Sanrio Puroland

Published by Marshal Wong

May 17th, 2015

For those with young kids and those young at heart with a liking for all things cute, you can't really go wrong with Sanrio Puroland.

My family and I went there with my older daughter’s ballet teacher the other weekend. I expected it to be super-kitsch like a Chinese knock-off of Disneyland, but was pleasantly surprised at how entertaining it was. Maybe my standards are low, but I felt it held the right combination of cute and substance to keep both parents and kids entertained. More Pixar and “New Disney" (Brave, Rapunzel, etc.) than “Old Disney" (Snow White, Cinderella).

For example, we watched the show "Hello Kitty in Wonderland" where Hello Kitty goes off to Lewis Carroll’s fantasy world. The story is very basic with the antagonist “Joker" AKA “Black Rose" stealing the Queen of Heart’s heart and crown. Hello Kitty saving the day. Song and dance. Etc., etc. Given that half of the intended audience is under the age of 5, this is probably all that’s really needed. However, the other half also got things like

the King of Hearts leaving the Queen of Hearts to go on a Hawai’ian golf vacation causing the Queen much sadness and loneliness,
the Queen of Hearts keeping herself youthful through the magic of her crown,
a cross-dressing, cross-dressing character, i.e., a man playing a Takarazuka (宝塚) (the all-female Japanese musical theatre troupe) playing an otokoyaku (男役) or male role, and
lines like the Queen’s “because I have no heart!" when asked why she was so mean in asking Hello Kitty for her heart back.

There was a very amusing prelude to the “Hello Kitty in Wonderland" show. The show was written and produced in collaboration with Takarazuka, and is probably expected to be a child’s first introduction to Takarazuka. There was an instructional video about when and how you should clap during the final dance segments after the end of the musical proper. At first, I thought it was just giving the principles. “When Hello Kitty pauses at the end of the dance, CLAP!" “When the kick-line is going, clap with the beat!" But then it kept going! “When Hello Kitty and Daniel pose after their pair dance, CLAP!" “When Granny and Grandpa Kitty pose after their pair dance, CLAP!" “When Kyle poses after his tap dance routine, CLAP!" And, on and on and on through all the dance numbers for what felt like ten minutes, or at least long enough for me and the ballet teacher to fine it amusing and all the kids in the theatre to completely lose interest. It was one of those “Man, Japanese like order" moments, similar to the climbing wall with all the climbing holds arranged in a grid that my friend Brian and I found while running through Atami.

Hello Kitty in Wonderland - Japanese with English and Chinese subtitles on side screens

Other events and attractions we visited:

My Melody & The Legend of Star and Flower show - Japanese only
Sanrio Character Boat ride - be warned that there are some ups and it looks like it’s going to “Splash Mountain" you, but it’s all pretty flat.
My Melody & Kuromi - Mymeroad Drive - get ready to have your picture multiple times on this ride!
Little Twin Stars (Kiki & Lala) Twinkling tour - visit the Little Twin Stars house. After playing the “Pop the bubbles and collect the animals" game, it’ll take your picture. Scan the QR code to see the picture online.
Lady Kitty House - visit Hello Kitty’s mansion and get your picture taken with Hello Kitty.
'Omoiyari (Consideration) To You’ Parade - if you want a good spot, be like the Japanese and camp out a little early.

Food

We only ate at the food court. While pricey (over 1,000 yen for a meal), the volume made up for it. We were thinking that they would be kids meals like, so ordered one meal each for our daughters. It ended up being too much, which meant that I was extremely full after eating my meal and the remainder of my daughters’. It was a lot of rice.

Kitty Burger Waiwai (noisily exciting) Plate with souvenir plate (1,500 yen)