Everything is awesome in the Lego song and everything is Lego at Legoland Japan Resort and Legoland Japan Hotel.
If you're a family with kids of the right age, this is an amazing destination that I can highly recommend after visiting it earlier this year.
It's one of eight Legolands in the world and offers Lego fanatics a place to play Lego, ride Lego, create Lego, sleep Lego and even eat Lego.
Visiting the Nagoya location gives you all sorts of bonus Japanese delights you won't get at the other Legolands around the world, like the legendary customer service and a little extra zaniness.
The Japanese government announced days ago the country's borders will finally reopen to pre-pandemic levels of tourists again from October 11 after two-and-a-half years.
If you're planning a trip to Japan soon and are considering Legoland as an option, here's what it's like visiting the theme park and hotel.
The theme park
Legoland Japan Resort is a wonderful family destination that provides hours and hours of excitement.
Although there are a few rides with a height restriction of 120cm, this is a park very much aimed at youngsters. Adult thrillseekers after intense rollercoasters etc should probably look elsewhere, keeping in mind the Lego theme is the primary attraction over death-defying thrill rides.
The vastness of the park is up there with the larger ones I've been to around the world.
You can't see and do everything on offer in just one day, so before you get there take a good look through the website and plan out what you and your family most want to do. There's a handy planner on a companion app, too.
Starting out the day with the observation tower is a good idea. It's a rotating room you sit in and gaze out the window as it climbs then descends a 50m tower, providing lovely views of the whole park and surrounding area.
After that, the rides most loved by the group of family and friends I attended with were:
- Flying Ninjago: the most thrilling ride at the park lets you control wings to try and master spinning yourself 360 degrees while flying 22m above the ground at speeds of up to 50km/h. For bigger kids and adults, this one.
- The Dragon and Dragon's Apprentice: the only two rollercoasters, both of which are very much enjoyed by children and with no inversions or much scariness for timid adults.
- Splash Battle: a pirate battle zone with mounted water guns both on moving boats you can ride and on the surrounding shores for a super fun water fight.
- Submarine Adventure: an underwater ride in which you observe sharks and other creatures swimming very close by your glass-sided boat and around submerged Lego structures.
I really like that a great many of the rides are interactive, allowing you to shoot things or pedal to modify the experience. It gamifies them in a way that can add a competitive element.
Even more interactive are the Build and Test, Creative Workshop and Robotic Playcentre sections, where you really could spend hours.
In Japan there are countless amazing dioramas - there's a particularly great one at a train museum that's just a walk away from Legoland I comfortably spent an hour or so marvelling at. But Miniland Japan at Legoland is something else.
It's a carefully constructed ten-and-a-half million Lego bricks or so recreation of parts of Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Nagoya in awesome detail. Walking around it is really fun, observing all the little moving elements they've built to emulate Japanese life.
The least exciting part of the day was Lego Ninjago Live, a live show in a theatre that ran for about 45 minutes. Perhaps if there's a big Ninjago fan in the family it'd be better, but keep in mind it is entirely in Japanese with no subtitles and it's just not as impressive as most of the other attractions.
On the same piece of land as the theme park and the hotel is Sea Life Nagoya, which is a lovely aquarium worth visiting if you're in the area anyway and have some free time.
It's definitely not as big or as exciting as the likes of Osaka Aquarium Kaiyuka but there's a lot of interesting aquatic life in it to keep adults and kids entertained. It's also quite a peaceful experience to enjoy perhaps the day after the much more hectic experience of the theme park.
We took our time mozying through and gazing at the fishies and still saw it all in under two hours.
The hotel
The best way to experience Legoland Japan Resort is by staying at the onsite hotel as well.
You can definitely stay at more luxurious hotels for cheaper or about the same amount as what you pay for the Legoland Japan Hotel, but you're not staying at it for luxury - you're staying at it for the convenience of being on the same piece of land as the theme park and for the Lego experience to never end, even while you sleep.
You're paying for the novelty factor and that novelty factor is tremendous. Everything really is Lego at the hotel.
The soaps come in a wrapper with Lego imagery on it, then they are Lego shaped when you open them. The hot chips are cut into Lego shapes.
In your room, the linen is Lego-themed, as is the carpet, wallpaper, décor, shampoo, coffee, body wash, shower curtain, cushions, the phone... then the TV has Lego movies on repeat. The lifts have Lego images on the wall and when the door closes, disco lights start spinning and Lego music blasts out of the speakers.
And of course, there are large Lego figurines and bricks everywhere, from mindbogglingly large displays and wonderful play areas as you walk through the reception doors right through every corner of the hotel. Lego, Lego and more Lego!
I recommend getting two nights at the hotel with a day at the theme park in between. This means no navigating subway systems or paying for expensive taxis on the morning of getting to Legoland and missing the charming opening ceremony, but it also means when everyone's plumb-tuckered out after a day of thrills their beds are a mere few minutes' walk away.
Like most places and things in Japan, unless you're fluent in spoken and written Japanese, organising a trip like this can be challenging. I sorted mine out using Booking.com, a reservation service like Expedia and Hotels.com, which made getting two nights at the hotel a breeze.
In my experience, this is easier than using Japanese hotels' own websites and definitely easier than calling most of them on the phone.
Once at the Legoland Japan Hotel, there are some unusual elements to deal with too. If you book a room with breakfast included, you then need to reserve a specific breakfast slot by a certain time the day before or you miss out.
Don't expect very good food from the onsite restaurants, either. Remember: you're paying for a unique Lego experience, not luxury.
Those hot chips that are cut like Lego bricks I mentioned? Cold, chewy and maybe the worst chips I've ever had - but still, also the only Lego-shaped chips I've ever had!
Just outside the hotel is a small dining and shopping district called Maker's Pier, which has not one but two incredible-looking steak restaurants within walking distance.
Unfortunately, they were closed the entire time we were there. I'm not sure if it was a COVID-19 impact or because we were there on weekdays outside of school holidays or what was up. Luckily there's a Daily Yamazaki convenience store also nearby with the usual awesome food you can get at Japanese convenience stores.
Anyway, substandard food and annoyingly closed eateries aside, the joy of staying at the hotel was fantastic.
The whole thing is just a constant bombardment of excitement, with countless well-thought-out little touches to make the experience as great as possible for kids. Things like having a peephole at child height as well as a standard on the doors - there are tiny details to maximise fun for kids as well as all the massive, eye-catching stuff.
It's truly a place where everything is awesome.
Newshub stayed at Legoland Japan Hotel courtesy of Booking.com.
