Features include a replica of the Catbus from My Neighbor Totoro (1988), a café, bookstore, rooftop garden, and a theater for exclusive short films by Studio Ghibli.

[1] Studio Ghibli director Hayao Miyazaki designed the museum himself, using storyboards similar to the ones he creates for his films.

The museum features internal and external spiral staircases built from iron, interior bridges, and balconies stretching throughout the building's height.

[3] "Let's get lost together" is the museum's slogan, derived from Miyazaki's vision for visitors to immerse themselves in his imagination and film work.

Called "Where a Film is Born", the five-room exhibit is meant to showcase the creative process of an animation filmmaker, including illustration techniques.

[3] Another exhibit demonstrates the process of creating an animated film, with sketches, storyboarding, keyframing, cleanup, coloring, and background painting.

[3][23] Mamma Aiuto, on the top of the Ghibli Museum, is a gift shop named after the band of sky pirates in the movie Porco Rosso.

[3] Among other items, it sells classic and non-Japanese animation movies under the Ghibli Museum Library label.

[3] Sold at the takeout section is an original alcoholic beverage, "Valley of the Wind" beer, which was created in a collaboration with Dairy Kingdom Oratche, a microbrewery in Tanna Basin.

[3][28] On the museum's roof is a garden with a life-size, five-meter-tall statue of a robot from the final episode of Lupin III Part II and from the film Castle in the Sky.