Hirakata Park — Attraction in Hirakata

Me and my mother are very fond of ice skating so we were excited to try the outdoor rink in this amusement park. The rink was unexpectedly smaller than we thought. We couldn't bring our ice skating shoes so we rented a pair for each of us, but the shoes were in very terrible condition. The shoes were old and the blade was out of shape. It was completely flat, not a sign of a sharp edge. However, we still gave it a try and skated slow and steady. But it was very difficult to control and skate properly with those shoes. Unfortunately, my mom lost control, fell backwards and hit the back of her head. The staff brought her to the first aid room. Luckly her hair was tied and pinned at the lower back part of her head. It was kind of a cushion that protected her head from severe injury. When we explained what happened to the staff, we were shocked that their face expression and tone of answer very obviously show that they couldn't understand what the cause of the problem was. They tried to get her better pair of shoes but all the shoes were the same. They had no idea about ice skating shoes and how dangerous it is that most of the people on that ice rink are wearing those unproperly maintained shoes. Thankfully, they gave as a refund. There were news before about a women passing away after hitting her in an ice rink in Hokkaido. And so I am now in the hospital with my mom for a check-up for the purpose of avoiding long-term injuries. I wanted to post this review in their website but there is no review or suggestion icon in...

The park requires a paid entrance ticket, but this does not include any rides. Each ride has a separate fee. There are about 30 attractions.

You can buy a Free Pass for the whole day (around ¥3,400), but I recommend checking first which rides interest you and whether the pass is worth it.

The park is only open from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, which is not a lot of time considering some ride wait times can be an hour or more.

There is also a water area that costs extra (around ¥4,000). The website stated it was closed in September, but it turned out to be open, so make sure to double-check. It seems to be more like a pool area (I didn’t try it myself). We found a drinking fountain in the area, but the water was lukewarm, probably due to the heat.

The park is quite old, so many of the rides look outdated compared to modern theme parks. Also, the Ferris wheel was not working during our visit.

For people with disabilities: the website offers a discounted ticket, but inside the park there is no priority access or shortened line option. We asked at the information desk, and they confirmed there is no system like that.

Ride tickets can be purchased individually at machines located around the park, with prices listed on the map. You can also buy the all-day Free Pass at the...

I didn't want to buy a la carte ticket for myself as I thought that it was troublesome. On second thoughts, I should have done that because I only enjoyed a few rides before motion sickness set in and ruined the rest of my day.

So most of the time, it was my daughter enjoying the rides by herself.

So if you are also prone to motion sickness like me, please don't buy the all-in-one access ticket.

The rides here are old, you can tell very easily but the good point is there's hardly any queue, so you save a lot of time.

However, I must add that some of the rides are quite hard to find. And we traversed quite a lot of steep slope in our quest to find as many suitable rides as we can before the park closed at 5pm sharp.

My favorite ride? It has to be the boat ride that goes down 2 slopes, the second one being longer and steeper.

You are actually encouraged to yell for as loud and as long as you can because there is a noise meter that will record your vocal achievement.

So my child and I screamed as loud and as long as possible, hoping to achieve a world record, but unfortunately, when we turned to look, it was quite pathetic. I hope your vocal record will be...