Sanrio Puroland Tokyo Japan April 2014
On the third day, we visited Hello Kitty official amusement park called "Sanrio Puroland" (サンリオピューãƒãƒ©ãƒ³ãƒ‰), which was opened on December 7, 1990 and presents many famous Japanese characters such as the My Melody, Cinnamoroll, Badtz Maru, Kuromi, Jewelpet, etc. This theme park is located in the town of Tama, west of Tokyo. From Shinjuku, the largest train station in Tokyo, we took a 45-minutes train to the reach the Tama Center station. There are two types of tickets to enter Sanrio Puroland: the basic admission ticket (adult price ¥3,000, about $37), or passport (¥4,400, about $55) which entitles to attractions. While many of these attractions are only in Japanese, the park is quite popular for overseas visitors because of the worldwide popularity of these characters. Upon entering, you can get the impression that the building is fairly small: the ground and first floors are devoted to Sanrio goodies store, as well as restaurants, cafes and cakes or ice cream stalls. Obviously, Hello Kitty is the most represented. Coming down to first basement, you get in a vast cavity that provides access to various thematic areas. This is the heart of Sanrio Puroland. Regularly, mascots of the brand come and a long queue is formed at an impressive speed to be able to say hello, hug them and take a picture. Obviously the public on site consists of a majority of Japanese families with young children, especially girls. But we came across a few teenagers and even adults all dressed up in Hello Kitty dresses who came to spend the day or the afternoon.
Three times a day, Kitty-chan and her friends come perform a half hour show for children. There is also a boat ride similar to It's a Small World in which Cinnamorroll leads riders to a party being held by Hello Kitty, passing through the homes of several Sanrio characters, including Kerroppi's pond and Badtz Maru's cave. Visitors can also tour Kitty's house which includes Renaissance style portraits of her family, fancy furniture and a bath-tub shaped like her face, and displays of her purses and jewelry. Her computer and television are also in her head shape. There are three live theaters and one film theater. It also includes attraction areas themed to candy, ice cream, bread, juice, and chocolate factories.
