TOKYO (Reuters) – A popular Tokyo theme park closed its doors on Monday for the last time after more than nine decades in business, with one component of the program planned to make way for a “Harry Potter” theme park.
The Toshimaen amusement park, which opened in 1926 in northern Tokyo, caught the attention of locals such as Junko and Hikari Abe, a mother and daughter who painted in the park and met their partners there.
Junko, a 62-year-old park guard who has worked intermittently in Toshimaen since the 1970s, said she had assumed she would be there for the rest of her life: “I sought to enjoy this position with my daughter.”
Her 30-year-old daughter, Hikari, started running in the park in 2015.He hoped to take pictures of the circle of relatives there after marrying his fiancée, whom he had also met there.
“It was a charge I took for granted because he’s been there since I was born, so I can’t, he’s going to disappear,” he said.
Other visitors recalled the circle of relatives, school excursions and the classic “coming of age” celebrations in Toshimaen, which limited the number of other people who were allowed to enter due to the coronavirus crisis.
“It’s unfortunate and sad, I can’t help but wish for a late closure of the park or its survival,” said Akiyoshi Tomizawa, 54.
Tomizawa, who has been visiting the park since the age of 4, said he used to spend time swimming in the park with his friends and dating as a teenager.
Part of the park’s charm lies in its variety of attractions, which feature swimming pools, restaurants and roller coasters.
Yasuko Tagata, 56, said she saw fireworks, a night summer culture in Japan, with friends from the park’s pools.
“Toshimaen is a position that other people grew up in together,” he says.
The new “Harry Potter” theme park is scheduled to open in 2023 and will be the first in Japan.
Reporting through Akira Tomoshige; Written through Daniel Leussink; Editing through Raissa Kasolowsky
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