Western Village: An abandoned theme park dedicated to the American West
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| What the hell is this place doing in the middle of eastern Japan's countryside...? |
Gather up the whole family and head on down to Western Village in Nikko, Tochigi for a slice of the Wild Wild West. It's got saloon shoot outs, whiskey, buffaloes, and even a Mount Rushmore replica. Except the park has been abandoned since 2007. Beyond the nailed-shut doors and flimsy caution tape, the arcade games are waiting for park goers to return to its grounds. A host of busted animatronic mannequins have been left behind, and it is beyond creepy.
The park feels a bit scatterbrained, combining all the tropes of Clint Eastwood movies and pretty much anything else you can think of that screams "America."
Initially, Western Village was opened in 1973 as Kinugawa Ranch, a place where you could live out your cowboy fantasies. It became a full blown theme park with games, an archery area, and electronic shooting range in 1975 and was renamed.
"With the chirp of the crane machine, and musical whirls of the 'Super Fever' game gone silent, it feels more like the set of a bad horror movie."
In the arcade area of the theme park sits the skeletons of a saloon shootout. Broken plastic guns and body parts are scattered everywhere, though I suspect the dismembered mannequins became part of the show only after the park closed. |
| Photo: Shotaro Honda Moore |
You can't help feeling like the dolls are going to suddenly come alive– the bar maiden will start dancing, and the men drinking whiskey will start fighting over their card game to the tune of an old-timey piano. Of course it doesn't happen, but it's easy to let your imagination run wild.
With the chirp of the crane machine, and musical whirls of the "Super Fever" game gone silent, it feels more like the set of a bad horror movie.
"Western Village now stands as one of Japan's most easily accessible ruins."
The dreams of an idyllic America must have died out when the owner didn't have enough money to keep the place up. Either that or people lost interest in seeing hoedowns on the Mount Rushmore stage and decided they'd rather hang out at their local arcade instead.
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| Photo: Shotaro Honda Moore |
Nikko is about two hours north of central Tokyo and is easily reached by express train from the Asakusa neighborhood. However, it's quite rural and a seemingly random place for a theme park to be successful, especially with Tokyo Disneyland being much closer and more popular. Instead, Western Village now stands as one of Japan's most easily accessible haikyos (ruins).
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