On my “must do because I live in Japan list” is a trip to Sanrio Puroland aka Helly Kitty World.
For obvious reasons, Dave expressed zero desire to go with me. I decided to use the time he was out of town for work to check this adventure off my must-do list. My friend Katie, her daughter, and I took the ITT tour on Sunday.
Hello Kitty World is is about an hour and 15 minute drive from where we live.
Hello Kitty World is an indoor amusement park with two main rides, several interactive exhibits, and numerous shows. There are 4 levels. The entrance and main gift shop are on the third floor. The fourth floor has several different restaurants. The first and second floor contain the main attractions. The exhibits and rides are all in Japanese. This however didn’t distract from all the Kawaii!! A few pictures from the Sanrio Character Boat Ride. It reminded me of Disney’s It’s a Small World.
After the ride we were ready for a snack. We went to the Sanrio Rainbow World Restaurant. We opted for the crepes. Wow oh wow! Lots of whipped cream!
After our sugary snack, we went to the other main ride, My Melody and Kuromi Mymeroad Drive. Kawaii!
Our next attraction was Strawberry Hill. The interactive Gudetama Land. We researched Gudatama while waiting in line. It translates to English as lazy egg. We all thought he was sad and seeing him flattened we started calling him depressed egg.
The characters were strategically placed near the entrance and rotated every 15 minutes. I was able to catch a couple in transition.
We had about five hours to explore, eat, and shop. It was plenty. There were lines for each of the exhibits and attractions. I think the longest we waited was for about 45 minutes. Considering it was Sunday, it wasn’t unbearably crowded. Another interesting observation was how the crowd shifted. In the morning, most of the crowd consisted of young kids and parents. By the early afternoon, the crowd was full of teenagers decked out in their most Hello of Hello Kitty outfits.
Overall, it was a fun day experiencing Hello Kitty with Katie and Virginia. Virginia did a great job of telling me who the different characters were because Hello Kitty has changed since 1980 something. When you visit, we can go… it will give me another chance to wear my Tokyo Marathon tshirt and ring the bell of happiness. Kitty kitty!
