Part of the Hakone Loop includes Owakudani which means the big, boiling valley. Why do they call it that you ask? Because it smells like sulfur from the boiling trenches you see along the walk. As a tourist attraction, they hard boil eggs in the volcanic waters. The eggs turn black. Of course no one would normally pay the prices listed at Owakudani for a black, hard-boiled egg given that those visiting the place are almost ill from the smell of rotten eggs the sulfur provides to begin with. So they created the tale that if you eat these eggs boiled here you will live an extra seven years.
As evidence of the long living, they have hard-boiled Hello Kitty. The fact that Hello Kitty never seems to die is proof positive that there is something to the Owakudani, black, hard-boiled eggs.
Owakudani is actually not a very pretty place. However, the views of Mt. Fuji from Owakudani can be spectacular, and the cable you get to ride in on is lots of fun.
The word 黒タマゴ on Hello Kitty means “black egg” as if you couldn’t tell that Hello Kitty was a black egg.
Amusement parks are very popular in Japan, not only with the Japanese locals but also with foreign tourists. I really don’t understand the latter. For instance, why would an American going to Japan want to go to a more crowded, more expensive version of what they can already get at home (while in a country like Japan with so many things that are unique and foreign to normal experiences)?
I’ve never been to Tokyo Disneyland, and I hope it stays that way. I did go to Universal Studios Osaka and regretted it. However, when traveling with kids it can be difficult to avoid the amusement park trap; I mean trip. My suggestion is to avoid the ones everyone knows about and find something a little different.
Flashback to 1989… I was living in Tokorozawa, Japan. Nearly every night during the summer I was treated to a fireworks show from my apartment thanks to a nearby amusement park called Seibuenyuenchi (西武園ゆうえんち). I only went there once and my recollection was that there weren’t many rides. I remember animals there–especially a peacock. Either my memory is bad or things really changed at Seibuen Yuenchi between 1989 and 2007.
While surfing the net before going to Japan in 2007 I told my kids that I once went to an amusement park in Japan that now appears to have a Hello Kitty Marchen Town. They had to see it so we put it on the agenda. Plus, I wanted to check out my old Tokorozawa neighborhood which in my memory looked like scenes from Hayao Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro (となりのトトロ). (Miyazaki lives in Tokorozawa.)
Given that the cost of Seibuen Yuenchi is a small fraction of what you’ll pay at Universal Studios Japan or Tokyo Disneyland I was happy that if we were going to do an amusement park it would be this one.
Although most of the park consisted of your typical rides, this section of the park, for younger kids, is what I will share with you in pictures. Here my kids are heading off to the Hello Kitty Angel Coaster.
Hello Kitty and her friends were all over the place in this section of the park. I’m guessing that Sanrio Puroland (サンリオピューロランド) is like this on a much larger and much more expensive and crowded scale.
The above ride was like the Mad Tea Party ride at Disneyland except that you get to spin in Hello Kitty and her friends.
The above video is of my kids on the Hello Kitty Angel Coaster. We were the only foreigners in the park that day and it wasn’t very crowded, even though it was a holiday week.
If you want an inexpensive amusement park experience in Japan then Seibuen Yuenchi isn’t bad. Nearby is an indoor skiing facility called Sayama Ski Slope. To get there take the applicable Seibu line from Ikebukuro or Shinjuku. Coupons are sometimes available on the website linked above.
