The party was so fun! We had a combination of a delicious vegan feast, as well as some fun Miyazaki themed activities/games. You can scroll down to see more details. 😀

Special thanks goes to: Amber who made the tamago and avocado ngirizushi, Lindsay who made the curry for the “fish”, Juno who made the makizushi, Sara who made the sweet potatoes and brought apples, Alyssa and Dustyn who made edamame salad, Kendall who made the cake and helped me with the bawan, Shelby who helped me make the “fish”, Jess who made the onigiri, Sarah who helped me make the katsu and the games, Melissa who did the banana leaf decor on the serving plates, Kaysie who played Yubaba, E, Kathy, and Shelby who brought drinks, and B for helping me with decor. A team effort!

Our Spirited Away Feast

Who’s ever watched Spirited Away and not walked away wanting to eat all the food!? Well, I couldn’t resist, I had to try making a vegan version feast! Problem is, there’s no recipes for most of the food in the film. Certainly not vegan either! I have a menu outlined below, and I developed a few recipes myself for the ones that I couldn’t find online!

Almost everything is gluten-free too, except the cake and fish. A GF pro could probably make those gluten-free too, I’d wager, though! (In case you couldn’t tell, alas, I am not one. Yet.)

Gorgeous, and pretty close to the original, too!

Menu

Here’s what we served (that is listed in the original Miyazaki feast)! I bought a bag of banana leaves from H Mart and we cut them up to be the base of all the dishes – really helped to unify the disparate, non-matching serving plates I got from thrift stores, haha!

If you end up doing your own Spirited Away party, pleeease do share what y’all make for it! I’d love to hear how it went for you / see pics! You can comment below 🙂

Rice balls

• Onigiri おにぎり / Sushi rice stuffed with filling into a ball shape
• Recipe ideas
• This same recipe could be easily adapted into the “peas and rice” bowl featured in the main image

Sushi

• Nigirizushi
  • In nigiri form, the rice comes topped with a slice of avocado, usually lightly seasoned with salt and fastened together with a thin strip of nori seaweed
  • Recipe variations: carrot shred, sliced notuna, avocado nigiri, and tamago
• Makizushi
  • In maki form, the roll is wrapped around fillings and sliced
  • Recipe variations: this bell pepper salmon is complicated but delish, easier avocado/cucumber

Slow roasted sweet potatoes

• Ishi yaki-imo 石焼き芋 / Sweet potato slow roasted on hot stones
• Easy recipe

Grilled “squid”

• Yaki ina / marinated king oyster mushrooms grilled and sliced, slathered with lemon sauce and served with noodles
• My own recipe link here!

Taiwanese meatball dumplings 

• Changhua Ba-Wan 彰化肉圓  dumplings, add little arm “nubs”.
• My own recipe link here!

Giant breaded “fish”

• The beautiful centerpiece, perfect for a feast!
• My own recipe link here!
• We served it with this curry recipe, which was a match made in heaven. (No shrimp/chicken added)

Katsu breaded cutlets

• Crunchy and fried, delicious tofu
• My own recipe link here!

Whole fresh fruit bowl of apples

Dessert 

Star Candies

• Konpeitou コンペイトー（）/ sugar candies (pastel colored stars)
• Purchase here

Yellow Sponge Cake

• Castella カステラ / sponge cake
• Easy recipe

Steamed Bun (red bean)

• Anman あんまん / steamed bun with a red bean paste filling
• Easy recipe (or purchase premade)

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Activities

It wouldn’t be Miyazaki without some overshadowing element of intrigue!

Here was our theme:

You’ve walked into the spirit world, and now there’s no turning back. It’s up to you to reclaim your name, and with it, your freedom! Work together with others or win enough gold yourself from playing the games to buy your way out.

Now you work for Yubaba! She’ll give you a task (aka game to play) and if you play along with her and win, you’ll earn some gold. 

But if you don’t want to play nice, you can barter your task card with other players, or even sell it for gold.

Be careful! Yubaba is in her home turf, the bathhouse, and as such she is more powerful than anyone else. It may take a team effort to overcome her strength.

Anyone who manages to outwit Yubaba enough to earn their name back by gathering enough gold “wins” and is freed from the bathhouse.

Being that Yubaba was the villain, we emphasized her greed through the use of very lush decor with velvety curtains, tapestries, gold filigree, and glimmering antique items.

We played three games as well, which ended up being hilariously fun! I spray painted rocks to be gold to function as the currency.

When guests arrived, they received a name tag in a badge holder. The person playing as Yubaba, being who she was, took them all from everyone at some point and wore them during the course of the other games. Players could “earn” back their nametags with enough gold.

Yubaba’s orders

• Obstacle course
  • The story: Yubaba ordered her workers to find magical scales from Ponyo’s Pool, as well as collect magic seals. Once her workers brought them back to her, she would grant those who obtained the most scales and seals some gold as recompense. Unfortunately, the weather was not on the workers’ side. Hellish rain, dark skies, and turbulent wind would scare even Kiki from operating her delivery service!
  • How we played it:
    • There were three roles: the Runner of the obstacle course, the Familiar (help the runner), and the Weather (to impede the other team).
    • We divided everyone into two teams, and they got to pick who would play each part (the only stipulation was that there could only be one Runner – the other roles could have as many as they wanted). They were told that only the Runner was allowed on the course, while the other two roles had to stay off and help from the side.
    • First we impaired the vision of the two Runners by blindfolding them. The Weather players were given heavy, long paper tubes to impede the other team’s Runner. Then the Familiars helped their blindfolded teammate work through the course by calling out instructions.
    • For Ponyo’s pool: I used a kiddie pool I borrowed from a neighbor, filled with water. Then I littered the fish scales using chandelier crystals, since they were both see-through (and therefore hard to see) and fish scale shaped. Then I “polluted” the pool (to make it harder for the players) with layers of cut up plastic bags (the kind you get from sheet sets). I gave the trinkets away as party favors at the end!
    • For the magical seals: I bought some gold pins from a thrift store. People loved them!
• Sticker spies
  • The story: Yubaba insisted that all her workers keep tabs on everyone to make sure they were following orders, and compensated her most loyal employees with more gold.
  • How we played it: I gave everyone a unique sticker set. They were told to secretly sneak stickers onto other players. I had covered up mirrors in the bathroom/rest of the house to prevent cheating. We tallied how many stickers were “stuck” onto others at a random point in the night. (I cried over how many stickers I had to scrape off the floor later on!)
• Yes/no game
  • The story: Only the queen of the bathhouse was allowed to give orders around here! If anyone was caught saying the taboo words, they were surely punished!
  • How we played it: Guests also got wristbands that were worth currency at the end if they could collect them! Any time someone said Yes or No, whoever pointed it out got to take that person’s wristband and wear it. When Yubaba took wristbands, no one could take them back from her.

Ending

There are (at least) two ways to play: one, have Yubaba give the players’ their nametags back after they earn enough gold.. or two, have one of the players be an Assistant to Yubaba (like Haku in the movie) and when they act out “discovering” that the power is in the nametags, they tell everyone to crowd in on Yubaba to take them back! And with that, don’t forget to play out a dramatic “wilting” scene for your Yubaba player!

We had so much fun! If you’re hosting your own party and a similar activity set, let me know how it went for you!