Amusement parks are often described as places full of color, crowded with people, and have an extremely fun and bustling atmosphere. However, when these parks are abandoned and lack human elements, they take on a completely different look that makes many people shudder.
In Japan in the 1960s, there were also extremely majestic amusement parks that were hailed as this country’s own version of Disneyland, before Disneyland was actually present in Tokyo city.
Nara Dreamland is an amusement park opened in 1961 and built on the same idea as Disneyland Park, the first Disneyland park built in California (USA).
This park has many areas that are said to “copy” Disneyland such as the Main Street USA area, Sleeping Beauty Castle, Autopia, Matterhorn and Jungle Cruise.
Seen from above, the layout of the park seems similar to Disneyland park.
The park also has its own mascots Ran-chan and Dori-chan, said to be inspired by Disney’s Mickey Mouse.
In the early years after opening, Nara Dreamland attracted much attention and reached the peak of its popularity, attracting more than 1.7 million visitors each year.
However, after the Walt Disney Company reached a deal to bring its theme park to Japan, things began to fall apart for Nara.
Accordingly, when Disneyland Tokyo officially opened in 1983, the number of visitors to Nara began to gradually decrease.
Most people want to go to the world-famous park, which is said to be the “authentic copy” of Nara Dreamland.
In the early 2000s, another popular amusement park, Universal Studio, was also immediately present near Disneyland Tokyo.
This has caused people to completely forget the existence of Nara Dreamland. And that was when this ambitious amusement park began to collapse.
By 2004, the quality of the park began to decline – stores began to close, some attractions began to rust, and service trucks would be left unused.
Although it used to attract up to 1.7 million visitors, in 2006, this park was forced to close and was demolished in 2016.
Source: The Sun
