Disappeared Japan Part 4 Space World

Space World

Space World was a big amusement park in Kitakyushu built around the theme of space. It opened in 1990 on land that had formerly been part of Nippon Steel.

It featured a life-size replica of the space shuttle and its launch rockets, but really the space connection was rather tenuous.

The park featured 6 different roller coasters (with suitably space-themed names like Black Hole Scramble, and Titan Max.

The 100 meter  high Ferris Wheel named Space Eye was the tallest in Kyushu when first built.

The park closed on 1st January, 2018 and was slowly dismantled and demolished.

The site is now The Outlets Kitakyushu, a shopping centre that is mostly outlet stores.

Previous Disappeared Japan posts include Yukaen Chinese Garden, and Awaji World peace Kannon.

Greenland Amusement Park

 

For several hours while heading for the next temple on the pilgrimage, I seemed to be heading directly for some kind of multi-colored tower. Turns out the temple is adjacent to a huge amusement park.

The "tower" I was seeing was in fact a huge Ferris wheel seen edge-on. At 105 meters tall its not the tallest in Japan, but close. Greenland Amusement Park claims ro be the biggest amusement park in West Japan, but I think that must exclude kansai.

It has numerous rollercoasters including one of the longest in Japan. I think the name should probably be Green Land, ratherb than the name of the north atlantic island. There seems to be no theme to the park though a couple of attractions relate to Egypt.

It is a full resort with a golf course for the grown-ups and a large hotel complex. Its a bit out of the way with little public transport and is located in the foothills near Arao, Kumamoto.