Built in 1961, this Japanese theme park was a Disneyland knockoff. Visitors had all but stopped coming by 2006, so the amusement park was closed. It was not demolished and became a playground for urban explorer photographers. Have a beer and enjoy this photo tour of abandoned Nara Dreamland. Photo #1 by © Bram Dauw
Nara Dreamland was closed and abandoned in August of 2006. This photo of the Screw roller coaster was taken 5 years later in August 2011. Photo #2 by © Ralph Mirebs
Today: Satellite and Street View of the defunct Japanese theme park. It is located in Nara which is about 2 hours outside of Osaka, Japan. Photo #3 by Google / GeoEye Maps
Yes, like abandoned Six Flags in New Orleans, Nara Dreamland has security guards. If caught exploring, you could be arrested and fined. We are grateful to the photographers who dared to explore so we can tag along on their illegal tour. This is derelict Nara Dreamland as of 3-3-11. Photo #4 by © Bram Dauw
The wooden roller coaster Aska was in operation from 1998 to 2006. It’s 3,547 feet 11 inches in length. Here’s the abandoned amusement park in August 2011 from Aska. Photo #5 by © Ralph Mirebs
Nature reclaiming Aska, September 2010. According to Wikipedia, Aska was based on the wooden roller coaster ‘The Cyclone’ at Coney Island. Photo #6 by © Michael John Grist
Screw coaster cars, August 2011. This double corkscrew roller coaster operated from 1979 to 2006. It was a “single train with 6 cars. Riders are arranged 2 across in 2 rows for a total of 24 riders.” Photo #7 by © Ralph Mirebs
October 2010: High noon abandoned Main Street. In Japan, ruins of abandoned places are called haikyo, but haikyo is also associated with urban exploration or urbex. Photo #8 by © Jordy Meow
Faded dreams April 2011. According to an urban explorer, “Nara Dreamland is a rip-off of Disneyland in Anaheim. Disneyland was opened in 1955, Nara Dreamland followed in 1961. You have copies of the Sleeping Beauty Castle, Adventureland, Main Street USA, Autopia, Skyway, Tea Party Cup Ride, Submarine Voyage, Flying Saucers, the monorail, the fire station, a pirate ship, double decker omnibusses, vintage cars, and a train station (called DreamStation). Even the entrance looked the same!” Photo #9 by © Michael Libby
Climbing inside Aska, August 2011. The roller coaster database states this ride had “7 cars per train. Riders are arranged 2 across in 2 rows for a total of 28 riders per train.” Photo #10 by © Ralph Mirebs
Witch and werewolf at abandoned Nara Dreamland, Japan, in 2008. Photo #11 by © drzeus
July 2010. A former park visitor explained, “This was a maze building with a difference. You were given a card on the way in and had to find 3 checkpoints inside and get the card stamped.” Photo #12 by © Kyle Merriman via BrandKnewMe
September 2010: Merry-go-round under the stars. Photo #13 by © Michael John Grist
In July 2010, the photographer wrote, “The bumper cars, screw coaster, merry-go-round and even Japan’s largest wooden roller coaster were still intact and almost tempting to climb aboard.” Photo #14 by © Kyle Merriman
Carousel as seen in October 2010. Photo #15 by © Jordy Meow
Dried up derelict water fountain in 2010. Photo #16 by © Florian Seidel via Abandoned Kansai
Dreamland on rainy day: April 27th, 2011. Photo #17 by © Michael Libby
Nature reclaiming Nara Dreamland monorail in 2006, the year the park closed. Photo #18 by © kore/okamo
Top of Aska (98′ 5″) on August 15, 2011. The coaster went 49.7 mph, had 2.8 G forces, and the ride lasted 1:45. Photo #19 by © Ralph Mirebs
Main Street in October 2010. The photographer wrote, “WARNING: The park being not colorful at all (or in an awful way), at the time of working on the pictures I converted everything to strong HDR and deleted the originals. Later, really disappointed by it I tried to re-work on them, and try to them look a bit softer.” Photo #20 by © Jordy Meow
February 2012: Snowy abandoned Nara Dreamland. Photo #21 by © Florian Seidel
October 2010: Mold and mildew creeping in. Photo #22 by © Jordy Meow
Going up. The Screw Coaster was 1,253 feet and 3 inches long. It reached 55.9 mph and the ride lasted 1:20. Photo #23 by © Ralph Mirebs
August 2011: Screw Coaster and castle. Photo #24 by © Ralph Mirebs
Sinking boats in abandoned Jungle Adventure section. Photo #25 by © Michael Libby
Snowy Aska on February 2, 2012. Photo #26 by © Florian Seidel
Nature reclaims abandoned Nara Dreamland’s main attraction, the Aska roller coaster. In 2010, the urban explorer / photographer wrote, “I’ve been to Nara Dreamland three times so far (during daytime and nighttime), spotted security twice and got caught once.” Photo #27 by © Florian Seidel via Abandoned Kansai
2008, no lines for Aska. Photo #28 by © drzeus
August 2010, overgrown lineup. Photo #29 by © Jordy Meow
August 2011:5 years after abandonment, nature is starting to take back portions of Nara Dreamland. Photo #30 by © Ralph Mirebs
Waiting cable cars. Photo #31 by © Kyle Merriman via BrandKnewMe
Screw Coaster. The photographer noted, “The main entrance, filled with shops, restaurants, makeshift police and fire stations, ticket booths and even a public hall was showing clear signs that the plant life wanted back what was once theirs.” Photo #32 by © Kyle Merriman via BrandKnewMe
Rusty and crusty seen on October 2010. Photo #33 by © Jordy Meow
Coaster taken over by jungle overgrowth September 2010. Photo #34 by © Michael John Grist
Top left: Nara Dreamland, Main Street in October 1963; Top right: Abandoned main street now; Middle left: Dreamland main entrance then; Middle right: Main entrance now; Bottom left: Screw roller coaster in 2004 while still open; Bottom right: Abandoned Screw coaster today. Photo #36 by © kevf, #37 by © Kyle Merriman via Imagineering Disney, #38 by © kore / okama, #39 by © Florian Seidel, #40 by © Theme Park Review, #41 by © Kyle Merriman via indoblogger
Abandoned waterpark ride in October 2010. Photo #42 by © Jordy Meow
Lonely Viking ride at derelict Dreamland in August 2011. Photo #43 by © Ralph Mirebs
Inside the Matterhorn-like mountain where the photographer captured this rusted heavy machinery with heavy overgrowth in September 2010. He wrote, “A coaster ride goes round the outside, while the cable-car goes through.” Photo #44 by © Michael John Grist
Overgrown as seen in April 2011. Photo #45 by © Michael Libby
Excellent. August 2011: Nature reclaims surveillance cameras. Photo #46 by © Ralph Mirebs
Some sort of swan-mobiles hidden behind weeds in March 2011. Photo #47 by © Bram Dauw
Top left: Nara Dreamland castle in 2005 while still open with the British park mascot; Top right: Abandoned knockoff Disney castle in April 2011; Bottom left: Snow wtf White while Dreamland was open; Bottom right: Derelict Dreamland kiddie rides. Photo #48 by © Ivan Lucas, #49 by © Michael Libby, #50 by © MSN Money, #51 by © Florian Seidel
Control booth in the ruins of Nara Dreamland. Photo #52 by © Bram Dauw
Urban explorers often have to dodge security and remember someone may be watching. “Say cheese,” the photographer wrote. He arrived at the park “a little after midnight. The streets were quiet and calm as we walked the 30 minutes to the Dreamland site. Both of us were pretty excited. There was always the possibility that the security guard might do night sweeps. There was still the threat of fines, motion sensors, alarms.” Photo #53 by © Michael John Grist
Artistic shot of “pink attraction” ride in October 2010. Photo #54 by © Jordy Meow via haikyo
Dreamland no more October 2010. Photo #55 by © Jordy Meow
July 2010: ‘Dreamland Sleeping Beauty.’ Photo #57 by © Kyle Merriman via Speigel Online
03.03.2011: Dreamland Abandoned Park. Photo #58 by © Bram Dauw
October 2010: Castle, maybe more like Grimm Brothers than Disneylike Dreamland? Photo #60 by © Jordy Meow
Abandoned pink Cadillac, March 2011. Photo #61 by © Bram Dauw
July 2010: Derelict dreams or urbex fantasy? Photo #62 by © Kyle Merriman via BrandKnewMe
Nightmare at abandoned Dreamland? Photo #63 by © Bram Dauw
Sunrise. Watch out for security! Photo #64 by © Michael John Grist
Wow what a beautiful place, Id move right in!~
Fantastic photos and location – an audio field recordist’s dream!
wonder why this dreamland is abandoned….
It basically just took Disneyland… degraded it to a six flags level and people started to catch on and this Dreamland was shut down for several copyright issues but it is still so cool to see pictures of an abandoned theme park like this one and how much it looks like Disneyland… what were those people thinking.
Thats not right.
It shut down because a bigger and newer park oppend called universal and they lost the costumers to keep it going, its not because of copyright issues, lol.
I guess this shows us we should not copy someone elses vision. Erie but familiar.
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This looks like a lonely theme park
Yes … the design is clearly needed to be changed
What would be brighter , nebudu (
Thank you for posting these! Hauntingly beautiful.
Hauntingly beautiful.You are macabre. What is nice hier except the photos?
The human cretinism to ruin the nature to build something beautiful and to destroy it?
Sorry i speak not english i need the google to translate. But I can write so much: that civilization is very, very sick. Our destruction become of God a blessing for the next civilization!
Sad to look at, but I can see how a knockoff would lose business once Japan got a real Disney park.
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How much? and when can I move in?
What a shame. Looks like it was a very nice place before. Unfortunately the scrap steel boys will eventually eat it up. Wish my country could have some of those rides, even if they are old (Nicaragua.) Wonder what happened. China also has one of these skeleton parks and they never got off the ground. What goes around comes around.
Awesome collection of photos. Theme park is very much amazing!!…Lovely pics
[...] These photos from an abandoned amusement park in Nara, Japan which from the sounds of it shut down when they realised trying to run a copycat Disneyland in a country that already had a Disneyland probably wasn’t a great idea. [...]
I think this place is awesome. You call it a rip off disney but hey everyone deserves to go to Disney even if it’s not the real one. Not everyone can afford to go to the real disney. If I could I would buy this place, clean it up, and reopen it. That’s just me.
I feel sorrow looking at these pictures. This whole Dreamland must be lonely, waiting for people to come and have fun. But it is now, just a faded dream.
Awesome photos. HDR, in particular, really lends itself to highlighting everything about abandonment and subsequent degeneration. Believe me, the risks taken to get these photos are really appreciated by those of us Urbex wannabies (me especially) who don’t get the opportunity or don’t have the balls to go and check these places out ourselves. They really capture the desolation and deterioration so well. I love abandoned theme parks. There’s nothing so captivating as a place originally designed to bring joy, laughter and fun which, once closed and in the process of deterioration, seems to then reflect the exact opposite ambience to that which was originally intended. Thanks for sharing
Even if Disney had a hand in shutting this park down, I find it REALLY weird that no other company wanted (or was allowed)to purchase the land, boats, cars, or rides in general. I live near a park and they are constantly buying & selling attractions from all around the world. They transport used rides. Weird.
I guess when Disney came to town they cleaned house & obliterated the competition.
Great Pics! Thanks for sharing!
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[...] Nara Dreamland [...]
I find it interesting here that the bulk of the comments here are about copyright instead of all the waste portrayed in these photos.
It took a LOT of resources to make this place. Now it sits there rotting. In a world on its knees because of waste, I find it really sad that the focus here is on copyrights.
@AJ Klein, if it hadn’t have been for copyright issues, the themepark would never have shut down and hence, less waste.
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