Nara Dreamland

One of the reasons I came to Japan. Nara Dreamland -The abandoned Japanese amusement park that continues to loom as a dystopian Disneyland.

This place was everything, I wanted from an abandoned theme park. The best way to describe it would be eerie. This was on my to do list in Japan since day one. After school my friend Oscar and I headed to Nara to check out it out. We were not disappointed. The place is dismal and strange. Trees growing into the rides, cracked pavement, shattered glass, rust, chipped paint. The whole place is still together and slowly falling part. It was quite the thrill to walk on the rollercoasters and into the attractions. I wish I had more time and a better camera. There is security and a whopping 400,000 yen ($4000) fine for trespassing so be careful if you plan to go.

"In 1961, Nara Dreamland was the Japanese answer to Southern California's legendary Disneyland, and shared several of its themes and features, including its very own Main Street U.S.A.
Unfortunately it lacked the longevity of the American entertainment staple, and the lights on Main Street flickered out for good in 2006 at an all-time low of about 400,000 visitors that year. Since then, the pay-as-you-go park has become overrun with rust and nature, rendering it unsalvagable, but remained largely intact. Smiling characters have become creepily content in their shabby, weather-worn condition, and trees and bushes grow up and into what were once majestic coasters. What once attracted families full of smiling children now attracts brave urban explorers and nesting birds. Sleeping Beauty's castle, once a place of fairytales, now resembles something out of a haunted nightmare.

While the park still seems to be powered with electricity, the cost of bringing these monolithic coasters back to life is too high, yet the fate of the park remains uncertain. Guards regularly patrol the grounds fining trespassers, but no plans to demolish are currently in the works. Until its future is decided, it remains a decaying vision of misplaced American dreams."