Nara Dreamland
| Nara Dreamland | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Aska wooden roller coaster |
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| place | Nara , Japan | |||
| opening | 1961 | |||
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Coordinates: 34 ° 42 ′ 0 ″ N , 135 ° 49 ′ 27 ″ E
The Nara Dreamland ( Japanese 奈良 ド リ ー ム ラ ン ド , Nara Dorīmurando ) was an amusement park 2 km outside the center of the Japanese city of Nara . Modeled after Disneyland in California, Dreamland opened in 1961. On August 31, 2006, the last run-down park, which was struggling with declining visitor numbers, was finally closed.
history
The park built by Japan Dream Tourism is based on an idea by Kunizo Matsuo (President of Matsuo Entertainment Company), who had previously visited Disneyland Resort on a trip to America. Despite the harmonious collaboration with the Disneyland engineers during construction, a dispute broke out towards the end of the construction project. Negotiations with Disney were broken off and their own mascots were designed for the park. At first it was overrun by a boom in visitors. But after Tokyo Disneyland opened in 1983, visitor numbers fell sharply. In 1993 Japan Dream Tourism and its park were sold to Daiei , one of the largest supermarket chains in Japan. The opening of the Universal Studios Japan amusement park in Osaka, 40 kilometers away, in 2001 caused the deathblow of the park, which was already in a badly shabby state . After other older and smaller theme parks had to close due to competition from the larger parks (including the sister park Yokohama Dreamland ), the Nara Dreamland was finally closed on August 31, 2006.
In November 2015, the amusement park was sold to SK housing , which wanted to build apartment blocks in the area. The amusement park's demolition began in October 2016.
Park design
The entrance area of the park looked almost like that of Disneyland - including the train station, Main Street USA and the Sleeping Beauty Castle (a fairytale castle modeled on Neuschwanstein Castle ). It also had a mountain modeled on the Matterhorn (with a roller coaster), an autopia (a kind of go-kart track with petrol vehicles), and a monorail .
Attractions
There were also some lanes in the park until it closed, including:
| Surname | Type | Height (in m) |
Length (in m) |
Speed (max. In km / h) |
g-force (max.) |
Opening year |
Travel time | Manufacturer | description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aska | Wooden roller coaster | 30th | 1081 | 80 | 2.8 | 1998 | 1:45 | Intamin | the Cyclone on Coney Island in New York served as a model |
| Screw coaster | Steel roller coaster | 1382 | 90 | 1978/1979 | 1:20 | Arrow Dynamics | Track with double looping | ||
| Bobsleigh | Steel roller coaster | 1961 | 1:35 | Sansei Yusoki | mimicked the Matterhorn Bobsleds | ||||
| Fantasy Coaster | Steel roller coaster | 1992 | 1:31 | Meisho Amusement Machines | designed as a mine train | ||||
| Kid's Coaster | Steel roller coaster | 0:54 |
In addition, other rides such. B. a carousel, a small powered coaster , a ride based on the Jungle Cruise of Disneyland and a wild water ride.
Sleeping Beauty Castle
railway station
Jungle Cruise
Screw coaster
Screw coaster
Web links
- archived website of the Nara Dreamland (Japanese)
- Picture gallery from 2004 on themeparkreview.com
- Picture gallery from 2006 on tw.silk.to
- Image gallery on JCOM
- Picture gallery from 2010 by Michael John Grist
- visual comparison of Disneyland with Nara Dreamland
- Report and picture gallery of the Daily Mail