7 Jul 2010 - Fukuoka Day 5: Harmonyland (Hello Kitty)

Our plan for today is to visit another theme park, Harmony Land (aka Hello Kitty or Sanrio Land). To get there, we boarded the train from Hakata station, and got off at Kitsuki station via Kokura. Jerlene suffered from motion sickness and threw out upon reaching Kokura station. Fortunately, we brought extra clothing for her.


From Kitsuki station, there is a bus that will go to Harmony Land. We took the bus and reached there in 10 mins time. We were all very excited the moment we saw the entrance with all the Sanrio characters, expecially Hello Kitty. The admission to the theme park is JPY2,800. So far, all the places that we visited were free admission for kids below 4 years old.

Once again, the first thing we did after entering the park was to check for the last bus from Harmony Land. For this period, the last bus that departs from the park is about 4:40pm. So we had about 5-6hrs in the park.

Harmony Land is an outdoor theme park visitors will meet up with Sanrio characters such as Hello Kitty, Cinnamon and My Melody. The park offers 12 attractions and there are "Live" shows presented daily. The whole place is so beautifully done up and it seems that we were in dreamland. I think it's really not the season at this time as the place was pretty quiet.

Kitty Castle (above) is the first attraction that we visited. The interior of the castle is very beautiful. It is nicer than most of the other castles or palaces that we had visited in the past

We spent quite a while admiring Kitty's castle and before exiting, we took some photos with the owner of the castle, Hello Kitty!

Initially, we thought Javier will be scared of Hello Kitty mascot. However, we were wrong. Not only that he's not afraid, he even so got excited and kept touching the nose of Hello Kitty.

Next, we took the Harmony train to another area of the park where we went on a boat ride.

The boat ride brought us around the place full of Sanrio characters. It's really like in a dream.

We then took the train back to the original station and had our lunch at one of the fast food outlet. After lunch, we slowly pushed the two strollers up the slope to the upper level whether the other attractions are. We tried most of the rides, such as the Ferris Wheel, Coffee Cup, Carousel etc. By the way, this theme is really meant for small kids. For those who are in for thrill rides, this is definitely NOT the place.

The ferris wheel is 60 metres above the ground at the top and we had a very nice view of the surrounding. We can even see Beppu Bay from there.

In the Sky Jet ride, we got to operate the jet all by ourselves. Jerlene picked up the skill to operate the jet very quickly and she had been controlling the jet (move forward and stop) throughout the ride.

As it was a pretty warm day, we were very tired after all the rides. We took a rest at the huge shelter. Beside it, there is a stage where the daily show will be performed. The timing was good and the show started in about 15 mins time.

After the show, it's about time to leave. As we reached the lower level, we saw My Melody and we quickly took some photos with it. Again, Javier kept wanting to touch its face.

It was a fun trip for both Jerlene and Javier. Tracy also enjoyed the place as she has always been a fan of Hello Kitty. So glad that my whole family had a great time here. :-)