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When looking for places to visit for your next family adventure to Japan, you might be on the lookout for some more educational and adventurous destinations that have yet to be ‘discovered’ by international travellers. Located conveniently on the Shinkansen route between Tokyo and the Kansai area (Kyoto, Osaka and Nara), Aichi Prefecture has an array of exciting destinations that you might have not even considered – or even know about yet!
From Shinkansen Museums and Legoland to the upcoming Ghibli Park, here is an A to E list of family fun that awaits in Aichi.
Adventure awaits at LEGOLAND® Japan Resort
LEGOLAND® Japan Resort is a must-do experience that offers an amazing range of attractions for families with kids of all ages. These include a long list of fun rides, games, a cinema, a DUPLO® play area, an aquarium and even a Lego-themed hotel to stay overnight. Kids can test their building skills at the Creative Workshop, and can even tour the LEGO® factory and take a ‘fresh’ piece of LEGO® home as a souvenir. An additional perk of visiting for Australians is seeing Miniland, where you can see more than 18 of Japan’s most iconic sights recreated by 10,496,352 LEGO® pieces.
Get there: Disembark the Shinkansen at Nagoya Station and transfer to the Aonami Line to get to Kinjo-Futo Station, from where LEGOLAND® is only a 10-minute walk from the station to the park entrance.
Boeing and Beyond at the FLIGHT OF DREAMS
Located inside Aichi’s International Airport, the FLIGHT OF DREAMS is an aeroplane theme park that is built as part of the exhibition of the first Boeing 787. Undergoing renovations, the park was reopened in December 2021 with exciting additional facilities, including the new FLIGHT PARK area
where you can see the plane’s jet engines up close and even enter the plane to see the cockpit. The Exhibition Area offers information on Boeing aircraft and airports, and there is a new Kids Area for children to play on. Visitors can test out their flying skills in LUXURY FLIGHT, a realistic flight
simulation which can be booked for a small fee. With your flight instructor, the full-fledged simulators allow you to experience take-off, cruising in the sky and landings for two Boeing planes (Boeing 787 and Boeing747 Dreamlifter) from the control seat in the cockpit.
Get there: As this park is located within Chubu Centrair International Airport, you can get there by taking the Meitetsu Tokoname Line for just under 30 minutes from Nagoya Station, alighting at Central Japan International Airport station.
Cars galore at the Toyota Kaikan Museum
The Toyota Kaikan Museum is an interactive museum that will leave them in awe of the manufacturing process behind the internationally-famed automobiles. The museum will teach them about the engineering of Toyota’s intricate machinery, its impressive exhibitions showcasing a wide
range of topics including the latest high-tech safety and environmental technology. Visitors can also see an array of Toyota cars, including environmentally friendly vehicles, plug-in hybrids and even electric Toyota cars such as the ‘Mirai’, the hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle which generates its own power. There is also an exhibit area where they showcase the various mechanisms for cars, showcasing how cars are designed and teaching children traffic safety in fun and interactive games. For that behind the scene’s experience, you can even partake in guided tours.
Get there: You can reach the Toyota Kaikan Museum in under one hour from Meitetsu Nagoya Station by train and a short taxi ride.
Dreams come true at Ghibli Park
Perhaps one of the most exciting up-and-coming new iconic things Japan will have to offer, the makers of internationally acclaimed animated classics like ‘My Neighbor Totoro’ and ‘Spirited Away’ are opening their first-ever Studio Ghibli movie-themed park grounds in Aichi Prefecture. The park is being built in the Expo Park, the former ground of the 2005 World EXPO, the forested and hilly area to house the Ghibli Park within its 1.94 square kilometre area.
Ghibli Park will be split into five areas, which will blend in with the abundant nature of the park and are based on some of their most acclaimed films. The areas include the Hill of Youth, Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse, the Dondoko Forest which includes the replica house of Satsuki and Mei from Studio
Ghibli’s iconic 1988 film, ‘My Neighbour Totoro’, which was one of the main attractions of the 2005 expo. The other areas are the Mononoke Village and the Valley of Witches which will include the castle from Howl’s Moving Castle. Three of the five areas of the park (the Hill of Youth, Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse and Dondoko Forest) are currently being built and are scheduled to open on November 11th 2022.
Get there: The Ghibli Park can be reached in under 50 minutes from Nagoya Station, by taking the Higashiyama Line to Fujigaoka Station and changing to the Linimo (a MAGLEV train) Getting off at the Ai-Chikyuhaku-Kinen-Koen Station.
Excitement for all at the Linear SCMAGLEV museum
Get close-up and personal with amazing at the SCMAGLEV and Railway Park. The park has a massive collection of trains, ranging from historic steam locomotives to the newest Shinkansen, including the SCMaglev (Super Conducting Magnetic Levitation), a train that levitates above the tracks as it runs. The museum has many hands-on experiences the kids will love, including a Bullet Train simulator and the conventional train crew simulator, both offering the exciting experience as a train conductor and the train crew. In the interactive learning and experiencing room children will learn how the
laws of physics are applied in the world of trains, and the museums’ railway diorama set reproducing the railway landscape of the Tokaido Shinkansen must not be missed as it is the largest one in the whole country.
Get there: Access the SCMAGLEV and Railway Park in under 25 minutes from Nagoya Station on the Aonami Line, getting off at Kinjo-Futo Station.