To understand why Ghibli Park feels so unlike other parks, you have to understand the ground it stands on. This was the site of Expo 2005 — a World Exposition themed, pointedly, around "Nature's Wisdom."
An Expo built to tread lightly
Expo 2005 drew over 22 million visitors across six months, but its organising principle was restraint. Rather than clearing the hills of Nagakute, planners routed the fair through existing forest, elevating walkways above the trees and preserving ponds and woodland. The Linimo maglev was built partly to serve it.
The afterlife
Most Expo sites decay into weeds and empty concrete within a decade. Aichi did something rarer: it converted the grounds into a permanent public park, known locally as Moricoro Park. The Ferris wheel stayed. The gardens stayed. The forest closed back over the rest.
Ghibli Park was layered onto that existing forest, not carved out of it. That is exactly why its areas are scattered and separated by real walks — the trees were there first, and were kept.
The free park is not a consolation prize
This is the point most guides miss: the Aichi Expo Memorial Park is free to enter and is genuinely lovely on its own. Ponds, seasonal gardens, cycling paths, wide lawns, and forest trails. In late autumn the maples make the walks between areas better than many ticketed attractions elsewhere.
Two parks, one place
Be precise about the geography: Ghibli Park is a ticketed set of areas within the larger free public park. You can spend a rewarding day in the Expo grounds without holding a single Ghibli Park ticket — a useful fallback if the timed slots you wanted are gone.
Continue with the park guide or visiting with children.