Junglia brought dinos back to Okinawa. But will it bring tourists?

Japan Times

6 days ago

Halfway up the winding road from Okinawa's coast into the rugged, mountainous interior of the northern Motobu Peninsula, you might rightfully wonder if this is actually the right way to Japan's newest theme park.
For much of the way from the city of Nago, one of just a pair of two-lane roads lead north through this seldom touristed stretch of the main island of Japan's southernmost prefecture. The roadside flora will block your view of all but your immediate surroundings, and unlike the common approaches to the country's other premier amusement parks, there will be little signage, themed decor or other indications that you're on the correct route.
But then you'll crest a hill and see something curious poking above the subtropical treetops: the craning neck and crested head of a brachiosaur — the herald of Junglia.
Officially open from July 25 in the northern Okinawa city of Nakijin, Junglia covers 60 hectares of a former golf course with 22 attractions and stage shows, two restaurants and an assortment of food carts and gift shops, plus Spa Junglia, an adjoining collection of baths, saunas and pools (plus another restaurant).
At Panorama Dining, one of Junglia's two proper restaurants that also doubles as the rooftop Inifinity Terrace overlook, guests can pay extra to sit in balcony tables made to look like birds' nests overlooking the park grounds. |
OWEN ZIEGLER
The park's opening is both a major development and a massive departure for the tourism industry in Okinawa, an island more synonymous with beachside resorts than thrill rides. And yet the two companies behind Junglia, Japan Entertainment and Katana, Inc., believe that there's potential in this new frontier of Okinawa's tourism industry.
Indeed, economist and Kansai University professor emeritus Katsuhiro Miyamoto says that construction of the park alone helped create 70,045 jobs and, over 15 years, the wider economic impact will total ¥6.8 trillion ($46 billion) — a significant sum for what is routinely one of Japan's least affluent prefectures per capita.
But that's only if Junglia's would-be guests agree that the park is worth the long journey to a remote part of a remote prefecture. After visiting Junglia for myself as part of a media preview days before the park's official opening, I believe most guests will find the mix of adventure sports and dinosaur-themed experiences as charming as I did — as long as they adjust a few key expectations beforehand.
Welcome to the jungle
A major misstep before the park's official opening was the use of AI-generated imagery to promote the park's attractions, restaurants and decor.
At the time of writing, all of these visuals remain on Junglia's website. A few images are more or less evocative of what guests can expect on the ground, but others are bare of any meaningful context: For the Gravity Drop attraction, the main image shows only a woman in freefall with a jungle below. Add in seemingly machine-translated text on the website (the English page for a zipline attraction opens with: 'Spread your arms wide like a phoenix and flap them vigorously.') and even in the week leading up to the park's opening, the general public only had the faintest idea of what a visit to Junglia might actually look like.
Before the park's official opening, Junglia relied on computer-generated imagery to set guests' expectations — a misstep that it may take time to recover from. |
JUNGLIA
It's a shame, too, because standing atop the Infinity Terrace, the first main point of interest after passing through Junglia's main entrance, the park unfolds before you in an artfully crafted way. Several prominent landmarks rise above the tree line: the brachiosaur head (part of the action-themed Dinosaur Safari ride), a hot-air balloon (the Horizon Balloon attraction) and a series of steel structures, joints wrapped in faux rope bindings for a haphazard effect, that comprise the adventure sports-themed Jungle Extremes area.
From this perspective, Junglia's layout gives guests the impression that descending toward whichever landmark piques their interest is the start of an adventurous trek.
For adrenaline junkies, the first stop will be the Jungle Extremes area. Here, six attractions (one additional ride has been postponed for 'safety checks') offer Junglia's most visceral thrills. On Titan's Swing, two groups of four don helmets and harnesses (required safety equipment for all of the Jungle Extremes attractions) before taking seats on a metal bench. This is hoisted up nearly 9 meters and then released to freely pendulum out and over the surrounding treetops at a top speed of 30 kilometers per hour.
On the adjacent Sky Phoenix and Bungee Glider rides, guests traverse 280 meters of zipline at times 40 meters above the valley below and, on the latter, bouncing as much as 5 meters from the line above at max speeds of 35 kph. The Human Arrow attraction puts bungee cords to a different use — slingshotting a single rider into the sky before recoil kicks in — while the Sky-End Trekking and Tree-Top Trekking activities offer obstacle course-type challenges on 84-meter-long suspension bridges at points 11 meters above the forest below.
During Junglia's media preview, only Titan's Swing and Sky-End Trekking were open to experience (the zipline attractions were displayed but not made available). For the former, the relatively manual nature of the ride made for a more visceral experience: Riders are individually guided onto the swing by park staff (Junglia refers to them as 'navigators'), who then roll away the platform keeping the swing in stasis before engaging a winch to raise the swing to its launch point.
The Titan's Swing attraction exemplifies Junglia's adventure sports-inspired rides — perfectly enjoyable activities that don't break much new ground. |
OWEN ZIEGLER
I don't doubt the safety of Junglia's thrill rides, but the fact that they require much more manual preparation than the automated nature of boarding a conventional roller coaster does contribute to the adrenaline rush.
On Sky-End Trekking, I found this simulated sense of danger well balanced: High above the treetops, my legs starting to tremble from perching on a single plank on the suspended walkway, the thought crept into my mind about what would actually happen were I to slip (I suspect the worst injury possible would be a sharp yank from the harness and a bruise to my ego as park staff pluck a dangling me from the safety line overhead and help me regain my footing). Soon enough, though, you realize that the only way to terra firma is straight through the rest of the precarious course.
It's difficult to find fault in these Jungle Extremes rides on their own merits, but there's little new ground broken here. At their best, Junglia's thrill rides approximate the adrenaline rushes you could get from a bungee jumping or skydiving outfit elsewhere.
Also, be forewarned that the queues at these attractions will be long. Whereas a roller coaster might ferry dozens of passengers upon each departure, Junglia's highest-capacity thrill ride, Titan's Swing, can board just eight passengers at once; the lowest-capacity, Human Arrow, can hold only one.
Factor in the time required to weigh each passenger for safety guidelines, fit each with gear and then load and unload each ride and you're looking at queues that I expect to move very slowly — even during the park's quietest periods.
A park, Jurassic
Alongside adventure sports experiences, Junglia's other main draw is undoubtedly dinosaurs.
Almost anywhere you go in the park, the brachiosaur head is visible above the treeline, but to actually get up close and personal with any animatronic dinos, you'll have to make your way to the north of the park. Here, in stark contrast to the creatively titled rides in the Jungle Extremes section, you'll find the somewhat blandly named Dinosaur Safari and Finding Dinosaurs attractions.
In Dinosaur Safari, Junglia's most action-packed attraction, several escaped Tyrannasaurus rexes wreak havoc on park guests and the soldiers assigned to protect them. |
OWEN ZIEGLER
In Dinosaur Safari, the ride proper begins with a drive through a 'Jurassic Park'-esque dinosaur habitat in an open-topped jeep (try to sit in the back of your vehicle, preferably on the left-hand side for the best views of what's to come). A Japanese-language voiceover adds a bit of flavor to the jaunt as robotic dinosaurs — triceratops, ankylosaurs and more — appear in the brush. The brachiosaur visible throughout Junglia turns out to be straddling the road, and it's fairly gratifying to see this ever-present landmark integrated into the attraction when your jeep drives through the towering dinosaur's legs.
Then, an alarm blares — a Tyrannosaurus rex has breached containment somewhere in the habitat. A soldier guides you out of the jeep and toward a purpose-built shelter, but of course a technical glitch prevents the door from opening. When not one but two T. rexes appear from just beyond the walls hemming in this section, one of the dinos chomps down on the unfortunate soldier (who, in a clever twist, grabs onto handles inside the T. rex's mouth, which then raises the performer high into the air). Guests are guided back into the vehicles by navigators in the throes of faux panic, and a dash to safety ensues as more T. rexes give chase through the underbrush.
Much like Jungle Extremes, the thrills to be had on Dinosaur Safari aren't pushing any kind of envelope. In fact, the most unexpected moment of the attraction might be toward the end, when guests can pose for photos in front of a subdued T. rex that turns out to have a little fight left.
Instead of the nominally action-packed Dinosaur Safari, though, the child-friendly Finding Dinosaurs attraction struck me as Junglia's more put-together attraction.
Here, there are no jeeps, little danger and a basic story: A baby triceratops is lost somewhere inside a dinosaur conservatory, and a navigator enlists visitors' help in locating the critter. Along the way, you'll encounter several animatronic dinos, who growl and coo at your guide in interactions so seamlessly paced that I'm still wondering whether she was remotely triggering the robot's responses or had just perfected the rhythm of her performance so adroitly.
Dinosaur-themed attractions are one of Junglia's biggest draws, but what really breathes life into the animatronic creatures is how park staff interact with them. |
OWEN ZIEGLER
After you shuffle under low-hanging vines, propel a handcar down some track and enter a winding canyon and the cave it conceals, the lights go out. The navigator leads a call for the lost dino, who appears in a flourish amid a dazzle of light.
It's a moment that is sure to captivate young adventurers, and it's followed by a cherry on top: At the start of Finding Dinosaurs, each guest's name or nickname is entered into a tablet; upon completion of the mission, these names are read out over a mock field radio in a congratulatory message — an example of how Junglia excels on little pleasures, perhaps much more so than marquee moments.
To Junglia or not to Junglia
Of course, the question remains: Is Junglia worth the cost of entry, not to mention the effort required to reach its remote location?
The theme park has made headlines for selling tickets in separate tiers for Japan residents (¥6,930 for adults; ¥4,950 for children ages 4 to 11) and overseas visitors (¥8,800 and ¥5,400, respectively). Junglia also offers 'Premium Pass' tickets for guests who want to skip lines for individual attractions, but these are egally priced.
While Hyogo Prefecture's Himeji Castle has announced higher prices for visitors to the city (including Japan residents) from March 2026 and Kyoto is discussing charging more to overseas tourists who use the city's public transport, Junglia's pricing structure is unique: Unlike cities that are trying to curb overtourism, what new theme park doesn't want to attract as many visitors in its opening weeks as possible?
Despite lacking the brand familiarity of a Disney or Universal Studios amusement park, Junglia nonetheless offers nearly 600 unique souvenirs available for purchase. |
OWEN ZIEGLER
In that light, the park's pricing structure may strike many would-be visitors as explicitly profit-driven — even if discounts for residents has long been the norm in Southeast Asia, Egypt and other tourist destinations across the world.
However, I would argue that time, not money, should be your primary consideration in weighing a trip to Junglia. From Naha International Airport, it's a 90-minute drive in good conditions to the park entrance; if you're reliant on public transportation, it'll be close to two hours on an expressway bus before transferring in the Nago area to a 20- or 30-minute official park shuttle.
All that makes Junglia hard to recommend to travelers on tight schedules (let alone those with cumbersome luggage to schlep around).
But Katana CEO and Junglia mastermind Tsuyoshi Morioka has been vocal that success for Junglia means success for Okinawa's underdeveloped northern communities. Here, I agree: If the park is going to foster a community of happy customers, it won't be from those jetting into Okinawa, rushing up north to the park and then suffering in its inevitably long queues.
It'll be from those willing to take a bit more time, to extend their vacations by a day or two, to turn a day trip to the Motobu Peninsula's renowned Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium into an overnight stay at a local hotel and dinner at an area restaurant.
After all, when it took dinosaurs 65 million years to return to Okinawa, what's an extra day?