World’s creepiest theme park left to rot with abandoned rides and buildings
A theme park which stood crumbling and gathering dust for a decade was once one of Japan's most popular attractions with 1.6million visitors each year.
At its peak Nara Dreamland was a hive of joyous activity, shrieks and woops that became known as the 'Japanese Disneyland'. Families flocked from all over to visit the fairy-tale castle and ride the state-of-the-art roller-coasters at the Nara Prefecture park.
It was opened in 1961 as a purposeful copy of the real Disneyland at Anaheim in California, US, and even featured a futuristic arcade that could host hundreds of children a day. Despite being several thousand miles away from the original, the Japanese version had many "all American" features including a Train Depot on Main Street, U.S.A., and the familiar Sleeping Beauty Castle at its centre hub.
It also had a Matterhorn-type mountain with a bobsled ride and a Skyway running through it. The park also had its own mascots, Ran-chan and Dori-chan, who were two children dressed as bearskin guards.
The park was directly modelled on Disneyland (Michael (Proper People) / mediadrumworld.com)However, after years of falling visitor numbers hastened by the construction of a real, branded Disneyland in Tokyo in 1983 and the sale of Nara to a supermarket chain, bosses made the sad decision to switch the rides off.
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They opted not to demolish the park, meaning it stood as it was when it closed, in the same location, gathering dust for years. Where once rollercoasters whizzed around the tracks, arcade machines beeped manically and mascots danced there became silence but for the flapping wings of flocks of birds and the occasional shutter sound of an urban explorer.
In their number is photographer Florian Seidel, who captured the creepy, otherworldly atmosphere of the ghost park - in which many of the rides and facilities remained intact for a decade - back in 2015. The photos show some of the attractions that were once among the most popular, including the fairy-tale castle, wooden roller-coaster and merry-go-round.
The rides were left to rust and rot (Michael (Proper People) / mediadrumworld.com)"Nara Dreamland is actually pretty much a copy of the original Disneyland in Anaheim. It was closed in 2006 and abandoned without getting demolished – which makes it quite a unique location since all the roller coasters, merry-go-rounds, souvenir shops, arcades and other attractions are still there," the German photographer said at the time.
"The whole park is surrounded by fences, most parts with spikes or barbed wire, so there's not much that's very child friendly about it anymore. Warning signs once asked people to call the police if they saw somebody suspicious, then they were charged a fine of 100,000 yen if they were caught on the premises."
Rollercoaster carts were left on the tracks (Michael (Proper People) / mediadrumworld.com)During five trips to the theme park over the course of several years, Florian managed to capture its slow decay as growing numbers of vandals snuck in and smashed up the remaining rides.
"Given Disneyland was opened in 1955 and Nara Dreamland followed in 1961, some of their similarities are uncanny," Florian said. "You have copies of the Sleeping Beauty Castle, Adventure land, Main Street USA, Autopia, Skyway, Tea Party Cup Ride, Submarine Voyage, Flying Saucers, the monorail, the fire station, a pirate ship, double decker omnibuses, vintage cars, and a train station.
"Even the entrance looked the same and of course the layout of the park was very similar – the maps make them look like twins. When I explored Nara Dreamland for the first time in December of 2009 there were barely any signs of vandalism.
The theme park even had a castle like Disneyland (Michael (Proper People) / mediadrumworld.com)"Two years later and the decay had worsened considerably, which is a massive shame. It's actually pretty sad how fast Nara Dreamland has gone down the drain."
In 2016 demolition vehicles moved into the park and began tearing Main Street down. Soon, all of the attractions had been demolished and the landscape of the park flattened. Now in their place housing has been built.
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