In a country that loves it's many cutesy characters, Hello Kitty is still the queen. A few weeks ago, we took a trip to Harmonyland, a Hello Kitty themed amusement park. It is about three hours east of us just north of Beppu on the eastern shore of Kyushu.
You might be surprised to learn that Nathan had a bit of a Hello Kitty phase in grade school. It was actually Nathan that found the park and suggested we go!
The park is up in the mountains and has a very classy Bavarian feel to it.
There were tons of rides that were made for the boys' age group. One thing that surprised us was how many adults were there without kids. Adults in Japan really love Hello Kitty and cutesy stuff as much as kids here!
Wilson and Leo went on their first roller coaster rides. Wilson went on the biggest one the park had to offer and got off wanting more.
Leo went on a pretty tame one, but loved the thrill.
The park was pretty big and there were lots of other things to do. There was a train that went around the whole park.
Lots of cutesy things to stop and see.
Some neat restaurants. Can you see the tree you climb through to get in this restaurant?
There were three different levels on the mountain, so there was quite a bit of walking involved. It was all very scenic and there were a few parks for the boys to play at along the paths.
Everything was Hello Kitty themed - this was a cute little donut I found.
The only bummer of the day was when we went to Hello Kitty's castle to see her and found out they closed her castle 30 minutes before the park closes. Boo!
We had a great day at Harmonyland and we will be back. We'll be sure to stop by Hello Kitty's castle first next time :)
OMG!!! AS a long HK fan, I am dying. I would be that kidless adult who would be here and loving it (Ummm...hi...I went to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter sans kiddos...). I'm a huge Keroppi fan and I loved see that he was representing as well!!!
ReplyDeleteGet over here so we can go! I have been wanting to go to the Harry Potter place, too... and William, Kate and Harry totally went kidless when it opened in England, right??
DeleteNo hello kitty beer garden? What about games/prizes? Bumper cars? Log ride?
ReplyDeleteI'd like to open a Hello Kitty beer garden now and only serve pink beer :)
DeleteSoooooo COOL! I have been wanting to go there for ages. You guys are so lucky! It looks like you are having a great time out there. I secretly want to be stationed in Japan just because I love Hello Kitty so much. The husband thinks it is ridiculous of course....
ReplyDeleteThat's neat that you've heard of it before! We were glad it was here on our island because most of the more touristy stuff is by Tokyo. Go for Japan - Nathan's office is now in the dental wing and they're a fun bunch :)
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