We arrived late last night into Nara. The other old capital of Japan. Nara is known for its wild deers and national park. But after 1 day in Nara - we found a hidden gem that is not in any guidebooks you will find about Nara - Nara Dreamland!
So first Nara Park. We scouted out the location of the park prior and made plans to camp there for the night. In the pitch darkness of night we set up our accommodations in a plain grassy area. As we lit our ways with flashlights we met our neighbours. Every scan of the horizon showed us 30-40 pairs of chilling eyes. If we didn't know they were deer it would have been quite easy to mistake them for wolfs.
We situated our tent with an amazing view of the stars. The shadows from outside were quite interesting as deer and boars passed by our tent for their evening meal. As the hours passed we each dozed off to a welcomed sleep after 3 nights of late night parties in Kyoto. Suddenly around 2am we were woken up by a static noise as a person walked by our tent. It turned out to be either the Park Ranger or police. In either case we were not kicked out or even spoken to which was great news. We woke up around 5:30 and had all our gear packed up and ready to go by 6. The morning calm before the rush of tourists was such a welcomed relief after the mass of people in Kyoto. Of course we made friends with the local inhabitants and fed them some of our bread. The deers here are much bigger than the ones on Miyajima and have really sharp antlers which could turn deadly if provoked.
Around 8am Roman and I rented bikes and checked out the rest of the deer Park. It was interesting but not as exciting as what was about to come!
So Nara Dreamland! What is this mysterious place you might ask? Only the coolest place ever to visit in Japan in my opinion! But it is not for the feeble of heart or mind. Nara Dreamland is an abandoned amusement park built in the early 60s by a Japanese business man. Over the years new amusement parks close to Osaka forced the park out of business. But it was never demolished - thus it remains to this day a surreal place of quietude and wonder for those who dare to seek it out and explore. We found about about it last night as we camped in Nara Park and mused about how great Japan is for urban camping. A first quick search of those terms brought about the page for Nara Dreamland. Unfortunately there were no real locations given but with a little bit of Google detective work we found it easily enough.
There are multiple illegal entry point as we found out later. Ours was the grass overgrown pass on the south side. A fence had been pried open by previous adventurers. But the vegetation overgrowth made entry difficult as we tested and prodded each step. Finally after a 10 minute walk we were into the park by the side of what was the previous Waterpark. We had read about how there are security guards who worked in the park still and will often charge trespassers with fines of thousands of dollars. So we treaded carefully and made sure to look out for security cameras.
As we walked further into the park we grew bolder and entered into multiple buildings looking for lost treasure. What did we find? Chairs thrown around haphazardly in what used to be bustling merchant stalls. Spiderweb and dust accumulation, old file cabinets and more items. Each one showing a story of what once was. Our finest find were baseball bats which we happily acquiesced to our possessions. The state of wild life regrowth in the park was very high and our bats made us bolder and we explored more areas than previously.
There was also signs of perhaps people squatting in the park. But it was far and in between. After the main street of the park we arrived at our first Rollercoaster. The tracks were rusted and creeky. I pushed myself and climbed onto the top of the Rollercoaster and got some really good photos of the park. Not having any sort of precautionary measure while climbing really made the adrenaline rise. The climb itself was high but more scary was the fact that any step I take could have fallen through as the steps were quite shaky. But luckily nothing fell and I came back in one piece.
As we were about to head out a stranger appeared. A man with a full backpacking gear came from behind some vegetations. Seeing as how he was obviously not suppose to be there as well we let down our guards and exchanged pleasantries. Turned out he was not such a stranger after all! It was Maxime a French backpacker whom I had met previously in Kobe. He actually slept in the amusement park last night in the dark and from his recollections it was quite creepy and haunting haha. With that we joined forces and explored the rest of the park.
As we walked passed the fake Disney castle. We entered the rocky Mountain Rollercoaster area. We first tried to go through the bottom - that turned out to be a no go as there were no stairs from the inside of the mountain. What we found was an old haunted house. Having 2 other people in there with me definitely calmed my nerves as we walked cautiously pass each display. When we finally arrived at the end we ended up inside the bottom of the mountain and saw the support structure that was keeping it alive. Metal beams crisscrossed the interior with sun light poking through the areas where concrete has given way to the onslaught of rain and other precipitation.
Not convince that we cannot scale the mountain we exited the mountain and made our ways to the coaster entrance. Unfortunately the service door was locked so we resorted to physically climbing it along side the Rollercoaster tracks. But this was a precarious operation as some of the ladder rungs were dangerously loose and the ground made of concrete were liable to give way to our weight. In fact as we climbed upwards into the mountain one of my foot actually sank into the structure while we were half way up to the top of the mountain. This was about 3 or four stories tall. Luckily the rest of my body supported my weight and I was shaken but not harmed.
In the end we scaled to 3/4 the side of the mountain and stopped there. Both Roman and I tried separately the metal ladders to the very top and unanimously agreed it was too unstable even for our tastes. Valuing our lives we finished our exploration and headed back to the Jr station and finished our day with an onsen bath. We actually snuck into the bathouse and so didn't have to pay!
Overall a really great day in Nara and the most exciting and fun part of my Japan trip.
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| Bypassing the park securities or lack thereof haha |
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| Camped here in Nara Park |
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| Climbing the mountain rollercoaster |
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| Where my foot slipped in and actually broke the concrete as I was climbing. |
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| Ontop of the rollercoaster |
Peace from Nagoya.
