I don’t know why, but people exploring Nara Dreamland seem to be so drawn to the roller-coasters and merry-go-rounds that they totally ignore the not so hidden gem that is dominating the northern part of the Eastern Parking Lot: I’m talking about the building with the strange observation tower. And a strange building it was… A hotel, according to a Japanese hompage. But I found out about that fact weeks after I explored the building as I still was a bit unsure about its purpose.
Although the Nara Dreamland Hotel looks like a fortress (with its broken and boarded-up windows) there are actually at least two ways to get in. Mine was a quite surprising one: Through an unlocked door I closed behind me – a slightly stupid move at first sight, but it might have saved me from getting arrested as I should experience a few hours later.
The first room I entered must have been a meeting room once, followed by a service counter for ice skate rentals and probably other things. Next to it was one of two former main entrances to the building and a quite impressive staircase leading up to the other floors.
Roaming through the three floors I found a strange mix of all kinds of places: Offices, meeting rooms, private rooms, bath rooms, dormitory rooms, small and huge kitchens (several ones actually!), washing rooms, storage rooms, staircases, dark hallways, machinery rooms – a few of them locked, most of them accessible. Probably the most surprising room was a huge auditorium with a stage on the third floor. My most favorite floor of course was the observation tower. The view up there was absolutely stunning – luckily it didn’t paralyze me, because as I was enjoying the great view I saw a security guard on a scooter driving onto the parking lot! I found cover on the stairs leading down, giving me a good look at what was happening: The guard parked in front of the parking garage and went inside for a couples of minutes. After that he got back on his scooter again and drove the 30 meters right towards me to the hotel building. Now ten very, very long minutes began… until I saw the guy again, leaving. Luckily. I’m pretty sure he would have searched the building way more thoroughly if I had left the door on the ground floor open. Luckily he didn’t lock it when he left either, so I escaped with nothing more than a fright. That was in December of 2009 – a couple of weeks later I wasn’t that lucky when I entered the park itself and got caught by the guard only half an hour after I started taking pictures…
The Nara Dreamland Hotel is a massive haikyo that offers lots of diversity. It took me about 3 hours to explore and shoot the building and due to the arrival of the guard I got way more excitement than I was hoping for. As far as hotels go it was definitely one of the most interesting ones, way better than the One Dragon Hotel, the Koga CC House and the Kasagi Tourist Hotel – the lack of history was compensated by the relative absence of vandalism and the amount of items present. I have very, very fond memories of this exploration…
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Addendum 2015-07-01:
Very nice pictures, expecially the staircase one.
Do you feel sad when you see the wastefulness of so many items left behind that were probably still usable?
Thanks a lot!
I don’t feel sad to see a place like the Nara Dreamland Hotel, I think it’s more joy about the fact that somebody left an almost fully equipped, not vandalized hotel behind. It just makes me wonder why it happened. And why they didn’t sell any attractions of the park. Maybe they had hopes to re-open the place after a year or two? Maybe the owner(?) couldn’t decide what to do?
I’m sure we’ll see more and more about Nara Dreamland on the internet in the future and maybe somebody knows the answers to those questions. Nara Dreamland is one of Japan’s top abandoned places, basically the “Gunkanjima of amusement parks”.
Great story! Had me hooked there for a little while thinking you got yourself arrested! You didn’t tell me this story when we met, as far as I can recall :P. As for the mine visit, I’m thinking we move it to October when it’s cooler. Still far to hot right now and the place will be thick with vegetation I reckon.
Thanks, the Dreamland Hotel is still one of my favorite explorations since it offered so much more than I expected. I’m looking forward to visiting the mine – and doing it when the temperature will be lower and the critters will be fewer sounds like a great idea!
I never knew there was a hotel there…
At the part where the security guard was making his rounds, my heart beat a bit quicker. I really thought you got busted!
Great job with the photos as usual; my favourite is the peaceful looking washroom 🙂
The Dreamland Hotel must be one of the most overlooked abandoned places in Japan – which is good and bad at the same time. When the guard drove his scooter towards the door I entered the building through I thought I would get busted… Luckily I closed it behind me and the building is way too big for a thorough search every time he goes there.
yr staircase and sewing machine photo touch me the most man …. good share , great story and photos …. personally its quite interesting yet exciting to explore and study all these ancient & abandoned structure / building through the view of designer n vintage lover …. honestly i would camp out on this site.
thanks for sharing
Thanks a lot for your kind comment! Sadly the whoke building has been demolished recently – and before that somebody stole the sewing machine… 😦