Japan Is Making Plans for a Spa-Themed Amusement Park

Attention all spa lovers: Japan has plans in the works to make the spa-themed amusement park dreams you never knew you had a reality. That’s right, an entire amusement park dedicated to making you feel relaxed AF.

A Wizarding World of Harry Potter for your pores might sound like a joke, but shockingly, it’s not. Japan’s Beppu region is not only known for it’s onsen hot springs, but apparently it’s sense of innovation. Last week, Beppu City’s mayor Yasuhiro Nagano shared a spoof video of a spa-themed amusement park—complete with hot spring carousels, steam room arcades, a romantic sauna Ferris wheel, Jacuzzi tub coasters, and towel-clad guests, naturally—with a serious message: If the video got more than a million views, he’d work to make the park a reality as part of Beppu City’s “amusement onsen city initiative.”

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After sailing past that goal in under a week, the Spa-musement Park Project is a real thing. The mayor’s office even released a press release thanking the public for their support and shared a photo of the creative team behind the project celebrating. “I believe that, as one of the world’s best hot spring tourist spots, the appeal of having an onsen theme park in the town creates an opportunity for the citizens of Beppu, particularly young residents, to feel that ‘Beppu is fun’ and have a sense of pride for their hometown,” Mayor Nagano said in his statement. This is really happening, people.

This isn’t Japan’s first stab at a gimmicky amusement park—the country also made news this week for building an “aquarium on ice” at the Space World amusement park in Kitakyushu. In an effort to lure more visitors, the island-based park opened a skating rink with 5,000 fish frozen just beneath the surface. Not surprisingly, the attraction—which looks just as creepy as it sounds—was met with a ton of criticism and fury about animal cruelty. Protestors forced the park to pull the gimmick and they’ll now be holding a memorial service for the fish, according to a report by the New York Times. Though there’s no word on a project timeline yet, let’s hope Beppu’s Spa-musement park doesn’t end up in the same kind of hot water.

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