Ghibli Museum with kids: ages, tickets and what to expect

Do children need a Ghibli Museum ticket?

Everyone aged 4 and over needs their own dated ticket. Children aged 3 and under go in free. Nothing is sold at the museum, so every ticket in the family has to be reserved in advance for the same date and entry time.

Official admission is set by age band. If you book through us, you pay in US dollars, before taxes, and each price includes a non-refundable $2 processing fee.

The museum admits children aged 3 and under free. Our infant price covers adding them to your booking and the processing fee.

If we cannot secure any of your requested slots, the ticket price is refunded minus the $2 fee and any payment-processor costs. The release system itself, and why it is awkward from overseas, is covered in how to get Ghibli Museum tickets.

Which entry time is best with children?

Take the 10:00 entry if you can get it, or a 13:00 or 14:00 entry if you want the park first.

Entry times run every hour from 10:00 to 16:00. You enter within an hour of your time and stay as long as you like until 18:00. Because nobody has to leave, the building tends to fill as the day goes on, and your entry hour shapes the whole day.

The 10:00 entry suits most families with small children. The children still have their morning energy, and you are out by early afternoon with the nap still ahead of you. It is also usually the first slot to go on any date, so put a backup on your list.

A 13:00 or 14:00 entry works better if you want to spend the morning in Inokashira Park and arrive at the museum after lunch. Weekday afternoons are also the slots that stay available longest, which helps if your dates are fixed.

What is there for children inside?

The main things for children are the Cat Bus room for ages 12 and under, the short film in the Saturn Theater and the rooftop garden.

The Cat Bus room

On the second floor is a giant plush Cat Bus that children can climb into. It is for ages 12 and under only, primary school age or younger, so a teenager will have to sit this one out.

The Saturn Theater

The museum's own cinema is an 80-seat room in the basement showing original short films that are not shown anywhere else. Your entry ticket for it is a strip of real 35mm film. Hold it up to the light. The films are short, which suits small attention spans.

The rooftop garden

The rooftop, with the five-metre Robot Soldier from Castle in the Sky, is reached only by a narrow spiral staircase. There is no lift to the roof, and the garden closes in bad weather. Buggies stay below. With a toddler, one adult carries and the other minds the bags, or you take turns while the other waits in the central hall under the glass ceiling.

Can you take photos inside the Ghibli Museum?

No photography or video is allowed inside the museum. The grounds and the rooftop are the exception. This matters more with children than it sounds. A child who has been photographed at every stop of the trip will expect it here too, so explain the rule before the door rather than at it, and promise them the Robot Soldier on the roof, where cameras are allowed.

Food, drink and bags

No eating or drinking inside apart from the Straw Hat Café on the terrace, the building with the red-and-white stripes and a straw hat on the roof. Snacks stay in the bag until you are outside. The café and the shop, Mamma Aiuto, take major credit cards and Japanese e-money.

Coin lockers are available. Use them, because the spiral staircase to the roof is not the place for a rucksack and a child. There are accessible toilets on every floor.

How do you get there with small children?

Take the JR Chuo Line to Mitaka Station, about 20 minutes from Shinjuku. From the south exit you have two options. On foot it is 15 minutes along the Tamagawa Josui waterway to the edge of Inokashira Park. The community bus runs every 15 minutes and costs ¥230 for adults and ¥120 in cash for children aged 7 to 12 (¥50 by IC card). There is no visitor parking.

What is there to do near the museum?

The museum sits on the edge of Inokashira Park, which has a pond with rowing and swan boats, the Benzaiten shrine and the small Inokashira Park Zoo. That is enough to fill the other half of the day, so a 10:00 museum entry is followed by boats, or a 14:00 entry follows the zoo. In cherry blossom season, late March to early April, the park is very busy.

Kichijoji Station is on the far side of the park, about a 15-minute walk through it, on both the JR Chuo Line and the Keio Inokashira Line. It has lots of small restaurants, the Sun Road arcade and the Harmonica Yokocho alleys, so it is the natural place for lunch or an early dinner before you head back into town.

How long does the Ghibli Museum take with children?

Allow about two hours inside.

There is no set exit time, so the museum takes as long as your children give it. The central hall with its bridges, spiral stairs and stained-glass windows, the short film, the Cat Bus room and the rooftop make a comfortable two hours. Add time for the café if you plan to eat there, and an hour or two for the park on the way out. A family with a 10:00 entry can be having lunch in Kichijoji by 13:00.

For entry times, prices by age and how our booking works, see the Ghibli Museum page.