Live Your Best Miniature Life for a Year in Tokyo’s Small Worlds Theme Park
If you’ve ever wished you could shrink yourself and live in one of the amazing model worlds Japan is so famous for…now you can!
Small Worlds—a vast, animatronic, model-trains-on-steriods theme park that not only reimagines Tokyo, but the Sailor Moon and Evangelion versions of it—offers a one-year “residence permit” that allows a tiny 3D-scanned model of YOU (dressed and posed any way you like) to be placed in the world of your choosing!
[image error]The permit is good for a year, and it includes a one-day group pass so you and your friends can come see your figure and take photos (This photo thanks to Small Worlds Tokyo)
The park is all indoors, but it’s both huge and detailed, so you can spend many happy hours exploring all its nooks and easter eggs. It’s divided into three different themes: Global Village, Sailor Moon and Evangelion.
[image error]The Global Village is a city with neighborhoods from around the world…
[image error]where not only do the scale model trains chug tirelessly along their tracks, cars and trucks seem to roam the streets under their own power…
[image error]Lights flicker, and neon flashes as day cycles to night and back again…
[image error]People gather for a (socially distanced!) outdoor movie…
[image error]Planes actually take off and land at the model of Kansai International Airport…
[image error]And there are regular launches of smoke and flame-spurting rocket ships at the spaceport
[image error]You can see how insanely detailed the whole thing is, by eagle-eyeing this view of the airport terminal
[image error]If treasure hunts are your thing, there are Sailor Moon Guardians concealed all around town, in the model of 1970s Azabu Juban
[image error]And you can hunt for Tsukino Usagi’s house, with a roof that periodically lifts to show the rooms inside, arranged exactly as they are in the anime
[image error]Or if you prefer your fantasy worlds to be Evangelion-flavored, thrill to Megalopolis Tokyo-3 sinking into the earth under alien attack, and find all your favorite characters at perfect 1:80 scale
All photos but the first one were taken by my friend who runs the excellent Where In Tokyo website, and you can see lots more great snaps here!
Open: Every day
Hours: 9:30 – 20:00
Admission: ¥2700 per adult
If you want a tiny version of yourself to live in Small Worlds for a year, the “Residency Program” costs ¥19,800 per adult, and includes a personal 3D scanned model figure in the costume (BYO) and pose of your choice and a one-day group pass to return to view the figure placed in your chosen model
•
And by the way, don’t miss all the amusing stuff that you’ll only see in
[image error]
It’s my new monthly newsletter, and when you join, you’ll be automatically entered to win the monthly book giveaway, get directions to a fabulous Beyond Tokyo destination, learn to make a Japanese home cooking dish & more! And best of all, it’s free・° ♪・☆
[image error]
•
[image error]
Jonelle Patrick writes novels set in Japan, produces the monthly newsletter Japanagram, and blogs at Only In Japan and The Tokyo Guide I Wish I’d Had
