Monday, November 20, 2017

The abandoned 'Western Village' theme park in Japan



Western Village or Western Mura (ウェスタン村) was an American west themed amusement park which opened in the early 1970's at Nikko, in Japan's Tochigi prefecture, a couple of hours away from Tokyo. 

Its first name was Kinugawa Family Ranch and it was run as a family business. At first it was basically an American west style ranch with a few horses and a fishing pond. Over the years though, it kept expanding to include more buildings such as a sheriffs office, a barber shop, a bank, a hotel and many other buildings. 

In the late 1970's it was named 'Western Village' and it kept expanding. It now had ghost houses, amusement arcades, a restaurant and even a replica of Rushmore mountain was added during the 1990's. Staff would dress up as cowboys and put on shows for visitors.

Western World finally closed in 2006. For the next several years the park remained abandoned attracting mainly lovers of haikyo - the Japanese word for abandoned places.




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