Harmonyland

Halloween Harmonyland

In October, a small group of my friends and I decided to take a trip to Harmonyland, a somewhat aging Sanrio theme park in Hiji, near Beppu. J&S, my married couple friends, had a college pal coming to visit, and they thought there was no better time for our jaunt to Harmonyland than during his visit. To hear them talk about it, he was not the kind of person who goes to Sanrio theme parks, but they were forcing it upon him in the name of fun.

One of the cakes you could "buy"
for grandma was this butt cake.
Japan doesn't seem to mind this kind of imagery.

And fun was had! Although it was raining, we entered the park in high spirits, because of or probably in spite of the crazy-making music on loop throughout the park. Our first stop was My Melody's forest, which seemed to be a special, temporary interactive exhibit next to Hello Kitty's giant castle-house. In My Melody's forest, we played games using chip-activated "wallets," as we tried to complete the mission to buy something for My Melody's ailing grandmother. It all hinted a bit at a rip-off of Little Red Riding Hood, and My Melody does wear a kind of red hood over her ears... but the reference was tacit, to say the least.

We then ventured to the rides area of the park, where we took a ride in whirling teacups, and, to the dismay of myself and S, our friend H decided to whirl us around till we felt sick. "Why did we ride in H's teacup?" we wailed.

Then we took a ride on possibly the scariest ride I've been on, and not because it went upside-down, because it didn't. No, this ride's cars came complete with fire extinguishers, because the cars ran on gas, and were rider-powered. Granted, they didn't go very fast even at top speed, and the track only went around a leisurely circuit of the ride-area grounds, but add to that the fact that this rider-powered car teetered along a track about a foot wide, and I was terrified we were going to fall out. Not to mention that this rickety ride looked about forty years old. I was amazed we made it off the ride unscathed.

Kitty-chan out in full force

Harmonyland may be a little rough around the edges, but what came next truly put the "oh!" back in Sanrio. ...ok forgive that terrible attempt at selling it. But truthfully, the parade was a highlight of our day. Kitty-chan, as Hello Kitty is known in Japan, came out with all her friends, humans and humans-dressed-as-characters alike, for a sparkly, genki, tear-inducing dance show in the rotunda of the park. I say tear-inducing because, as the parade ended, H and S, as well as our other friend D, turned to each other and asked, "Was it just me or did that make you tear up a little bit?" The cuteness of it all, not least of which included the parade stars leading a choreographed Halloween dance with the kids in the audience, was truly awe-inspiring.

After the parade, we stopped at the woodland-decorated cafe for lunch, where we could choose from among such wonders as a Pompom-Purin themed hayashi rice (kind of like a stew over rice), a Gudetama omurice (rice-filled omelet) with bacon blanket, or black Kuromi curry. There was also a Cinnamoroll (yes, Cinnamoroll, not Cinnamonroll) stew that was dyed bright blue, but we steered clear. Most of the group opted for the Pompom-Purin dish, with H, the resident Gudetama fangirl, choosing the heavily meta egg delight instead.

Pompom-Purin hayashi rice!

Finally, after eating our fill of character-themed meals, we made a long, treacherous journey down many flights of stairs in the rain to attempt to ride the boat ride. Honestly, there were like five flights of stairs. I don't understand how the rest of the park sat so high atop the boat ride, but it did. When we arrived at the boat ride, there was not a single other park visitor there, but the ride attendant greeted us as happily as he could for a likely-under-20 young person forced by the need for pocket money to work at Harmonyland on the weekend in the rain.

We squealed in anticipation (or maybe that's just my imagination embellishing our reaction) as the boat trundled down a path into Harmonyland's equivalent of Disney's It's a Small World. We entered a wide tunnel after being shown videos along the path of Kitty-chan's party guests who needed to prepare for her party. My favorite part of the boat ride was the Cinnamoroll room, which smelled of cinnamon rolls! Technology! I mean, just, wow.

As the characters did their animatronic dances on either side of us through the long tunnel, we eagerly anticipated Kitty-chan's finale. When we got to the final room of the boat ride, however, we were awash with confusion. It seemed that Kitty-chan was all dolled up in a white dress and standing on a podium by herself, while the others surrounded her in either praise or other celebration. Was Kitty-chan marrying... herself? Was that the party that everyone had been invited to? We didn't know the answer, but we managed to be enchanted all the same.

We rode the boat ride a second time, after pleading with the ride attendant for all of two seconds.

Then it was up five flights of stairs and off to the gift shop, to purchase Gudetama chopsticks and socks and, well, basically anything Gudetama, because he is a sad egg who is incredibly easy to identify with because of his laziness. The end!

Gudetama.