside it? [00:45:26] Speaker A: Maybe it's the vegetarian version. Yeah. [00:45:30] Speaker B: Can beer be not vegetarian? [00:45:33] Speaker A: Maybe it can. Maybe if you put. I don't know. What would you have to put in it? [00:45:37] Speaker B: Like, well, I can't. It has like a, oh, maybe it means wheatley. Maybe. I can't tell what the symbol on the menu means. Let me just check. No, the same symbols for on the fried vegetable soup. What does that mean? [00:45:53] Speaker A: Maybe it just means, like, that you're 100% sure. [00:45:58] Speaker B: Oh, no. Okay. No, I'm reading it wrong. Yeah, it means it has wheat in it. Okay, that makes sense. Okay. Wheat and beer. The pale ale apparently doesn't have wheat in it. Then I guess I'm not a beer connoisseur, so. Sure. [00:46:14] Speaker A: Okay. So it does say that I might be reading this wrong. Findings. Some brewers add findings to clarify findings or findings to clarify the beer. And some of those findings could have animal derived products like icinglass or gelatinous. [00:46:34] Speaker B: Hmm. [00:46:35] Speaker A: So it is possible for it not to be vegetarian, but probably. It's usually vegetarian, I feel. [00:46:44] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I think I was just reading it wrong. It went wheat. [00:46:48] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:46:51] Speaker B: Yeah. So the flying oven, we probably waited a good 30 to 40 minutes to get in. It was just a long, like, because we went around noon. Yeah, I think 01:00 or noon. And then there's also. There's a merchandise shop as well there. And the merchandise there is all unique and differs from the merchandise that's in the warehouse. So it's all value of witches, like, branded stuff, but also, like, kiki's delivery service, house, moving castle, you're rigging the witch. All that kind of stuff they have. There's so much merchandise. I wasn't allowed to take pictures or video in there either. Yeah, but there's a lot of stuff in there. You'll probably find something that you would really like. [00:47:34] Speaker A: Oh, for sure. [00:47:37] Speaker B: And then the other area, which is a lot smaller, is Mononoke village. [00:47:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:47:43] Speaker B: So there's not too much to do there. It's quite small. But if you're a fan of Princess Mononoke, you're going to appreciate, appreciate it. So there's two statues outside. One is of Lord Okto, and which is the big boar pig thing, and then the other one's the demon spirit that you see. And, well, you see both these in the film. Those are there, though. Those are just, like, big statues that are photo ops. The biggest thing is the tataraba, which is, you know, it looks like it's like, it's the headquarters of. I can't remember their name. The headquarters of one of the characters from the film. And it, like, has a grass roof and everything. Like, it's very, I guess, traditional Japanese. [00:48:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:48:43] Speaker B: From, like, centuries ago kind of thing. And inside of is a hands on learning experience where you get to grill your own mochi. It's called go hey mochi. Yeah, go hey. I've never done go hey mochi before. Like, I've done the traditional, like, the pounding of the mochi, but go hey mochi is just like, it's rice that's like, really stuck together, but it's not. It's still, like, in the same rice shape, but it's all turned into, yeah. Flat cake, effectively. And it's on. It's on a stick, and you get to pick from different sauces. So there was a curry sauce. I picked, like, a black honey. Black. Black honey black. A black honey. Miso, I think is what it was. Because I asked them which was the most popular one or which one they recommend. They. They said that one. So the black black honey brown sugar, whatever it was. Miso. [00:49:47] Speaker A: Uh huh. [00:49:48] Speaker B: So that was one I picked. And then they teach you how to grill it properly over hot, like actual hot coals. So you actually grill it yourself and then you, like, slather on the sauce on it and have it, like, grill and cook onto the rice, like, onto the mochi. And then you get to eat it afterwards. [00:50:07] Speaker A: I love it. I'm like a sucker for those kind of activities. I'm like, let's do it. [00:50:11] Speaker B: I wasn't going to do it, but then I thought, no, let's do it. The only thing is, it was 1200 yen, which is a little much. [00:50:18] Speaker A: It's worth it. It was worth it. You get to make it. [00:50:22] Speaker B: Yeah, it was good, though. It was definitely delicious. I kind of scared everybody, like, all the staff. [00:50:29] Speaker A: What happened? [00:50:31] Speaker B: As I was grilling, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something jump. Like on the ground, I saw something jump, and I looked over and there was this gigantic spider the size of my palm. [00:50:44] Speaker A: Oh, those are really good spiders. [00:50:46] Speaker B: Yeah, it just. It scared the living heck out of me. [00:50:49] Speaker A: I get it. They're massive. Yeah. [00:50:52] Speaker B: I haven't seen a spider that big up close before, and it just. It startled me. [00:50:56] Speaker A: They don't hurt people. They're actually. No, yeah. [00:50:59] Speaker B: You know, they go after insects and. [00:51:02] Speaker A: Oh, they go after bats too. Like Mukade. They'll fight Mukade. Actually, that's why they're considered really lucky. And rats. Yeah, because they go after all these, like, kind of large pests as well. You know, like. Like you said, like mice, mukade, bats, those kind of things. And roaches and things like that. And so if you have one in your house, it's like, actually considered, like, really good luck because they kind of stay out of the way. Usually you don't see them, and there's, like, all these stories online where people, they saw it and they killed it, and then they regretted it, because then pests started showing up in the house. Yeah, yeah. But they're really good spiders, but I can imagine. I would like, seeing one suddenly up close would be terrifying if you don't know, because, like, the first time we saw one, I called my husband. I'm like, we saw this giant spider. Do you think it's. We took a picture, like, because it was like, yeah. Like you said, like, the size of, like, a hand, you know, like, is it poisonous? Is it safe? Like, what is this? And then we did research about it and found out about the spider. [00:52:11] Speaker B: Like, when I saw it, the first thing under my mouth was I just said, ah, kumo. Kumoda. Kumo is. Kumo is spider in Japanese. Like, that's just like, that just, like, just came out of my mouth. I was like, kumoda. [00:52:25] Speaker A: Oh, my God. [00:52:27] Speaker B: It just startled me. And then all the staff were like, what? Kumal? And then they all went like, oh, my goodness, what do we do? And then they. I think they just, like, scooped it up and. [00:52:38] Speaker A: Yeah, hopefully they just shoot it away. Yeah, yeah. [00:52:44] Speaker B: But just so everyone remembers, we were in this big, big park. Like, there's a lot of nature. There's a lot of nature. So it's not. It shouldn't have been that big of a surprise to me, but it just wasn't in that moment. It just startled me to see something. [00:53:02] Speaker A: That big, because they're massive. [00:53:03] Speaker B: They're big. Yeah, they're very big. Yeah. So anyway, yeah, we. We did that, and then, um, after that, we went to the warehouse. Now they're. They added the cat buses, like, actual cat buses that you can ride, but they didn't go to any of the places I need to go. Like, the. Because it'll take you up to where the Totoro area is. The Totoro area is a little far away. Like, it's a good 20 minutes walk. [00:53:35] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:53:36] Speaker B: If you were to walk, like, it's not close. It's kind of up a hill in the middle of the forest kind of thing. So you can pay again. You have to pay for this. It's extra to ride the. The cat bus. I wanted to do it, but I couldn't justify paying ¥1000 to ride it. I just thought ¥1000, that's a little, like, ¥500. Fine. A thousand yen. That seems like a bit much. [00:54:00] Speaker A: Yeah. But also, you've been there before. If you're, like, there and you have, like, a time crunch. [00:54:06] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:54:07] Speaker A: It's kind of important that they added that. [00:54:10] Speaker B: Yeah, I just. I still think, like a thousand asking a bit much. Maybe ¥500. [00:54:17] Speaker A: Yeah, sure. [00:54:20] Speaker B: Oh, another thing going back to the food. So in, like, in like, the very middle of the park, there's like a gigantic field that's kind of used for whatever. And there's. There's kind of a rest area that has nothing to do with the Ghibli park, but there's like an indoor, like, rest area that's air conditioned, which is nice. And there's washrooms and there's outdoor picnic tables. They also added, um, there's a moss burger truck that comes out there for most of the day. And they serve moss burgers. [00:54:56] Speaker A: Very cool. [00:54:57] Speaker B: Which I thought was interesting, um, because there's not a lot of food options out there. Right. [00:55:02] Speaker A: Maybe you'll see more that. Maybe you'll see like, different food trucks showing up in the future. [00:55:06] Speaker B: I don't know if it's always moss. Like, obviously we were there just for the one day, so I don't really know. But there was a moss burger truck. So for those that don't know moss burgers, a burger chain in Japan, it's very popular. People eat there. I don't particularly care for it. I think the price and how much food you get. [00:55:27] Speaker A: I feel like you could go to, like, a better restaurant, like a better burger shop if you wanted, like a burger really badly. [00:55:33] Speaker B: It's a very japanese burger. Let's just put it that way. [00:55:38] Speaker A: It's not great. [00:55:41] Speaker B: I know there's people that swear by it, and I'm just like, eh, because. [00:55:45] Speaker A: It'S from here, that's why. Right. When you go overseas, people go to whatever burger shop in and out or whatever. And this is like Japan burger. [00:55:57] Speaker B: If I want a burger, I'll just go to McDonald's. Like, whatever. [00:56:01] Speaker A: No. [00:56:04] Speaker B: I mean, I will go out of my way to go to. [00:56:05] Speaker A: It's expensive now in Japan. [00:56:07] Speaker B: I know it is, right? [00:56:09] Speaker A: Like I'm telling you, like, just a few hundred yen more. And you can go to like the, you know, like that burger shop in like, nihonbashi, like in the ESL elite. I don't know how you say it. The taiwanese bookstore building. So freaking good. [00:56:22] Speaker B: Well, like, I do try go out of my way to try like, local burger places and stuff. Like, I do go to those, but I mean, like, out of the fast food places. [00:56:33] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:56:33] Speaker B: Go to McDonald's like, I'm not that precious about it, but anyway, there. There's a moss burger thing there, and then. Yeah, the Ghibli warehouse. Not much has changed there. Everything's pretty still the same, except for they have the Oscar that. The boy and the heron one. [00:56:53] Speaker A: Oh, cool. [00:56:54] Speaker B: Like, the actual. I. Well, it must be the actual Oscar. I don't know. [00:56:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:56:58] Speaker B: A replica of it or whatever. They have it there for you to look at, which I think is really cool, which is really neat. Um, so I guess more about the, like, the ticket. So when you get the. The osample premium ticket, the only thing that is timed is the warehouse. So you can pick to go into the warehouse in the morning or in the afternoon. We opted to go for 230, and that felt like that was good enough, because then we just went. We went in at 230 to the warehouse and just stayed there till it closed, which was 05:00, which I felt like was more than enough time. But we also did spend a lot more time in Valley of witches on purpose because it was new. Haven't been there enough. We've been to the warehouse before, so I guess you kind of have to decide if you want to do the warehouse first or second. [00:57:50] Speaker A: Yeah, I feel like you have to really, like, in terms of time, you really have to kind of, like, pick and choose, like, what you really want to do. [00:57:58] Speaker B: I don't think you're going to be able to do absolutely everything in one day without running around, because there's still, like, the totoro thing that I told you about, and then there's also the valet or something of hearts. What is it called? Oh, not hearts. Hill. Hill. Youth Hill. [00:58:17] Speaker A: Uh huh. [00:58:18] Speaker B: Um, that's also there as well. But those don't take up a lot of time. It's just you kind of. It takes time to get there. [00:58:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:58:25] Speaker B: The hill of youth is near kind of where you walk in from the train station so that you can kind of, if you wanted to go through it quickly, you can do it in probably less than half an hour. [00:58:34] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:58:35] Speaker B: The totoro thing. Area. It's probably gonna take you longer to get up there than actually walk through everything. [00:58:42] Speaker A: That's the thing. Yeah. These are separate. Separated, yeah. [00:58:46] Speaker B: So I guess, like, in terms of importance, it's obviously gonna be very personal for everyone, because maybe you have a connection to the certain films over other ones. [00:58:56] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:58:57] Speaker B: But for me personally, I would probably do Valley of witches first thing in the morning, then do Princess Mona, the Mononoke village afterwards, because you can kind of go in whenever and then finish off at. Finish off at the warehouse, and if you have time, do the other two. But that's personally how I would do it. And then. Yeah. It's gonna take you another 45 minutes to get home. [00:59:23] Speaker A: Oh, my God. [00:59:25] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. It's a lot. [00:59:27] Speaker A: It's really out there. I feel like that's the problem. Right. It's really out there, and it's very spaced out, and it does take time to move around and to do things. [00:59:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:59:39] Speaker A: So I think that's why maybe less crowded than the one in the museum in Tokyo. [00:59:46] Speaker B: Yeah, I know people ask that, like, oh, should I do the museum or the park now? I would say they're both different experiences. [00:59:53] Speaker A: They're totally different. Yeah. [00:59:54] Speaker B: The museum is a museum. It's a museum. It's one building. You can do it in half a day. It's in Tokyo. Getting tickets is still quite difficult, but I don't think that's ever gonna change, to be quite honest. It's. It's more of a capacity thing because it's small. [01:00:13] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:00:14] Speaker B: But it's. It's like, the museum is definitely worth it. Like, I've been multiple times. I love it. It's great. The museum. The Ghibli park is like a full day experience. And I feel like you get a lot for what you pay. There's just a lot. There's a lot of things to see now, and I definitely think it's worth going to 100%. As for, like, if you want to stay somewhere in Nagoya, I would say just pick a hotel that is near Nagoya station. Like, really just do that. Like, you're probably not going to be in Nagoya more than two nights is my guess. So you could probably get away with, like, a smaller, cheaper hotel. That's what I've done every time I've gone. Just kind of like a businessy type hotel because I'm literally not in the room. [01:01:09] Speaker A: Is there any hotels? I feel like I asked this before, and I totally forgot the answer. Are there any hotels near the actual park? [01:01:17] Speaker B: No, there's nothing out that way. [01:01:20] Speaker A: I feel like it would be such a good opportunity for, like, I don't know, like a glamping place or something like that, you know, Hoshino resort? No, because it's in a park. So it would have to be something more, like, smaller scale. [01:01:35] Speaker B: Yeah. Like, it's like you're. [01:01:39] Speaker A: You can enjoy nature. You know, you go camping or something. [01:01:42] Speaker B: Like a cabin or maybe something similar to Awaji island. Yeah, Awaji island has, like, those little, like, those cabins for their hotel. Like, maybe something like that. [01:01:54] Speaker A: Yeah, that would be kind of cool. [01:01:56] Speaker B: Also, I guess, like, the Ghibli park, their whole mission is to be, like, environmentally friendly, so maybe hotel doesn't fit within that for Ghibli, like, the area. [01:02:08] Speaker A: Like an eco friendly, like, camping or something. [01:02:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:02:11] Speaker A: But also, it's not all ghibli. Right. The park is owned by the prefecture or whatever, so it's. There's space where they could use it for other things as well. [01:02:22] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh. The one thing that was a little difficult, I would say, is we had. I can't. We had something. Like, it was something we. Oh, I forgot my water bottle or. No. Yeah, we forgot my water bottle. So I had to buy a, like, I bought a big bottle of water that. We bought it Lawson or something. We brought it with us. They would not let us throw it out in the park. They kept telling us, take it home with you, because we're, like, they're trying to reduce waste in the park, and it kind of got a little, like, oh, my goodness, I have to carry this plastic bottle around. Me. Me. [01:02:59] Speaker A: Oh, no. Could you, like, crush it? [01:03:01] Speaker B: Uh, yeah, that's. I ended up, what I ended up doing, just crushing it and putting it in, but it's just, like, everywhere. Refused to take it. It's like, did you buy this here? Like, no, we brought it, like, then we can't take it. [01:03:13] Speaker A: Oh, interesting. [01:03:14] Speaker B: They were very strict about that, and the reason was because they're trying to, like, reduce waste and everything. [01:03:20] Speaker A: Uh huh. [01:03:21] Speaker B: Um, which. Okay, fine. [01:03:22] Speaker A: But they would accept it if you bought it there. [01:03:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:03:26] Speaker A: So. [01:03:29] Speaker B: That'S a whole other conversation. Anyway, long story short. Yeah, Ghibli Park, 100%. If you want something a little slower, a little more relaxed pace, and charming as all heck, Ghibli park is definitely now worth making the trek for, and you need to visit soon at some point. [01:03:57] Speaker A: Nice. And I would say just go for Nagoya itself, you know? [01:04:01] Speaker B: Yeah. Nagoya is a nice city. It's like a. It feels like just a regular city. Like, it's not, like, overwhelming, like Osaka or Tokyo. [01:04:10] Speaker A: Mm hmm. [01:04:11] Speaker B: Or even Kyoto. Right? [01:04:13] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:04:14] Speaker B: It's just like, if you want to see what. It's just a regular city looks like. [01:04:18] Speaker A: I'm sure there's things to do, though, like historical places and things like that. [01:04:23] Speaker B: Yeah. Museums and all that kind of stuff. [01:04:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:04:29] Speaker B: All right. Well, we have some wonderful explorers to thank who are supporting us on Patreon, so if you want to support the show. Head on over to patreon.com tdrnow. So a big thank you to acro disney girl. Adam, Amanda C Amy b Amy C. Mama explorer, Benjamin, Brent m. Carrie, Chris, Bdez, Claire, Claudia, Dave, David, Baker, Kevin, Harry, Marina, Beth, Eli, Abby, Robinson, and. [01:04:53] Speaker A: Taylor and Jamie, Jose, Kathy, Lee, Marie, Michelle, Marie, Sophie, Spoopy, Thomas, Kate, Alexandra, Lizzie, Amy and Andy, Dana, Cassandra, Annie, Sonia, WW, Paige, and Tara. [01:05:06] Speaker B: And if you haven't already, make sure you hit that subscribe or follow button on your podcast app of choice so you don't miss any of our new episodes, and you can stay up to date with everything that we're talking about here. Our explorers. I'm one of your hosts, Chris, chief content editor for TDR Explorer, and I am, I don't know, gushing over all the little details in the valley of witches. And joining, as always, is the wonderful Patricia. [01:05:37] Speaker A: Yeah, you know, it must be really lovely, like, going during the different seasons. Like, spring must be really, really beautiful with all the flowers blooming and autumn with the foliage change. So that probably also really changes the vibe of the experience. [01:05:51] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, it was hot. Summer. [01:05:54] Speaker A: Summer. I mean, summer. Summer also is like, you know, it's fun. It's hot, but it's fun as well. It's like vacation time, right? So, yeah, it's probably a different vibe all year long, so you might want to visit during different seasons as well. But, yeah, sounds delightful. And I hope you guys that are listening, you get to visit and let us know if you do visit, what your experience is, and we'll see you next time. [01:06:19] Speaker B: Rx farce. See you in the next one. Bye.