With Lagunasia done and dusted much quicker than expected, I turned my attention to Legoland Japan.

https://www.parkz.com.au/parks/JP/Nagoya/Legoland_Japan/

(Took a couple of hundred pics)

I hadn’t initially put this on my itinerary, but it was only gonna take about 90 mins to get there (Basically, a train to Nagoya, then a local Aonami line train down to the port area, with the station right near the park)

It meant I’d have about 3h in the park till close, which I figured was plenty for what I wanted to do.

The park is kind of in this outlet mall meets dining district (Like Harbour Town at Docklands) with the park hotel right at the front entrance.

The place is poisonously expensive, costing 7000JPY to get in, making it far more expensive than a day at Disney.

 

On the other hand, it probably represents great value for money for kids, since they’ll basically want do to every single attraction, and there is a fair bit despite the compact size of the park.

I felt it looked a lot better than Legoland Windsor, which was basically cruddily themed stuff with the odd lego statue to tart it up.

This place seemed much more colourful, and more of the buildings and theming looked like it was made out of actual lego bricks, which is what Legoland should be IMO.

As for the rides

 

Dragon

A fairly sizable family coaster, with a lengthy dark ride section through a castle with Lego models.  You pass through rooms like the jesters court, the kitchen, the dragons keep etc.

Outside of Disney, Legoland Japan staff are probably the best in Japan, very efficient, chilled, they kept two trains running easily.

Dragon’s Apprentice

This is the same clone as the kiddy coaster at Sea World.

Observation Tower

I tried to get this one out of the way early since the sun sets so early. Well placed for views of the park, though I wish they would use safety glass not Perspex on these rides, since that does seem to get scratched and faded more easily.

Miniland

Really good, and if you’ve been travelling around Japan you’ll get a fair bit out of it because it’s likely you’ll visit / have visited many of the places.

Many of the models had push buttons to make them move. For example you could set a stage concert going, or send a lift up the skytree, or make cars move through the production line at a car factory, and even make the giant robot seen at Oidaba move around.

It was funny too how they got around copyrights…The Gilco man was missing from  Dotonbori, and Shibuya 109 became Shibuya 601.

They don’t kick you out right on closing, so I was able to come back for a longer look.

Submarine Adventure

A bit of my motivation to come here was to try this. It’s a mack submarine ride, so is really a glorified overhead monorail ride, and the vehicles are in effect like a glass bottom boat, with the viewing area forced below water level.

The queue has play areas you can leave your kid in while you wait.

The ride was dead so I got a sub to myself so was able to scoot around and get a good look. Im not sure I’m a fan of the underwater atlantis theme, it did make it feel like you were in brick tanks, and natural would have looked better.

But it is a cool little attraction and the movement through the zones with fish and sharks swimming around you does give the opportunity for a fun narrative.

The layout is quite simple though, literally an oval, but I guess if you did something with a few turns  you’d be quadrupling the size of the pool. And to be honest, its not that noticeable that the layout is simple, because the scenery is ever changing.

There was also a mini sealife area at the exit.

Lost Kingdom Adventure

A dark ride set in an Egyptian tomb. No story to follow really, it just seemed like they did a few random sets, eg a bad guy stealing something, explorers with magnifying glasses, and a completely weird one with a bunch of skeletons playing in a band. Again, the layout was actually quite simple, a simple oval, so it was over before you knew it.

Flying Ninjago

Cant resist doing a sky fly when I see one. A bit harder to flip so no chance to be a showoff.

I wouldn’t have minded trying this but had no time.

Lego Factory Tour

Free lego brick!

It did feel a bit drawn out. The most interesting part was the room at the end with actual manufacturing machinery. The two prior rooms were just preshows  (Thankfully subtitled) explaining how the process works, so to be honest 2/3 video and 1/3 actual interesting stuff is the wrong ratio.

The rest of the park was smaller rides, all nicely themed. In particular the lego city area had a fair bit of humour to it.

I liked how the pirate area actually recreated the pirate ship lego kit.

Heaps of play areas.

Not a lot of Japanese signs on shops and so forth, so I dunno how a kid with limited English education in primary school would be able to enjoy it?

Overall, I thought it looked a lot better than Windsor, and just the right size for a family park.

 

When is Merlin gonna do Legoland Sydney or something?

"Endut! Hoch Hech!

Edited February 13, 20206 yr by Gazza

3 hours ago, Gazza said:

Submarine Adventure

A bit of my motivation to come here was to try this. It’s a mack submarine ride, so is really a glorified overhead monorail ride, and the vehicles are in effect like a glass bottom boat, with the viewing area forced below water level.

Given the panned reception Storm Coaster got - would something like this have fitted in the SW Show Building? It seems to me the perfect fit for Sea World - kind of Sub voyage pre-Nemo Subs? (Atlantis themeing and all! haha)