Guide: How to get in Nara Dreamland
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Nara Dreamland is an abandoned theme park in Nara, Japan. In this post, I'll show you two ways to enter Nara Dreamland: the front entrance and the back entrance. It's illegal to enter either way, but don't let that stop you.
(Note: Nara Dreamland has been demolished. There's nothing left. For more details, see this blog post. However, I'll leave this post up for posterity.)
How to get into Nara Dreamland's front entrance
Go to Kintetsu-Nara station and then follow this map. Basically, you'll be walking north for half an hour.
The front entrance is through Nara Dreamland's car park. There's not many fences here, so go ahead and just walk across the car park.
Eventually you'll see the park's ticket office. Just walk on through. One of the best things about visiting an abandoned theme park is there's no need to buy a ticket!
Keep walking and you'll see an entrance under a bridge.
How to get into Nara Dreamland's back entrance
I prefer the back entrance because it's quieter. Go to Kintetsu-Nara station and then follow this map.
Wait until there's no cars and then climb the gate. The road here is quiet; a car passes only once a minute or so.
When I went, a good samaritan had put a mattress over the gate, which made the climb easier.
If you don't fancy climbing the gate, then you can walk down the road a bit until you find a hole in the fence. I found a large hole about 50 meters down the road. That's the green circle in the photo below.
Here's a photo of one of the holes (credit to Aidan Colebrook for the photo):
Check out my other post where I describe my entire experience with as much detail as I can. And let me know about your Nara Dreamland adventures in the comments below.
Finally, if you want to learn more about Nara, then I recommend a book called The Kyoto and Nara Tuttle Travel Pack Guide. It has information not only about Nara but Kyoto as well, and it's written by a British guy who lives in Japan.
Comments
2016-06-08 volkan
hi. im going to japan this summer. and i will also stay about a week in kyoto. so i planned to visit nara for like one day. do you think its worth going to dreamland and if its easy to avoid the guards ? how was your expierence with the security ? did you see anyone in there ? i dont really have much money so if go and get cought im busted, so i wanna know how it is.
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2016-06-09 Paul Chris Jones
I've read about security at Nara Dreamland. Apparently they fine 100,000 Yen (USD$936) if they catch you. This is a hell of a lot of money, but... 1) Perhaps you could simply not pay the fine, because I suspect they can't legally enforce it. The only thing they could legally do is call the police. And I read somewhere that the police don't bother coming to Nara Dreamland anymore. 2) I didn't see any security myself, and I walked all over the park. The people who I did see in the park were other urban explorers. I talked to two guys who had been in the park since 7am. They told me they hadn't seen any security all day. 3) If security do see you, then you can always try running away... However, I did see a car in good shape just inside the back entrance. Unlike the rest of the park, it was graffiti-free and its windows were still intact. I guess the car belonged to security. Maybe the easiest way to tell you where I saw the car is to give you co-ordinates: 34º41'56.55" N 135º49'27.48" E.
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2016-06-09 volkan
First of all thanks for the reply. Got a few more questions :) did you go like super early or a little later ? and did you go by yourself or with somebody else ? do you think its better to go by oneself or is it just a question of not being scared ? if you know what i mean
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2016-06-16 Paul Chris Jones
I went around 3pm, I think, something like that. I went with my girlfriend. She waited outside for a while because she was too afraid of getting caught. Later I managed to persuade her to come in. I saw a few couples, groups of friends, and even a family. They were all brazen: walking in the open, making noise, climbing on tall structures, laughing. Based on their behaviour, I think the odds of getting caught are slim.
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2016-07-18 Mundano
Awesome! I was going to ask you the same question but now you've answered it!
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2016-08-21 Meggido
Just went back from the park. I took backside entrance and could walk in the park since noone was there and i could take as many pics i wanted + go explore everywhere (offices, coasters, water area, mainstreet and arcades :) ) Thanks for the explanation on how to get there i had an amazing time !
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2016-10-07 batinic
I'm going there as we speak, will report my findings!
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2016-10-07 batinic
it was soooooo cool! there was at least 10 other travellers in there taking pictures and exploring. we saw what appeared to be a security guard driving around in the park on a scooter, so we hid for a bit until the coast was clear. a lot of cool stuff to see but a lot of stuff is damaged... when we exited the park through the back entrance, about 5 mins down the road a camera crew chased us down for an interview on nara land. we thought it was some police scam so we just played along and it turned out to be a legit camera crew, even though they did ask us some weird questions..nonetheless it was an awesome experience and id recommend checking it out! just be cautious:)
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2016-10-14 Oubaassehonne
Hey guys. I just went to Dreamland. OMG haven't felt my heart pounding in my throat that much before! So I took the road that went around the left hand side around the park, thinking it was going to lead to the back entrance Paul spoke of, meanwhile the back entrance was on the main road all along. Anyway, I followed that road for about 5 minutes and saw an area where the fence was lowered so much that one can simply climb over it. I saw there was a mattress or a blanket or two but it was pushed to the inside of the fence. Anyway, I entered this way easily, crossed a rail track, then jumped another low fence and I came to what seemed like the South-West at of the park, right by the water tube pipe slide ride. I continued to move over the concrete in this area in stealth mode. It was all so open there with not a lot of things to hide behind. I was scared and excited at the same time. I kept hearing machinery/construction thinking it was from another lot band when I got to the end of the pool area with all the food places, I saw these caterpillar-type vehicles (for lifting wood and scraps I suppose) but no people. One vehicle was idling but there was no one inside. I kept continuing past that but knew I was playing with fire. It was all still so open, but I kept to my left (south-west) and went past the pink castle on its far left side, eventually coming to a quiet area behind it again with carousels, haunted houses and mirror mazes. I walked around the white mountain on its left-hand side on a tarred pathway underneath some trees and toward the wooden roller coaster. But I just started hearing more and more activity. I crept up behind a tree to see if I could actually SEE the activity (I felt like I was in movie, hiding behind walls and peeking, haha) and then I finally saw some men in white uniforms and white hard hats. I don't know what's going on there but it looks like they're doing cleanup work, lifting and piling debris. At that point I knew I had no way of seeing the central/entrance area so I retraced my steps all the way back to the south-west side of the pink castle. I wish I went into more buildings but by the time I saw the opportunity, I was already weary of the construction workers and didn't wanna hang about too long. When I wanted to go by the way I came (in the wide open part of the swimming pool area), I saw more uniformed men in hats. They were now in plain sight near the area where I came from originally so I knew hat if I crossed the road, I'll be spotted. I started panicking a little because I didn't know if there was another way to reach my south-west back entrance. I went up this leafy road beside the boat ride thing and saw a red torii gate and continued to follow the path up the hill. Eventually all I could see were bushes but I found no other easy way to get out of that area so I grabbed a stick and started entering into the bushes, trying to avoid spiderwebs whenever possible and moving them out of the way only if I had to. I could see this area may have been flattened once or twice by other people, but there wasn't really a clear path. I climbed over plants and thick bushes and finally came to an area where I could see the ground again. I looked down and I was COVERED from my mid section to my shoes in these tiny, Velcro-like leaves. Thousands of them. I must have brushed past a bush with a rather effective/annoying reproductive/defense mechanism. Anyway, I wasn't out of the woods yet (literally), so I checked my google maps and compass one last time to make sure I was heading south toward the edge of the park. Now the spiderwebs were really blocking every passageway I could find. I ducked underneath most of them and finally came to the train tracks that run between the two fences and I heard cars again so I knew I was in the right place. I saw the flattened fence and was home free. But not before I stood by the train tracks for nearly an hour, picking these Velcro leaves off my clothing. It took forever. Can't exactly walk down the road looking like I've been caught red-handed with nature all stuck to me. I escaped without being seen. It is a good entrance to the park, but because of those construction guys, I couldn't go back through the easy pool area which was the way I originally came. I wish they weren't there because I would have been able to explore the main central entrance area too and probably exit by Paul's back gate or the hole in the fence. I walked along the road and back up the main road so that I could see the park from the front (street view), I noticed that Paul's gate now looks different. There's now a white fence attached to the gate which goes up even higher into the air so it's harder to get over. And the mattress is gone. However on the left side there's still a low-ish area one could try and climb, but it's barbed so be careful. The hole in the fence further along is still there and if you go further by a few more steps, there's a fence the has been bent upwards from the bottom so you can crawl underneath that too. These are still the easiest ways to enter the main area of the park, but those construction workers were there today...don't know what they're doing and if I'm the first person to report having seen them, but just be careful and if you still plan on going, perhaps use the south-west forest entrance that I used.
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2016-10-14 Oubaassehonne
UPDATE: I didn't realise I had captured something in a photo from when I looked at the main entrance from the street. They are definitely demolishing the main street buildings. The caterpillar-type vehicles are tearing it all down to piles of rubble. Looks like there won't be much left pretty soon. If anyone still wanted to visit the park and see any of what still remains of the entrance area (outside these guys' work hours), then go now.
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2016-10-17 alicja
Just visited! Sublime! Its being demolished.... :(
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2016-10-18 AntiSeptic
I was there today, but we could only get into the hotel and the water park area due to it being over run with security and demolition workers. The demo works are well and truly underway. Maybe visiting on a Sunday there might be greater chance of not being interrupted. Still, an amazing experience.
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2016-10-19 Oubaassehonne
UPDATE 2: I posted my findings on Reddit and urban explorer/photographer Chris Luckhardt replied saying "Friends in the region confirmed demolition began this week. There was a "ceremony" on Monday that kicked off the first phase of demolition. Demolition is scheduled for the next 14 months." So I guess the details are that demolition of Nara Dreamland began on 2016/10/10 and is scheduled to continue for 14 months. It looks like it's the beginning of the end :( It was my first and probably last time at the park and I'm really saddened by what's happening. But I think we can be lucky considering the 10 years it took for action to be taken.
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2016-10-20 Paul Chris Jones
Thanks for letting me know. I wrote a post about the demolition just now: http://www.pauljonesblog.com/2016/10/20/nara-dreamland-demolished/ I used the photo you posted to Reddit, I hope you don't mind :)
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2016-10-25 Oubaassehonne
Hey! Not at all, go right ahead. I read the post; thanks for adding all the additional info and pics. I took that photo high above my head over the fence and just walked off. The chills I got when I took a proper look at the photo on the train later that day...indescribable.
2016-10-27 Sonny
Has anyone been in the last few days? what is the progress like? Im going to head up at the end of the year, I wonder if there will be things left to see by then.
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2016-10-27 Oubaassehonne
The demolition process is 14 months according to sources. Having this in mind I think you should be okay if you stick the back end of the park where there will probably still be some structures left intact. But go after hours. Let's say the park is not worth visiting by the time you are in Japan, if you're going to be in Nara for the park, deer, temples and mochi anyway, then it won't be a wasted trip at least.
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2016-10-31 Thomasz
Hey Paul, hey fellow urban explorers! I visited Nara Dreamland today. At 07:40 thr caterpillars start their work and at 07:20 the white scooter guy starts riding back and forth. How could he have NOT see me - I have no idea. I.have checked the main rollercoaster, dreamland station and water slides. There are a lot of holes in the fence. The Hitman-style map is outdated, but who cares? The place is easily accessed. Just fight your JETLAG and go there at 5 a.m. Good luck and have fun, while the park still exists...
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2016-11-01 Jason
How did you enter the park? We are heading there tomorrow for a look!
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2016-11-04 Thomasz
A lot of holes in the fence. And if you cannot find one - well - all I can say: the wire is easy to manipulate so you can make a hole. Just secure it on the way out :)
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2016-11-07
We went there today (monday nov 7) We got asked to leave 4 times but still got the time to explore and take pictures, so much has been destroyed already.
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2016-11-07 Oubaassehonne
Who asked you to leave, the demolition guys or the security guard? If I had known I'd be politely asked to leave I would have stuck around longer. All I ever read about the place was that they will possibly fine/prosecute so I kept myself stealth and got out quick as I was getting nervous.
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2016-11-27 Nick
Hey! Few days ago I was there. They already destroyed a lot. The duty of work is 8.00-17.00. i was in the evening. I think the best opportunity to go by 5-6 am
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2016-11-28 Iceman
Anybody planning to go there mid december 2016?
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2016-12-03 Tom
i plan to go next week. I just discovered this place a few days ago, it is sad that it is being demolished at this very moment.
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2016-12-10 PEZ
I guys, I went 3 days ago, there is nothing anymore to see, all the roller coasters and buildings are demolished, only the castle, a part of fake mountain, and the river tour with fake animals remains ... too bad ...
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