Gulliver lay down to die in the shadow of Mt. Fuji
Gulliver once rested in the shadow of Mt.Fuji, bound and nailed to the ground by the hair. His giant body was the main attraction of the now defunct and dismembered Gulliver’s Kingdom Theme Park in Yamanashi, built in 1997, closed in 2001 due to defaulting bank loans, and demolished around 2007. Perhaps a contributing factor to its ultimate failure was the proximity of Kamikuishiki- a small village that was the main base for the cult Aum Shinrikyo at the time of their deadly 1995 Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway. Tourists on a day-trip with the kids to a theme-park would have been likely to steer clear. Now every reminder of the place is gone, the village has been rezoned, and the name Kamikuishiki removed from all maps.
I wish I’d had the chance to go to Gulliver’s Kingdom. Reports on UER here, and perhaps particularly by dsankt here, describe how thoroughly awesome it was. It was even possible within the time-line of my stay in Japan- I got here in 2003 several years before the place was demolished. But, I wasn’t actively seeking out haikyo in those days- the hobby had never even occured to me. In those days I lived for Ultimate Frisbee (rah rah rah!) every Sunday, with every Saturday spent waiting for Sunday to roll around. Ah well. Here are some pictures garnered from around the web:
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FACTFILE
Location – Fuji, Yamanashi.
Entry - None, demolished.
Highlights – Gulliver!
RUINS / HAIKYO
You can see all MJG’s Ruins / Haikyo explorations here:
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7 Responses to “Gulliver lay down to die in the shadow of Mt. Fuji”
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By N2H Recent Comments
- Scott
on Diggnation!
w00t! - Mike
on Diggnation!
Mad props man! You're leading the way on the Engli... - ..Great pictures..let me fill you in on this ..as ...
- bloody amazing....thank u for this
- Florian- Ack, jealous! Wanted to check out Gunkanj...
- After reading your comment I visited Danny Choo's ...
Certification
There is also this good Japanese Haikyo site that has this Gulliver haikyo also.
http://home.f01.itscom.net/spiral/g_oukoku/g_oukoku01.html
Hey Mikey – That one looks cool. The shops reminds me of Canadian World in Hokkaido – which was practically a haikyo site 6 years ago when I visited it (http://www.genfab.com/photo-albums/?file=2003/10/). I wonder what state that one is in at present…
Wow, there is something about the grafitti on the side of Gulliver’s face that is sooo cool! Too bad it’s all gone.
That’s one that I regret not seeing too Mike. Just as I got into the whole haikyo thing I eagerly checked it out only to find that it had gone. It did look fantastic didn’t it?
For some reason I find the coupling of the scale of Gulliver and his lifeless expression really, really creepy.
How thoroughly awesome. They sure know how to build cool theme parks.
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