Gakusei Travels

ハローキティと友達

Today, I visited Puroland with Sam and Licca!

Now, to be honest, I didn’t really know where we were going. I had never heard of Puroland and just said yes to going out lol. Basically, Sanrio Puroland is an indoor amusement park centered around Hello Kitty and all her friends. Licca wanted to open and shut down the park, so I was up way too early so that we could be there by 10 o’clock. That was honestly the smartest thing to do, because it quickly got crowded.

You could tell when you were getting close to the park, because the entire train station was decked out in Sanrio characters. There was this gorgeous mural mosaic on the ceiling that I couldn’t quite get a full picture of. Sam and Licca helped me buy my ticket online, because there was a discount for college students. The ticket cost 3400￥ or around $21 USD. I’d recommend doing it online if you could, because when we got there, I didn’t even know where the line to buy tickets was. Not only is it faster, but getting an E-ticket tends to be cheaper as well.

The first thing we did once we got in the park (besides take a million photos lol) was sign up to get a photo op with one of the characters. There were different slot times to see Pochacco, My Melody, Cinnamon Roll, Pompompurin, and one other character who’s name I don’t know. I was kinda sad. My favorite character is Kuromi, and there wasn’t an option to see her.

There are a couple car-style rides at this place. We rode one called “Kuromi’s Rent-A-Car.” It basically just goes in a circle, plays music, and shows several cute scenes. Throughout the ride, it stopped several times to take our pictures, which you could purchase at the end. The photos turned out super cute, and I’ll be sure to treasure them.

Afterwards, we got lunch. The cafeteria served a lot of character-style curry, bento lunches, and noodle dishes. I ended up getting the Cinnamon Roll curry, because it said it wasn’t spicy (I’m a wimp when it comes to spice.) Now, I was concerned at first, cause they curry they gave me was blue. I genuinely didn’t know what it was going to taste like, and I was going to be upset if it was bad. It actually was pretty good though. It tasted like regular curry, and was almost too cute to eat. The ears and bow weren’t edible, but the little arms were mozzarella cheese, and it came with Tonkatsu.

We kind of spent the next few hours exploring the place. A few small shows went on. There were several exhibits and small shops. I wanted to get something from the gift shop for my little cousins, because they like the Sanrio characters, but everything was honestly way too expensive T^T. One keychain alone was like $12 and the plush animals were even more. I settled on getting a couple pairs of earrings, because I know I would use them often.

After, it was time for us to take pictures with Cinnamon Roll! We thought we lost our QR Code, but thankfully Licca managed to pull it up. I was so surprised by how tiny he was! He was just so cute and fun-sized that you couldn’t help but smile. We didn’t get to spend long though. We really just took our picture, gave Cinnamon Roll a hug, and left so the next customers could get their pictures.

We wanted to ride the other ride at the park. It’s just called “The Boat Ride.” lol. We should have done this ride first, because it was super popular. At one point, the ride had an 80 minute wait. Once we saw that the wait dropped to 60 minutes, we decided to hop in line. Around this point, I think it was around 13:00-14:00, on the first level where this giant decorative treehouse is, there was a performance. It was a mini parade with lights, music, performers, and all the characters made an appearance. It was cute. It was hard to see from where we were, because we were still waiting in line for the Boat Ride, but I managed to get a short video.

Now.

I’m not gonna lie.

After a while, this place lowkey became kind of annoying.

It is clearly garnered towards children even though Sanrio is beloved by many regardless of age. Nonetheless, a lot of the music was cheesy and repetitive. All the workers who weren’t in a mascot suit were in their own bright, colorful costumes with lots of frills and patterns. The characters also had these high pitched voices that I got tired of hearing really quick. After a while, I just started tuning everything out. I mentally checked out and just ignored the show until we got on the Boat Ride.

The Boat Ride was similar to the first one, except on water lol. I was so paranoid I’d drop my phone, but all the scenes inside were so cute that me, Sam, and Licca were taking nonstop photos. At the end of the ride, it took another photo, which I again, will cherish.

The last thing I ended up doing, because I had to leave early, was watch the Kawaii Kabuki. Kabuki is a traditional Japanese theater art style. This show, was honestly nothing like the traditional Kabuki. I unfortunately couldn’t take any photo or video, but again, the show was very much garnered towards children. From what I understood from the plot, Hello Kitty and her friends were trying to stop the evil Oni (demons)? At the end they ended up defeating and befriending the bad guys. Or something like that. Again, I tuned out and mentally checked out cause I got tired of the corny music lol. It was honestly giving Disney on Ice-type performance. Still, it was cute and pretty entertaining to watch. Especially since the mascots would change outfits like the human casts. Like Hello Kitty and friends would wear a kimono in one scene and the next they’re dressed like samurai.

All and all, the place was cute, and it’s an experience I can say I had. It’s not really a place I’d just be eager to go back and see, because there’s not a whole lot to do once you’re in there, if that makes sense. You can easily walk around once or twice, then you’ve seen everything. If I did have the chance to come back, I’d probably bring my younger cousins. I think they’d get more of a kick out of it than me. I just hope that the songs won’t be stuck in my head after today. lol