Takakonuma Greenland

There are only a few remaining accounts of Takakanonuma Greenland, and hardly any current photographs. It was a massive amusement park built in the 1970s, but now is overgrown by the forest.

According to most sources, it is not featured on any maps of Japan and is as remote as it is unknown to cartographers. Although it’s only 250 km North of Tokyo, it seems much more mysterious, and much of its spotty history is made up of legend and lore.

Built in 1973, the park’s first run at the amusement market lasted only two years. Although some say it was closed for repairs, others insist that deaths on the park’s equipment forced its closure. Perhaps the park was repaired, or maybe it was long enough for people to forget the amusement accidents, but the park reopened in 1986. Staying alive on its second tenure until 1999, the park closed for good and was abandoned.

Today, the sprawling hills and trees of the surrounding forests seem to have taken over the park, and its grounds are littered with the remnants of its 13-year run as a theme park. However, around 2010 most of the roller coasters were torn down, leaving just the trees to reclaim it all.  The park was finally demolished sometime in 2014.  Only the big sign on the hillside remains.

The mysterious abandoned park also had an equally mysterious predecessor.  English businessman Adam Gerhoma moved to Japan in 1963, where, along with his business partner, he opened a smaller park in 1965 named “Takamona Funland.” Little is known about the park or what was there. It was located on a tall hill looking down on the spot where Takakanonuma Greenland lay. Roughly a year later the metal poles of the ride were stripped down for reasons unknown. The metal lay in heaps on the hill with a cover over them until 1972, when work started on Takakanonuma Greenland.

The park was demolished in 2014 and the area is now a dirt field based on 2018’s Google Earth.