What was to be Nara Disneyland became Nara Dreamland instead – a 32 hectare park with its own copycat versions of Main Street USA and Sleeping Beauty’s Castle. But in 2006 the park closed, following years of falling attendance numbers.
LONELY PLANET
TRAVEL PHOTOS
Lonely Planet commissioned the use of these photos to accompany a travel news article on a popular abandoned theme park in Japan.
Nara Dreamland was built in 1961 with the vision to create a park similar to California’s Disneyland that catered to the Japanese. Disney, however, would not approve the project.
Laying abandoned for years, the site became a popular for urban exploration. It has since been demolished.
Credits:
Article by James Gabriel Martin
Photographs:
See inside Japan’s abandoned Nara Dreamland amusement park