Did you know that you can really explore the world of Sanrio in Tokyo? If you love Hello Kitty, her friends, or cute things, then you have to visit Sanrio Puroland. Having experienced the magic firsthand, I can assure you that this is a must-visit destination for anyone seeking an enchanting escape in Tokyo, Japan. Whether you’re a die-hard Sanrio enthusiast or simply curious about the Japanese kawaii culture, this extraordinary theme park promises an unforgettable experience. Read on so you can make the most of your kawaii day:
- What is Sanrio Puroland?
- How Much is Sanrio Puroland?
- When is Sanrio Puroland Open?
- How to Get to Sanrio Puroland
- What to Do at Sanrio Puroland in Tokyo
- 1. Meet Sanrio Characters at Character Greeting House
- 2. Walk through Lady Kitty House and Kiki & Lala’s Twinkling Tour
- 3. Watch the Kawaii Kabuki Musical at Marchen Theater
- 4. Catch the Nakayoku Concert & a Parade at Puro Village
- 5. Visit the Mini Factories
- 6. Ring the Bell of Happiness at the Wisdom Tree
- Is Sanrio Puroland worth it?
- Frequently Asked Questions
You might also be interested in:
✏️ First-time Tokyo Traveler Tips
🎟️ Cheap Sanrio Puroland Tickets
This post may contain affiliate links for highly recommended products or services that I want to share with you!
What is Sanrio Puroland?
Sanrio Puroland is an indoor experience that brings the world of Hello Kitty (and other popular characters) to life. Even though it’s often described as a theme park, I’d say it’s better described as an immersive Sanrio world. Puroland has 2 rides in the park but boasts 4 floors filled with Sanrio-themed rooms, attractions, shows, food courts, and gift shops. It’s not like Disneyland where you’ll spend most of the time going on ride after ride. Rather, you’ll spend most of your time surrounded by one of the biggest influences of kawaii culture – Hello Kitty and her friends!
How Much is Sanrio Puroland?
Puroland tickets generally range between 3,900-4,900 yen for adults depending on the day and time of your visit. Foreigners can get a small discount of 200 yen off the ticket price if tickets are purchased at least 24 hours in advance. If you end up buying your ticket within 24 hours of your visit, check out third-party websites like Klook or KKDay which often have cheaper tickets than the official website.
Saturdays and Sundays are the most expensive days of the week to visit. Ticket prices are cheaper if you select the afternoon passport option which provides a discounted fare for entering the park after 2:00 PM. Make sure you check the Sanrio Puroland website calendar as opening times, closing days, and prices change every month.
When is Sanrio Puroland Open?
Generally, Puroland is closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Opening time is around 10:00 AM on weekdays and between 8:30-9:00 on weekends. Again, these are general guidelines so you’ll want to check the official website calendar for the most updated information around the time of your visit.
How to Get to Sanrio Puroland
The best part about Puroland is that it’s in Tokyo! Located in the Tama New Town area, it can take about 40 minutes to get to Keio-Tama-Center Station if you’re coming from Shibuya, Shinjuku, or Tokyo Station. If you’re staying outside those areas, it can take up to an hour or slightly more.
No matter what, you’ll definitely want to make Keio-Tama-Center Station your subway destination as the station itself is Sanrio themed. Once you arrive at the station, it’s about a 10-minute walk to the park. There are many signs that will take you in the direction of the park so you won’t get lost.
If you plan to go to Puroland from Tokyo by JR Line: The Keio-Tama-Center Station is not a stop on the JR line. If you’re a JR pass holder, you will need to transfer to the Keio Line at Shinjuku Station. The ticket price from Shinjuku to Keio-Tama-Center Station is approximately 330 yen.
What to Do at Sanrio Puroland in Tokyo
Puroland has 4 floors that you can explore during your visit:
First Floor (1F) Highlights
- Wisdom Tree (in front of escalators)
- Mini factories (around the perimeter)
- Marchen, Discovery, & Fairyland Theaters (around the perimeter)
- My Melody Mymeroad Drive Ride (to the right of escalators)
- Strawberry Hall (next to the MyMeRoad Drive ride)
Second Floor (2F) Highlights
- Kiki & Lala Exhibit (to the right)
- Lady Kitty House Exhibit (to the right)
- Sanrio Character Boat Ride (to the left of escalators, though the line may start on the 3F)
Third Floor (3F) Highlights
- Main Entrance
- Lockers (left of entrance)
- Sanrio Puroland Gift Shop (right of entrance)
Fourth Floor (4F) Highlights
- Sanrio Rainbow World Restaurant
- Cinnamoroll Cafe
- Cinnamoroll Exhibit
💡 TIP: When you enter the park, you’ll begin on the Third Floor. This isn’t super intuitive because there aren’t signposts that will tell you what floor you’re on. It also becomes even more confusing because it doesn’t feel like the first and second floors are really separated since you only climb a small number of stairs. I found that the easiest way of navigating around the park is orienting yourself around key attractions.
Below are the top 6 things to do at Puroland based on my own experience:
- 1. Meet Sanrio Characters at Character Greeting House
- 2. Walk through Lady Kitty House and Kiki & Lala’s Twinkling Tour
- 3. Watch the Kawaii Kabuki Musical at Marchen Theater
- 4. Catch the Nakayoku Concert & a Parade at Puro Village
- 5. Visit the Mini Factories
- 6. Ring the Bell of Happiness at the Wisdom Tree
1. Meet Sanrio Characters at Character Greeting House
Our favorite part of Puroland was meeting all the characters of the day. You can find out which characters are available for a meet-and-greet for the day by going to the Character Greeting House.
How to Meet-and-Greet Sanrio Characters
Strangely, the Character Greeting House is listed as Strawberry Hall on the Sanrio Puroland map. Once you enter the hall, you’ll see two lines. The line on the right side will take you to digital kiosks where you can see which characters are available to meet. Click on a character you’re interested in meeting so then you can pick your meet-and-greet time block. Note that all of these kiosks are in Japanese with no English option so you may need to ask a staff member to help you book your ticket the first time around. Once you’re done, you’ll get a ticket with a QR code with a picture of your character and the time frame that you have to meet with them.
The time on your ticket indicates when you must line up on the left side of Strawberry Hall to enter the meet-and-greet rooms. Japan is very prompt – you can neither enter the room before nor after your time slot. Since tickets are digitized, the attendant’s ticket reader cannot validate any ticket outside of the designated time block and your entrance will be denied.
What Happens During the Meet-and-Greet
Once you’re allowed inside, you will then be taken to the designated queue for your selected character. Depending on how busy or popular the character is, you may have to wait sometime before it’s your turn to meet one of the beloved Sanrio characters. However, once it’s your turn, it’s well worth the wait as you’ll be able to say hi and take a picture with the characters in their themed room. Do note that you can only use one camera to take a picture with the character.
We spent 2 hours meeting the available characters of the day including Dear Daniel, My Melody, Pompompurin, and Kuromi. Sadly, we didn’t get a chance to see Cinnamoroll as time slots to meet him were filled more than 3 hours before closing time.
⌛TIME SPENT: 2-3 hours
📍LOCATION: First Floor (1F)
2. Walk through Lady Kitty House and Kiki & Lala’s Twinkling Tour
Lady Kitty House and Kiki & Lala’s Twinkling Tour are themed rooms that you can walk through. You’re encouraged to interact with or take pictures of the cute furniture while you freely explore.
The last room of Lady Kitty House is where you can take a picture with Lady Kitty. To keep the line moving, you’ll be asked to choose between having a staff attendant take a picture with the studio camera (you’ll have to pay for the picture) or on a personal phone. If you’re traveling in a group, you’ll get a group picture as they will not take individual pictures on each person’s phone.
⌛TIME SPENT: 1 hour
📍LOCATION: Second Floor (2F)
3. Watch the Kawaii Kabuki Musical at Marchen Theater
Head to the first floor to watch Hello Kitty and her friends re-enact the story of Momotaro in a kabuki performance while dressed up in old-style costumes. Kabuki is a type of Japanese theater characterized by its dramatic costumes and dances. At Puroland, Hello Kitty dresses up as Momotaro, a boy born from a peach who fights off demons.
Sadly, we didn’t get to see the musical because each afternoon show hit max capacity everytime we checked. We would have loved to see Hello Kitty fight off demons with the help of badtz Maru and Cinnamoroll.
⌛TIME SPENT: 40 minutes
📍LOCATION: First Floor (1F)
4. Catch the Nakayoku Concert & a Parade at Puro Village
The Nakayoku Concert is a 15-minute show where Hello Kitty and her friends sing and dance. The Village is decorated with sparkling lights and lasers that are set to the characters’ musical numbers. It’s an amazing spectacle and free with your ticket. You can also watch the parade of the season. These shows normally cost extra, with prices varying depending on where you’re seated.
⌛TIME SPENT: 15-30 minutes (per show)
📍LOCATION: First Floor (1F)
5. Visit the Mini Factories
Located on the first floor, you’ll find cute scenes with painted figurines working in the factory. Spend 5-10 minutes walking through the candy, bread, ice cream, juice, and chocolate factories. Don’t forget to stop by the pudding room and take a picture on a Pompompurin-themed couch, located near the ice cream factory.
⌛TIME SPENT: <30 minutes
📍LOCATION: First Floor (1F)
6. Ring the Bell of Happiness at the Wisdom Tree
Inside the Wisdom Tree, you can climb the steps up to the top to ring the Bell of Happiness. This area was closed when we went but it looks like another cute place to take pictures. You can easily find the Wisdom Tree as it’s the main centerpiece on the first floor.
⌛TIME SPENT: <30 minutes
📍LOCATION: First Floor (1F)
Skip the Sanrio Character Boat Ride and MyMeRoad Drive… unless the lines are short.
As I mentioned, Puroland only has 2 rides in the park: the Sanrio Character Boat Ride and MyMelody & Kuromi Mymeroad Drive. If you’ve been to Disneyland, think It’s a Small World and one of the Fantasyland rides like Peter Pan’s Flight or Snow White’s Scary Adventure respectively.
Be warned, the wait time for both of these rides is long. It might be shorter on the weekdays but expect to wait at least 1-2 hours if you go on the weekend. We went on a Saturday and by then the line was already 2 hours so we skipped them both. It’s also hard to tell how much time the Puropass will save you because even the line for Puropass holders seemed long.
Skip the Character Food Court… unless you really want a picture of cute food.
Any of the restaurants and food courts will serve Japanese food with a Sanrio-themed twist. As expected, prices are higher than average since you’re really paying for the kawaii-ness of your food. I’d only recommend doing this if you’re famished or you want a very cutesy Instagram food post.
Is Sanrio Puroland worth it?
If you love Sanrio or cute things in general, I 100% recommend a trip out to Puroland. Puroland is well worth the $20-25 to spend a day immersed in the world of Sanrio. I would recommend going on the weekday so you can avoid the crowds. We spent about 4 hours in the park but we would have stayed longer if there was space in the theater to watch the Kabuki show.
Frequently Asked Questions
Weekdays are preferable to weekends, and you’ll want to avoid public holidays and times when students are out of school. The park will be open for a few hours shorter but you won’t have to compete with the crowds for the rides and other attractions.
Generally, Sanrio Puroland is closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays but you’ll want to check the official website calendar for the most updated information.
If you’re a foreigner, you can get a discount on the Puroland website by purchasing your ticket at least 24 hours in advance. Otherwise, we found Klook or KKDay had the cheapest prices for day-of tickets. There are plenty of discounted ticket offers so you shouldn’t need to spend more than $25 per person (maybe closer to $30 if you’re going during peak season). If you read the TripAdvisor reviews, most of the disappointed reviewers spent $40-50 on a ticket per person – and honestly, if I had spent that much, I’d have been disappointed too.
The Puropass is similar to a Disney Fastpass and allows you to cut parts of the line for a ride or get optimal seating during a parade/show. Puropasses are not free and typically cost 1000 yen for each attraction.
Sanrio Puroland first opened its doors in December 1990. By the end of 2023, it will be 33 years old.
Nope! Sanrio World Ginza is the world’s largest Sanrio store in Tokyo where you can find the best collection of Sanrio paraphernalia. Sanrio Puroland is the name of the theme park located in Tama where the magical world of Sanrio is brought to life through parades, rides, and interactive exhibits.
To make the most of your trip to Sanrio Puroland, you’ll want to carve out at least half-a-day. This will give you enough time to walk through the exhibits, watch 1 or 2 shows, and meet the characters. If you go on a weekend, you might want to allocate the full day as the park will be extremely crowded and almost everything will have a queue.
Sanrio Puroland has 2 rides: the Sanrio Character Boat Ride and My Melody MyMeRoad Drive. Most of your time spent in the park will be exploring the themed exhibits, taking pictures with the characters, and watching the parade or theater shows that feature your favorite Sanrio characters.
Final Thoughts on Sanrio Puroland
Sanrio Puroland is the perfect place to immerse yourself in the colorful world of Sanrio characters. Located in the western outskirts of Tokyo in Tama City, this indoor theme park is a magical place for Sanrio fans of all ages. From the moment you enter, you’ll be greeted by parades, themed restaurants, and interactive exhibits featuring so many of your favorite characters.
While you’re here, make sure you go to Strawberry Hall (aka the character greeting residence) to meet popular Sanrio characters or ring the Hello Kitty Bell of Happiness at the Wisdom Tree, all on the 1st floor. Head to the 2nd floor to spend time with your favorite cute characters like Hello Kitty and Kiki & Lala in their dreamy, themed exhibit before heading to the Gift Shop on the 3rd floor to buy all kinds of Sanrio-themed goods. To make the most of your visit, plan to go on a weekday to avoid the crowds and long lines and be sure to check the schedule for the Kawaii Kabuki Musical, parades, and other special events.
Whether you’re a die-hard fan of Hello Kitty, Little Twin Stars, or any of the world-famous Sanrio characters, Sanrio Puroland is a must-visit destination. It offers the same immersive experience as Disneyland with the unique charm of Sanrio, offering a one-of-a-kind experience where you can unleash your inner child, create precious memories, take cute pictures, and immerse yourself in the world of Sanrio’s characters.
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