Sanrio Puroland is an indoor theme park not too far from the centre of Tokyo. Sanrio is the maker of Hello Kitty, My Melody, Bad Badtz Maru, and other adorable characters… My favourite had to be Little Twin Stars.
So the most exciting part for me was when we did the Twinkling Tour, a tour of Kiki & Lala’s house. Yep, a kid’s dream (i.e. mine) was about to come true.
This really kawaii attendant explained some things in Japanese, with the cutest facial expression and smile ever.
We then watched a video introduction on how Kiki & Lala came about.
Anyways, the video was cool and all, but what happened next was… dreamy! We then walked into the most beautiful house in the world ever. EVER.
Every. Single. Thing. In. Here. Was. Just. Magical.
There were places to pose and take photos. Mini little games for you to entertain yourself. But seriously, I was just in wonderland.
Oh and by the way, here’s my dream house. Let me take you around…
Yup, I wish I could just stay in here forever.
But all good things must come to an end. So we took an interactive photo sticker (and realised we didn’t have a QR code reader on our phone) and off we went…
The Kiki & Lala’s Twinkling Tour was my favourite part of Puroland, but I may be (definitely) biased.
There were other interesting things around too, such as this booth where you could get your side profile silhouette cut and joined with Sanrio characters, to create a beautiful keepsake.
We walked around a bit more and I was feeling like a princess, so I sat on a fairytale-looking carriage and took a photo at Hello Kitty House…
After Little Twin Stars and Hello Kitty, the next thing you ought to visit would have to be My Melody, right?!
So My Melo-road is a mini-ride with dual purpose. Unlike the boat ride where you were meant to enjoy the sceneries and different character in their “habitat”, My Melo-road is more of a photo ride. Each area we visited, we were asked to look at a camera and take a photo. Thus the lack of (my own) photos.
At the end of the ride, you get the chance to decorate your chosen photos and purchase a print of it! A smart way of making money, but I got sucked into it. Because… CUTE!
We then walked to the Wisdom Tree, where the Hello Kitty Bell of Happiness lies. Another gimmick that is well done.
You see, in Japan, almost every spot has their mini shrine or bell of something for good luck and what-not. Here it is no different…
You can write little messages and tie them up, just like you would when you visit temples and shrines around Japan.
But the main “act” is obviously the Hello Kitty Bell of Happiness. It looked so pretty in pink and pastel. But I don’t like loud bells, it was loud. LOL.
I love how there were plenty of little things to explore within this rather compact space for a theme park.
Walking down, we saw a large screen in the middle where, when face(s) are detected, it would automatically place a cute character head/mask around the faces. So yep, there were some really cute ones, here’s one of us:
Oh and we decided to watch another show (apart from the Hello Kitty x Alice in Wonderland cabaret) so we entered one of the theatres. This one didn’t have much English translation of things (I think), but it was definitely more interactive.
Meet the Jewel Pet. Each person was given a keitai (mobile phone) and we had to shake it each time they told us to. It gave us the feeling as if we did something to create the sequence on stage, but of course we actually didn’t do anything. I think.
There were real humans in this one, as well as some really cute characters. I wasn’t familiar with this particular Sanrio character (must be new-ish).
But Bad Badtz Maru made an appearance and that was exciting!
Before the show ended, they had singing and dancing and that was fun.
Also, there were 2 ladies in the audience who basically knew every single song and dance moves from this whole act. Either they were fanatics, or they probably are one of the actresses too (I assume there’s more than one shift). It was pretty interesting watching the two of them singing along.
Once that ended, we returned the keitai and walked towards the middle area again and there was yet another parade. This time around, it was a special 3D light projection. The first parade was all about the different Sanrio characters, and this one had more focus on the colours, lights, and music. Beautiful!
Hello Kitty and friends then bid us goodbye, it was a sweet sayounara!
And when they took a bow, we did the same and left Sanrio Puroland.
It was already dark outside, that’s the thing with winter in Japan. But I’m glad, because we got to see the building lit up – and it looked kinda different (both had its charm) from what we saw when we entered in the afternoon.
As we walked away from Sanrio Puroland and My Melody, a Hello Kitty lantern greeted us (with many other illuminated lights around)… Ah, so cute.
From there, we walked past a tunnel which I didn’t remember going through on my way to Puroland earlier that day. Obviously, it’s just prettier at night. I wanted to stay in this tunnel for a bit more, but we had a train to catch.
I had one last look at Hello Kitty before walking towards the station. This trip was so totally worth it.
What is your favourite theme park (in the world) and why?