Let’s go to the odd theme park that’s amazing in the most unexpected way

Tobu World Square in Nikko

What if I told you that I’d visited a place in Japan that surprised me in a way that I never expected to be surprised? When I finally made it to this place in October, I expected the space-time continuum to be so warped that in a single day you can look in on morning meditation at the Byōdo-in Temple near Kyoto…

…get in your 10,000 steps along the Great Wall of China…

…drop into the Wat Arun Temple in Bangkok to see what’s for lunch…

…complain about the crowds at Versailles…

…encounter the inevitable construction cranes at the Sagrada Familia…

…snap a selfie holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa…

…and be back to Hōryū-ji temple in Nara before dinnertime.

That didn’t surprise me, because these photos were all taken at Tobu World Square, where over a hundred of the world’s great monuments are recreated in miniature, so you don’t have to leave Japan to take pictures of yourself in front of them!

And if you’re like me, you’d be wishing you brought your Godzilla suit, because, well, who could resist?

I’ve known about this place for years, but I never made the effort to go all the way to Nikkō for what I figured would be a lol-worthy blog post, at best. I figured the punchline for this againg joke of an attraction was going to be: “They’re just models and I fooled you for a moment, but here’s a caretaker ruining the effect!”

Or, “Ha, ha, here’s what Japanese people think about Americans: we’re all like sun-starved Bostonians who get naked on the fishing docks at any opportunity!”

But the truth is, when I finally made it there this fall—expecting cheesiness of the highest order—I was actually stopped in my tracks. Instead of the aging theme park I expected, there were all these perfect, intricate models, surrounded by thousands upon thousands of…

BONSAI TREES.

Yes, you heard right. The planting surrounding each and every “landmark” are all perfectly manicured, living bonsai trees and bushes, each of them trained to the same scale as the buildings they surround!

Check it out: every one of these “model trees” is alive. This photo looks enough like the actual Akasaka Palace for Google image search to instantly tell me what it is…

…except from another angle, there’s a giant looming in the background.

Kind of amazing, isn’t it? Moss stands in for grass, and beyond the model, the genuine countryside scenery outside the park is “borrowed” in the same skillful way it’s done at famous Japanese gardens. Even the fountains spurt real water.

And they didn’t spare the battle damage—they recreated each ancient site right down to the scars and rubble. If you didn’t know better, you’d think this was a picture of the real Sphinx, wouldn’t you? Seventh wonder of the world, check. Trampled dunes, crowds of tourists, ongoing excavations, check, check, check.

It’s just a little smaller than the real thing.

And the modelmakers had a sense of humor too. They left funny little surprises for those who take the time to look.

See those bored model tourists standing in line to see Neuschwanstein Castle?

If you get closer, you can see they’re all being entertained by the unlikely spectacle of a rooster balancing on top of a cat, on top of a dog, on top of a donkey.

Other tourists are busy buying souvenirs in front of the Duomo in Milan…

…while a dog walker watches a painter in the background. The model maker was obviously Japanese, because the dog is…a shiba inu.

And in this bygone scene from the square in front of the World Trade Center…

…of course there’s ongoing construction blocking traffic.

And sometimes they picked unexpected moments in time, like portraying a scene of enormous state pageantry in the Forbidden City…

…that’s actually a scene from the day The Last Emperor was being filmed.

But my favorite models were the ones closer to home. The landscapes depicting the four seasons of Japan are so perfect! This one really looks like the countryside that blurs past on the bullet train…

…and they even lovingly recreated the ugly concrete retaining walls that all-too-frequently mar the beauty of the countryside.

Can we just stop for one more moment to appreciate that every single one of the bushes and trees on the farm below is a perfect bonsai specimen? There are so many different kinds of plants! And they’re all in perfect scale to the train! Even the leaves are bonsai-size. I have no idea how they do this on the scale of an entire theme park.

They did choose some favorite cultural moments to portray, of course, like this village Bon dance…

…and the annual ladder skills display by firemen.

But I really loved the way they captured small moments, like this family posing with their three-year-old-daughter on the steps of a famous temple for the Shichi-Go-San coming-of-age day…

…and they way they can laugh at themselves, making sure to include those fixtures of every scenic spot in Japan…

…an entire bridge taken over by photo-snapping uncles!

Here’s where Tobu World Square is:

It looks like it’s in the middle of nowhere in Tochigi Prefecture, but in fact it’s just outside of Nikkō.

Lots of trains go there every day from Tokyo, because Nikkō is home to the Tōshō-gū Shrine World Heritage Site (where you can see the original See No Evil, Speak No Evil, Hear No Evil monkeys and furry elephants with claws) or spend the weekend viewing cherry blossoms/autumn leaves and soaking at a fabulous hot spring inn. There’s lots to do there, but be sure you squeeze in the opportunity to shoot selfies all over the world at Tobu World Square. You won’t be disappointed!

Here’s the easiest way to get to Tobu World Square from Tokyo:

I used the Japan Navigation phone app to figure out this route, and you can easily use it too, with your actual date and preferred arrival time. It’s also good for finding the easiest way to get to Asakusa Station from where you’re staying. Here’s where to get the app and how to use it.

•

Click here for more Beyond Tokyo posts

•

Or get more must-see destinations sent to your email every month when you subscribe!

•

•

•

Jonelle Patrick writes novels set in Japan, produces the monthly Japanagram newsletter, and blogs at Only In Japan and The Tokyo Guide I Wish I’d Had