Japanese theme park Immersive Fort Tokyo takes you from Sherlock Holmes and Jack the Ripper to Spy Action
- The latest attraction in the nation’s capital, Immersive Fort Tokyo takes visitors through Victorian London, and allows them to perform onstage at a jazz club
- In Spy Action, participants see a fight with henchmen take place around them, and Hansel and Gretel becomes a walk-through experience
The Japanese do enjoy a trip to a theme park, and the latest addition to the escapist landscape opened on March 1, delivering a number of eerie experiences designed to draw the visitor into its storyline and to participate in the adventure.
Immersive Fort Tokyo has taken over the sprawling Venus Fort shopping centre, in the Odaiba waterfront district of the capital, and describes itself as the world’s first fully immersive theme park.
The concept is based on the interactive theatrical performances that started in London in the 2000s, with the operators taking full advantage of the venue’s European-style interior, which was the setting for dozens of shops, cafes and restaurants. Think Italian piazzas with stucco walls, columns, balconies and alleys paved with flagstones.
The designers have recreated constant Mediterranean weather, with the skies a deep blue and clouds tinged pink with the setting sun. But we have not come to admire the artificial sunset.
Immersive Fort Tokyo has 12 attractions, although a couple require that children under the age of 12 are accompanied by an adult, and the age limit is 15 for the Jack the Ripper experience.