All times AEDT (GMT +11). It's essentially nothing but giant rubble piles that are being removed daily, a good 99% is gone. So sorry for your loss. Believe me, nobody is more devastated about this demolition news than yours truly! Still it’s sad. Mostly for nara dreamland! It was a typically hot day in July 2016 when we visited Nara Dreamland. According to large new signs in Japanese AND English, SK Housing had finally taken full control over Nara Dreamland, threatening to sue every unauthorized person caught on the premises. I wasn’t that fortunate. He met with Walt Disney about bringing Disneyland to Japan; specifically to Japan's old capital, Nara. (Speaking of which – if you use information from this or any other article on Abandoned Kansai for your own work, please have the decency to link back; thanks a lot!) The abandoned Dreamland, an originally barely touched and most recently quite vandalized deserted amusement park in Japan’s former capital Nara, had been a lost place too good to be true for most of its existence – well, except for security, which most likely was in fact the previous owner and his son, who had their offices in the blue City Hall building right next to the entrance and did occasional rides through the park to catch them some trespassers to hand them over to the police. French photographer Romain Veillon managed to capture haunting images of the abandoned park. Abandoned Kansai always has been and always will be your #1 source for all things Nara Dreamland! The park also had its own mascots, Ran-chan and Dori-chan, two children dressed as bearskin guards. Thanks for sharing this interesting post. If they keep it like this and it stays like this I am hoping to visit it in 2022 or 2023. A Japanese only sign also stated that the construction site would be there till December 2017, which sounded like a reasonable schedule to demolish a large amusement park the size of Nara Dreamland. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! It turned out that demolition indeed had begun on the previous Monday, October 10th, a national holiday. Matsuo also talked with engineers about creating a Japanese version of Disneyland. The wooden rollercoaster was still standing on the 2nd of November. I doubt that they will keep anything… SK Housing isn’t exactly friendly or cooperative. Hopefully the retirees will still hear an echo of laughter when they buy into the housing project. VERY interesting… Most of the vegetation along the road had been completely removed. Some speculate that it may have been caused by a running water pump or a type of bull frog. I don't know if we have anything that you wouldn't have already gotten. You can see the influences in the large Matterhorn mountain, the fairytale castle, the monorail and the main street. Nara Dreamland was demolished quickly. Subscribe to our free monthly newsletter! On September 9th SK Housing started to become really active by putting up office containers and porter potties at the lower end of the parking lot, the large construction fence with the main gate. For those who can read, there was also a signboard with big Japanese letters probably threatening trespassers with significant fines or chopping their hands off. Paul Chris Jones. About a year ago Osaka based real estate company SK Housing bought the lot for 730 million Yen (I reported) and things went from bad to worse – whole groups of people strayed through the park and neither they themselves nor SK Housing apparently gave a damn about anything; young parents with their barely walking toddlers, teens screaming like little children while playing tag, twens grinding stunt bikes on benches and rails, barely walking senior citizens… In spring and summer of 2016 you could actually literally walk into the park without jumping a rope or a fence, or even passing a sign. The demolition of Nara Dreamland should be finished by now. [5][6] It was later confirmed online by regular visitors that the demolition process was officially underway as of October 10, 2016 and that it was due to take 14 months. There is nothing much to say, other than the current owners have plans to use the land they are holding for more fruitful purposes. The park was initially popular as it was the closest thing to Disneyland in Japan. It was in continuous operation for 45 years, from 1961, closing permanently in 2006 as a result of falling attendance. [1] Demolition of the park started in October 2016 and was completed on December 21, 2017. The caterpillar-type vehicles are tearing it all down to piles of rubble. On the same day, someone posted this photo of a half-demolished Aska roller coaster to Imgur: On 11 November 2016, Florian Seidel posted this photo of Aska to Abandoned Kansai's Facebook page: Here's another from the Abandoned Kansai Facebook page, this time posted on November 24th, 2016: On 6 December 2016, Chris Luckhardt wrote: Most of the park is gone now. Japan has plenty of rundown and soon to be closed amusement parks, so in 2005 Nara Dreamland wasn’t special; except for being a Disneyland clone. However, towards the end of the construction phase, Matsuo and Disney had disagreements about the licensing fees for the Disney characters (they later settled when Matsuo paid for Disney's help), and MEC abandoned the idea of Nara Disneyland and created their own mascots and trademarks. My eyes still adapting to the arriving pitch darkness, while I was trying not to get lost among the theme park’s wreckage, didn’t provide much information about where the hell am I walking. Hey Toshihiru, A lot of unique art existed here, despite it being initially inspired by Disney, a lot of unique love and heart was here. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Same with the monorail station – and before you ask: No, I have no idea what happened to the monorail train. No tripod bringing was in question for this get in-get out photo shooting. IT WAS a dream destination until it became the stuff of nightmares. It was left abandoned for 10 years prior to its demolition in October 2016. Oh my, my first real glimpse of Nara Dreamland was also my last then. Not photographers, not urban explorers, not the media – not future plans, not schedules, not people involved; not to anybody, not about anything. But you could still go to Nara to enjoy wild deer in Nara Park. But then in September, preparation work began in earnest: On September 9th SK Housing started to become really active by putting up office containers and porter potties at the lower end of the parking lot, the large construction fence with the main gate. If there is any kind of archive website where I can share my shots about the last moments of this abandoned Nara Dreamland , then please forward this information it to me. It’s sad how they have just fallen by the wayside. At the same time gates were fortified and holes in the fence were fixed. If anyone still wanted to visit the park and see any of what still remains of the entrance area (outside these guys’ work hours), then go now.". In October 2016, a Japanese newspaper reported that SK Housing had started the demolition process.