Legoland Japan

What?
Legoland is a theme park all about the Lego building bricks, and the subtitle “Japan resort” refers to the next door Sea Life Aquarium, Lego Hotel and the short shopping street in front of them.
Where?
Located in Aichi Prefecture (愛知県), Legoland can be reached by taking the Aonami Line (あおなみ線) in Nagoya (名古屋) to the terminus Kinjofuto Station (金城ふ頭駅) which will take you around 25 minutes. The Maglev and Railway Museum is also located in this area, so there’s definitely enough to fill a whole day.
URL
Legoland Japan

As a kid I loved Lego, and that love has never really wavered. Even now as an adult I can take up the blocks and build a pirate ship with as much joy as I used to. Lego knows that they have a lot of adult fans and they cater to them with retro sets and the like. But their main fans remain children, and so their theme parks are decidedly more aimed at the younger fanatics. Nevertheless, I wanted to visit Legoland Japan ever since I heard they were building one in Nagoya.

In the meanwhile Legoland Japan has opened, and the owner also built a hotel and a Sea Life center next to it to create a kind of resort. When getting at Kinjofuto, you first get guided around a quaint shopping street strenthening the resort feeling. Too bad for us however, as all these shops were still closed on January 2nd. Before you realize it you’re already at the gate of Legoland, with on your right the Lego hotel and the left the Sea Life center. As I bought a combi ticket I decided to first take a look at Sea Life. In hindsight this was a very good choice as most attractions in Legoland don’t immediately open when the park itself opens. So I recommend anyone to do the same.

The Sea Life center is a small aquarium compared to Osaka’s Kaiyukan or Okinawa’s Chiraumi. Without a combi ticket you could question the worth of entering the aquarium, but as it is, Sea Life is charming enough, especially thanks to the many Lego exhibits, like the big aqua-scooter in the water or the pirate ship in a bottle. Circling Sea Life shouldn’t take more than an hour though.

Legoland and Sea Life, right next to each other.

Christmas was over but there still was a Christmassy feel.

Not everything was built in Lego.

The panorama ride of the park.

So exiting Sea Life, it was finally time to enjoy the park. Legoland closes pretty early and doesn’t even open at many weekdays. I was a bit afraid that long waiting times would make that we couldn’t even see the whole park. I had in mind 1 to 2 hour waiting lines such as in Universal Studios or Disneyland and Sea. But Legoland is a completely different caliber. It’s a bit saddening to say, but there weren’t all that many visitors. It made though that the waiting lines never exceeded 5 minutes anywhere and that the park never felt too crowded. I had a blast, and that was partially thanks to the relative emptiness of the theme park.

So to make things very clear: each and every attraction is catered to children. They are all centered on the fun part, and not on any thrilling part. But I found the park a hoot, also for adults. There is the factory tour that gives you a glimpse of how Lego is made, there is the Submarine Adventure in collaboration with Sea Life which was just captivating. There is the medium height roller coaster in Knight’s Kingdom, and there is the very impressive Mini Land in the dead center of the park, depicting many famous buildings and landmarks of Japan in the small building blocks.
And most of all, there are all these Lego brick built statues and sceneries like the runaway dinosaurs, the clash between King Kong and Godzilla, the forklift truck, etcetera, etcetera.
If you enjoy Lego even just a little bit, whatever age you are, you will enjoy this park. I know I did and I recommend a visit to everyone, because I would hate to see this park struggle.