Sanrio Puroland
Encyclopedia
 Main entrance to Sanrio Puroland |
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| Use: | Indoor theme park |
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| Total floor space: | 45,900㎡ |
| Opening date: | December 7, 1990 |
is an indoor theme park located in Tama New Town
Tama New Town
is a large residential development, straddling the municipalities of Hachiōji, Tama, Inagi and Machida cities, in Tokyo, Japan. It was designed as a new town in 1965...
, Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
that attracts over 1.5 million visitors per year.
Opened on December 7, 1990, the theme park is run by the Sanrio
Sanrio
is a Japanese company that designs, licenses and produces products focusing on the kawaii segment of Japanese popular culture. Their products include stationery, school supplies, gifts and accessories that are sold worldwide and at specialty brand retail stores in Japan...
company, and hosts various musicals, restaurants, attractions, and theme rides using popular characters such as Hello Kitty
Hello Kitty
is a fictional character produced by the Japanese company Sanrio, first designed by Yuko Shimizu. She is portrayed as a female white Japanese bobtail cat with a red bow. The character's first appearance on an item, a vinyl coin purse, was introduced in Japan in 1974 and brought to the United States...
, My Melody, Cinnamoroll, Jewelpet
Jewelpet
is a toy line created as a joint venture between Sanrio and the toy division of video game giant Sega. The toy line was originally released on January 15, 2008, focusing on animals named after jewels, birthstones and minerals, who can use magic using their eyes...
and many more. While many of these attractions are only in Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, Puroland attracts many visitors from overseas as well as Japan because of the worldwide popularity of these characters. Puroland also has an extensive gift shop selling Sanrio character merchandise. Tourists visiting during the summer will be able to see fireworks on a daily basis.
The theme park lost money during its first three years, owing to operational foul-ups and a temporary lull in Hello Kitty's popularity. Despite these setbacks, the park has become one of Japan's most popular attractions along with Tokyo Disneyland
Tokyo Disneyland
is a 115 acre theme park at the Tokyo Disney Resort located in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan, near Tokyo. Its main gate is directly adjacent to both Maihama Station and Tokyo Disneyland Station. It was the first Disney park to be built outside of the United States and opened on April 15, 1983...
and DisneySea.
Nearby train stations are the Odakyu Tama Center Station (Odakyu Tama Line), Keio Tama Center Station on the Keio Sagamihara Line
Keio Sagamihara Line
The is a Japanese railway line operated by Keio Corporation, connecting Hashimoto Station in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture and Chōfu Station in Chōfu, Tokyo.-History:...
, and Tama City Monorail's Tama Center Station.