Abandoned Dreamland Amusement Park Is the Stuff of Pastel-Colored Nightmares
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In 1961, Nara Dreamland was the Japanese answer to Southern California's legendary Disneyland, and shared several of its themes and features, including its very own Main Street U.S.A.
Unfortunately it lacked the longevity of the American entertainment staple, and the lights on Main Street flickered out for good in 2006 following an all-time low of 400,000 annual visitors. Since then, the pay-as-you-go park has become overrun with rust and foliage. Smiling characters have become creepily content in their shabby, weather-worn condition, and trees and bushes grow up and into what were once majestic coasters. What once attracted families full of smiling children now attracts brave urban explorers and nesting birds. Sleeping Beauty's castle, once a place of fairytales, now resembles something out of a haunted nightmare.
While the park still seems to be powered with electricity, the cost of bringing these monolithic coasters back to life is too high, yet the fate of the park remains uncertain. Guards regularly patrol the grounds fining trespassers, but no plans to demolish are currently in the works. Until its future is decided, it remains a decaying vision of misplaced American dreams.
Abandoned amusement parks: