Huis Ten Bosch, Japan

For those not familiar with a blog “matsuri”, it is where a hosting blog chooses a theme and other bloggers write a blog post related to that theme and submit it to the hosting blog. On certain Japanese related blogs and blog hosting sites, there is a blog matsuri every month. I was amused at this months theme of "secret Japan."

During an overnight stay in Nagasaki prefecture, we discovered a little known and well hidden secret in Japan. Her name is “Tulip”(チューリーちゃん）in Japanese. She is the official mascot for Huis Ten Bosch. Which is another popular but well hidden secret in Japan. Just how well hidden is this secret? According to a recent article, Huis Ten Bosch is once again bankrupt. A blog search showed that the park had closed down once in 2003 due to lack of visitors. It reopened under new management. Once again, Huis Ten Bosch is restructuring and changing management and ownership due to lack of visitors.

Huis Ten Bosch first opened in 1992, to honor the historical ties between the Netherlands and Japan dating back to the 1600's. Wikipedia teaches us that "Huis Ten Bosch is a theme park in Nagasaki Prefecture that recreates the Netherlands by displaying real size copies of old Dutch buildings. The name Huis Ten Bosch literally translates into English as "House in the Forest". It is named after Huis ten Bosch Palace, one of the four official residences of the Dutch Royal Family, located in The Hague in the Netherlands. The park features many Dutch-style buildings such as hotels, villas, theatres, museums, shops and restaurants, along with canals, windmills, amusement rides and a park planted in seasonal flowers."

With great theme parks comes great mascots. Disney with Mickey and friends...Universal Studios with Woody Woodpecker and friends, Fuji-Q Highland with its Mt. Fuji mascot...and Huis Ten Bosch with....this...



Other reasons to visit Huis Ten Bosch...