The third and last day of our weekend trip over to Nagoya! This is following Day 1 where we got a subway pass and explored the city area and Day 2 at Nagashima Spa Land. We started with the free breakfast at the hotel, then packed up, checked out and got on the road.
Site of Reversible Destiny in Yoro
We actually headed out of Nagoya again, but this time to Yoro. It's about 45 min away by car to the Site of Reversible Destiny. I must have seen this on one of those random "30 things to do if you visit Nagoya" lists, and it seemed like an interesting concept.
On a windy Monday morning, we were among the first in the nearby parking lot and all alone at the ticket counter. Adult admission is 770yen per person and there are some small coin lockers nearby if you need them as well.
There was a framed infographic of the Reversible Destiny House inside (which I now understand to part of the office motif). The explanation was in English which was super useful for us lol and helped us get a better understanding of what we were getting into overall.
It was hard to capture in photos and also a bit difficult to walk through as well due to the maze-like quality, but theres a bunch of sections of walls which cut through typical household furniture.
We moved on to "Exactitude Ridge", which is kind of what it sounds like lol. It was super windy and elevated, so I got a little nervous about being tipped over while walking on the uneven surfaces and tried to seek cover by one of the protrusions that had more intersected furniture.
From this spot, we were able to get a stellar view of the inner dome-like area (features a lot of smaller pieces like "Zone of the Clearest Confusion", "Imaging Navel" and "Trajectory Membrane Gate" just to name a few) and the mountains in the back with a super clear blue sky!
The Exactitude Ridge area leads to the "Kinesthetic Pass" which is a narrow walkway along the perimeter of the sunken dome. (Part of it is that grey wall in the overview picture above.) We walked all the way through it with different wall heights, ducking through underpasses and tunnels and dodging spiders and puddles to get to the end.
Which is just...a dead end lol. Albeit with a new view, but it seems like a 1-way in 1-way out type of deal, and we probably wouldn't do it again.
Tbh we felt slightly more defeated on the way out of the Kinesthetic Pass lol.
It lacked the famous spork though? Which I didn't even realize was a Sugakiya feature until I was looking up stuff about the chain while writing this wtf. I do also think the more infamous ramen flavors are "red" and "white" which were flavors we didn't feel like eating at the time, but at least we can say we tried it!
I looked up a bit more about the site for writing this blog post to give credit to the artists - Shusaku Arakawa and Madeline Gins. According to the website, the park is an "experimental art project".
Based on their long-term research, Arakawa + Gins came up with the conclusion that we should transform the present world into a hopeful future, using the unlimited possibilities of our bodies.Arakawa + Gins stated that changes in bodily perception would lead to changes in consciousness; and so they became determined to explore architecture and construct environments that challenge the body as a way to overcome death, and to reverse our destinies.In the Site of Reversible Destiny - Yoro Park, horizontal and vertical lines are eliminated as much as possible, and a number of artificial horizons are scattered throughout to disturb our innate sense of balance and perspective.We are invited to walk like toddlers in the site, which is structured to rebuild our perceptions as we first started to know the world.https://www.yoro-park.com/
That being said, we didn't really have a plan or too much knowledge about the park before we showed up (figured it was part of the experience), so we just started wandering around! We first encountered this colorful building. My husband thought it was a bathroom at first so we weren't going to go in, but turns out it's actually a whole thing by itself called the "Reversible Destiny Office" (and there were bathrooms in there too, for the record lol).
Kind of. lol.
It was both disorienting and very cool at the same time. It was also a little haunted feeling since we were the only ones in there and the colors/paint are a bit past their prime making it seem a little abandoned.
I think we entered from the back of the "house", so when we exited through the narrow walkway, I was surprised to see what I think is the "front"! Lol. Since the entrance for the park is on the other side, I can only imagine that it's designed that way on purpose (maybe??).
Colors were a bit more bright and hopeful feeling out here.
Next, we encountered another disorienting house-reminiscent structure lol. Apparently called the "Critical Resemblance House".
There was also these large holes outside of it as well as demarcation lines with labels in Japanese we couldn't read (didn't immediately seem like prefectures to me). Overall, another odd but cool at the same time thing lol.
There was also this giant pile of rocks. I wasn't wearing suitable shoes for climbing, but my husband made it up there. There was a little pump (like for water), but it didn't seem to do anything. According to the website, this is the "Insect Mountain Range".
And right across from the rock mountain is the "Gate of Non-Dying". We couldn't really make sense of this one much either but I think Yoro Park was written in kanji on some of the stones depending on which way you looked at it.
A nice view though.
Going down the ridge and into the recessed dome, we explored these small installations a little bit. As it is throughout the site, the ground is extremely uneven and you'll have to watch your step wherever you go.
Despite being a bit confused at times, I really enjoyed exploring the Site of Reversible Destiny. And I enjoyed reading more about the artists and the interpretations after the fact (while writing this post) as well. I do think the effect of the Site would be a lot different if it were crowded with people and if it had a "newer" feeling to it. A lot of the pieces felt fatigued and old due to them being outside and subject to weather, so I'm really interested to know what it was like when everything was vibrant and new.
I would recommend this if you're already in the area, enjoy immersive modern art and are able bodied (due to the very uneven walking surfaces). Definitely visit when the weather is nice because I think it would be a bit of a disaster in the rain. There are other components of Yoro Park as well as a hiking trail nearby too if you have more time to explore!
Lunch at Sugakiya
We were on a little bit of a schedule, so we got on the road and headed out of Yoro. There were a few restaurants that seemed interesting in the area, but we had to leave the area before many of them opened (at 11:00).
Instead, we settled for finding a Sugakiya location. Sugakiya is a well known ramen chain in the region. We had passed a few previously but it wasn't high on the list compared to some of the other local staples in Nagoya (like the tebasaki, misokatsu, tenmusu and kishimen) for us. This was a good opportunity to try it!
I unintentionally picked one that is located as an offshoot restaurant of a pachinko parlor though wtf. It wasn't busy and still served the ramen though! We got a niku tonkotsu ramen, a shoyu ramen and added on gyoza.
Expo 2005 Park
After lunch, we continued on our way and reached Expo 2005 Aichi Commemorative Park. This is where the new-ish Ghibli Park is located and the overall park is the site where Aichi hosted the 2005 World Expo. (Similar in concept to the Expo 70 Park in Osaka that we visited last May with the Tower of the Sun.) Parking was a little confusing at first because we were trying to follow Google Maps, but we figured it out eventually. It is a paid parking lot and a very large park.
Ghibli Park
We had a little time to kill before our Ghibli Park set entry time, so we walked around and found this Expo 2005 Museum. It's free admission with a lot of exhibits about the World Expo that Nagoya hosted here.
There are some areas where photography is not allowed (and obviously I don't have photos of it lol), but I thought it was interesting to see the different items that were featured from different visiting countries.
And I just kind of loved the mascots lol.
This was a good way to keep cool and kill about 20 minutes before we headed over to Ghibli.
Ghibli Park
From the parking lot/linimo stop at the north entrance, you can't immediately see anything that screams Ghibli. But the first step to getting to the park for us was going down this grand elevator that runs just from this "2nd floor" down to the ground level.
There's a wide open park area with some water features, but continue straight until to see the Grand Warehouse and a separate unrelated ice rink on the right.
A large line was already formed for what I'm assuming is the same time slot as us (13:00 on a non-holiday Monday). I incorrectly assumed that they wouldn't let you in line early, so that's why we went to the museum first. Staff will do a quick check of your ticket to ensure you should be in the line. We waited for about 20 minutes in a slow moving line before we got near the entrance.
We opted to only get tickets for the Grand Warehouse (and did not include the Hill of Youth or Dondoko Forest).
Just inside, you're provided 2 cinema tickets as part of your admission and are verbally told some of the rules and given a map of the facility.
And we just started exploring! Lots of lines for taking photos of stuff (like the Laputa giant robot), so we figured out what we were willing to wait for and what we were willing to just get 2nd rate photos of lol.
Surprisingly (to me, at least), there was kind of a lot of mosaic tiling around. The greenery inside didn't seem odd, but somehow the tiles felt a little off to me. That being said, I've maybe seen one or two Ghibli movies and don't even remember them that well, so I'm not the target audience for this stuff.
I think this was supposed to look like some sort of storage area with "props" from a lot of the movies.
Secret World of Arrietty area with "enlarged" items so we seem small.
It did kind of help to hear other people mummering about what movie things were from so we knew if our guesses were correct or not lol. There was a huge wait for posing in a bottle in this area too.
The exhibition with no photos area featured some insight into the animation process and breaking down each frame, especially for some of the more iconic scenes. There was also a food feature as well.
There was a lot of staff who were constantly around and seemingly tasked to dust things? (Including things like the sculpted displays like in the Arrietty area.) I understand the concept of having standards for cleanliness/appearance, but it felt a little odd to see them cleaning so consistently - like visitors being there made the things dirty lol.
We decided to be patient and waited in line for this one since it was relatively short and only took maybe 5 min.
The different movies and how the cover art or title changed depending on the country it was released in.
And the infamous large, plush catbus. Constantly a line and filled with people trying to take a turn.
And we also waited in line for a peek into this Yubaba office room. You need to stay outside the door, but inside the little space is filled with detail! This was one of our favorites. It didn't feel like you could look for very long if you wanted to be considerate of the line though. You could also peer through the windows on the side as well if there was an open space.
We walked past the cinema and was just in time for the doors opening for the next showing. There was already a large waiting crowd outside, but we still managed to get 2 seats next to each other. The theater is fairly small and cozy. Each show is about 15 minutes.
The only thing we hadn't done at this point was going into the space where they have all the character displays. I don't have an accurate description of it because we didn't end up going inside since the line twisted and turned and extended farther than I wanted to imagine lol. Having been inside for about 1.5 hours at this point and not feeling like waiting another hour-ish in another line, we just went to the gift shop instead.
Where I didn't take any photos because I think photos weren't allowed lol. And we didn't buy anything either!
When we walked out, I realized that the "cafe" type outdoor area isn't accessible from outside the Grand Warehouse (apparently my husband knew this but was fine leaving it out), so we didn't do that either, but honestly, I was just glad to be out of there lol. I can handle crowds when I'm enthusiastic about an activity and can share in the excitement, but this wasn't it for me.
About the tickets:
I was able to purchase Ghibli Park tickets online using the Boo-Woo ticket system ("domestic tickets"). I needed to make an account and be able to receive text messages to a Japanese phone number + have smart phone access for the method we chose, but I think you can also reserve online and pick up at a Lawson's.
For our Monday, April 17 visit, I had no issues getting the reservation on March 22 for a 13:00 time slot. Most of the weekends around this time were already booked at this point though and availability starts 3 months in advance.
What I learned about visiting the Ghibli Park:
- It will be crowded even in the early afternoon on a non-holiday weekday. Expect to queue for pretty much everything and to have people everywhere around you at all times in some capacity.
- The line for seeing the individual character displays seemed to be at least a 60+min wait and I'm sure once you actually get in there, I would expect you're still one in a crowd.
- Budget at least 3 hours for the Grand Warehouse if you want to do everything in there, and get a map to help route yourself to each area.
- Cinema show (Koro's big walk) is simple but nice. You don't need to understand Japanese to know what is happening in the story.
- Merchandise in the gift shop is mostly on the upscale side. There were a few fun plush items (like a Yubaba wig), but for the most part it felt very "refined". This isn't bad ofc, but the prices match that tone.
- Do pay attention to the areas where you can and can't take pictures. I think some of the best displays were things I couldn't get photos of.
- Don't go to the Ghibli Park (Grand Warehouse) if you are only a casual fan or don't know the movies very well. Especially if you're not a fan of crowds, it's not really worth the fuss.
I don't regret going, especially because it wasn't that difficult to get the tickets, and we were already over there, but I don't think I had a fun time lol. When we were leaving, I think I told my husband that I actually enjoyed the free Expo 2005 Museum better.
After we left the Ghibli Park, we stopped briefly at the convenience store at the park, then paid for our parking and got back in the car to head all the way home!
I think I would consider this weekend a success - we did all that we had planned to do even though not all of it was 100% as fun as we'd initially hoped. Day 1 in the city was rainy pretty much all day. Day 2 at Spa Land was windy so Steel Dragon wasn't running. Day 3 just had a really crowded Ghibli Park lol. BUT, that being said, we still hit all the landmarks + a few extras that I wanted to see in Nagoya city and got to eat a variety of local foods. I didn't get super motion sick on the roller coasters and still had a blast on the rides that were open + the trick art was really cool. And the Site of Reversible Destiny and the Expo 2005 Museum ended up being better than I initially anticipated lol. So I think it all evens out!
Thank you, Nagoya 😁
Nagoya weekend trip 🎡
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