Sylvanian Park Osaka
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Do you love Sylvanian Families, also known as Calico Critters in the USA? Then you must visit the incredibly fun Sylvanian Park Osaka that showcases the peaceful lives of these kawaii (cute) creatures on a life-size scale. Step into their world!
These cutesy animal families originated in Japan in the 1980s, which comes as no surprise as the Japanese are the kawaii experts!
There are three Sylvanian Parks in Japan where you can immerse yourself in the world of Sylvanian Families. This article focuses on the Sylvanian Park Osaka, located in Sakai.
Where is Sylvanian Park located?
Japan offers three Sylvanian Parks:
- Sylvanian Park, Sakai near Osaka (this article focuses on this park)
- Sylvanian Park, Ibaraki near Narita airport
- Grinpa, Shizuoka near Mount Fuji (closed during winter)
Sylvanian Park, Osaka is located inside a sprawling amusement park and petting zoo called Harvest Hill in Sakai, just outside Osaka.
From Namba Station in Osaka, it will take around one hour to reach Sylvanian Park using a train and then a bus.
Harvest Hill, the amusement park in which Sylvanian Park is located is also a worthwhile attraction and includes a farm with capybaras and other animals you can feed. The capybaras are fun to watch bathing in their own onsen!
Harvest Hill and Sylvanian Park map
Sylvanian Park, Osaka is located inside the amusement park, Harvest Hill.
The map pictured shows Sylvanian Park’s small section near the ferris wheel inside the sprawling Harvest Hill leirsureland.
Entry to Harvest Hill
Sylvanian Park is quite a small area inside Harvest Hill so you will need to pay two entrance fees for this experience, but it’s completely worth it!
Harvest Hill is extremely enjoyable too! Especially with children, or your pet dog who is also allowed to join. Give yourself at least half a day to enjoy all the attractions of both Sylvanian Park and Harvest Hill.
The fee to enter Harvest Hill is slightly less during the day compared to the evening when they also have illuminations.
Harvest Hill daytime fee: ¥1,200 per adult, ¥800 per child, kids under 3 are free, dogs free!
Harvest Hill evening fee: ¥1,500 yen per adult, ¥800 per child, kids under 3 free, dogs free!
Entrance fees
Sylvanian Park is located inside Harvest Hill amusement Park so expect to pay two entrance fees, one for Harvest Hill, approx ¥1,500 per adult and then the extra ¥700 for Sylvanian Park, but both parks are worth it!
Entry to Sylvanian Park Osaka
The entrance to Sylvanian Park is through the cutest life-size replica of the Red Roof Cosy Cottage including its Juliet balcony and pretty shutters. Upstairs you will find Freya in her signature red dress welcoming you to Sylvanian Park!
Inside this building, staff members will collect your entrance fee of ¥700 (additional to the Harvest Hill entrance fee), and then they will give you a quiz for each family member. Take the quiz! If you get all the answers correct, you swap the quiz for a free Sylvanian baby at the store.
The cost of a Sylvanian baby is around ¥700 making the entrance fee, basically reimbursed in the form of a gift.
Entrance fee reimbursed as Sylvanian baby!
Complete the quiz handed to you at the entrance, and swap it for a free Sylvanian baby at the store afterward! The entrance fee costs the same as a Sylvanian baby, plus it’s fun for the family. The quiz is in Japanese, so make sure you have your Google Translate ready! And the answers are multiple-choice, so there’s no need to write in Japanese, phew! Just circle the answers.
What to expect inside Sylvanian Park
Despite the small size of the park, there’s a lot to explore, activities to indulge in, and shows to watch.
What you can find inside Sylvanian Park:
- multiple life-sized versions of Sylvanian homes
- a stage where shows are performed
- character meet and greets (if you’re lucky!)
- an interactive fishing pond to catch magnetic fish
- fun games to play like ring toss
- a small maze to navigate
- all your favourite Sylvanian characters enjoying their lives
- mini Sylvanian museum with original toys.
Food, toilets and shop
Access to food, toilets and the Sylvanian store are located outside Sylvanian Park and inside Harvest Hill, but everything is very close by and you can receive a pass to re-enter Sylvanian Park if you need to go out to Harvest Hill.
Sylvanian buildings to explore
Starter Cottage
This is a version of the first home created by Sylvanian Families in 1985 and was called the Starter Cottage. The original design is a cute, two-storey, red-gabled roof house with a round side door made of both plastic and wood.
In Sylvania Park, you can walk into this house via the round door and see an original kitchen set as it was created back in the 1980s with its signature green furniture. Inside you will find the original brown rabbit family, the Wildwoods, and my personal favourite Hollie Wildwood with her famous red spotted dress.
You can also find some of the original sets which bring back childhood memories fron the 80s and a screen playing archived Sylvanian footage.
Red Roof Country Home
This life-sized version of the Red Roof Country Home houses the chocolate rabbit family with their signature white fur and brown-tipped ears. Inside the home, you will find the father Frasier, and mother Teri enjoying a delicious meal of sandwiches and fruit with children Freya and baby Creme. Grandparents Rhys and Patricia keep a watchful gaze over the tiniest baby rabbits from the grand staircase.
You can take the stairs on the outside of the house up to the second-floor balcony for a scenic view of Sylvanian Park and also peek inside at the cutest baby rabbits having a meal beside their baby swing.
Don’t forget to help Coco water his vegetable patch outside the home! His cabbages, carrots and pumpkins are looking splendid (and just like the toy version!).
The Red Roof Country Home was created in 2004 and for the first time showcased a house that could be swung open to 90 or 180 degrees for more space.
The red roof country home is also convertible and can be attached to the Red Roof Cosy Cottage.
The chocolate rabbit family kept expanding, with the birth of the triplets: Flora, Fauna and Phillip and then twins: Kabe and Breeze.
No wonder they needed a house that could easily expand!
Lakeside Lodge (Mori no Waku Waku Log house)
The Lakeside Lodge, the cutest log cabin in the land, has been recreated in Sylvanian Park with some adventurous Sylvanians inside. The home which belongs to the Persian cat family features Mr Clarence Snow-Warren (white rabbit dad) cooking up some curry and egg with bread while baby fennec foxes Allie and Kaya look down from the second floor.
Outside the lodge, you can find some baby campers enjoying the outdoors, including baby hedgehog Bilberry having a little snooze in his sleeping bag inside the cozy tent.
Tree House
The Sylvanian tree house is close to the Lakeside Lodge and camping area, continuing the theme of outdoor adventure play for the littlest Sylvanian bunch.
Find your favourite Sylvanians enjoying their cubby house, baby swing and slide.
Play Castle Nursery
The Sylvanian Families Play Castle is located directly in front of the Harvest Hill Ferris Wheel making a perfect, colourful scene.
Next to the castle is a maze with a secret passageway, perfect for little explorers. In front of the castle, you can find the Sunshine Nursery Bus, the Sylvanian Royal Carriage, and the Floating Cloud Rainbow Steam Train set.
Don’t forget to get some photos inside the Sylvanian vehicles so you can enjoy travelling in cuteness just like the Sylvanians do.
Activities in Sylvanian Park
Sylvanian Park also offers some games and activities for little ones such as the magnetic fishing pond, ring toss, stack the ice creams and more.
Harvest Hill
Sylvanian Park is inside of Harvest Hill, so it’s impossible to visit Sylvanian Park without first entering Harvest Hill. However, this amusement park is also super fun, especially for families so it’s worth spending a few hours here. Plus it’s not crowded!
Attractions in Harvest Hill
Harvest Hill, the ‘leisureland’ which surrounds Sylvanian Park has many attractions to enjoy. The park itself is quite sprawling so it may be useful to bring a stroller for little ones whose legs may get tired!
Harvest Hill has different features depending on the season. In the winter months, there are evening illuminations and a sauna to relax in.
During other months, you will find fields of flowers, strawberry picking, capybara and other animal interactions, a roaming robotic dinosaur on weekends and more!
Some of the activities at Harvest Hill require an extra fee and some are free.
Capybara feeding
Walk across the bouncy suspension bridge to the farmland side of Harvest Hill and find the cutest and friendliest capybaras!
The capybaras have quite a nice enclosure with their own onsen to bathe in! In the winter time when we visited, the capybaras were bathing in 39 degree celsius water with floating citrus and they appeared very zen!
For a small fee, you can buy some cabbage to feed to the capybaras with tongs. They loved the cabbage and came straight up to us. They were friendly and relaxed so even with their large size, we did not feel overwhelmed.
On this side of Harvest Hill, you can also find other animals such as sheep, goats, horses and cows. There was also a dog enclosure where I believe you can pet and interact with the dogs, however on the day we visited, a Tuesday, it was the dogs’ day off. It made me happy to know they get a break some days.
Here you will also find a large pond with swan boats to paddle around in, as we visited in winter it seemed a little cold to partake, but it could be a fun and relaxing activity.
Go fast at Harvest Hill on bikes and sleds
The fun continues at Harvest Hill with fun activities for the kids such as riding wacky bikes, or sledding down the grassy hill. These activities cost extra and the sledding costs an extra ¥400 for 15 minutes.
Harvest Hill also offers mini train rides, go-karting, a ferris wheel and seasonal activities such as strawberry picking or sausage making! Visit their website (in Japanese only) ahead of your visit to see if you would like to participate and reserve any seasonal activities.
What to eat at Harvest Hill
There are many food options at Harvest Hill so come on an empty stomach!
Our personal favourite was the fast food truck with the biggest array of salts and seasonings you can choose to add yourself!
There are also many little cafes, a bakery, an excellent wood-fired pizza restaurant and the Sakai Craft Brewery and Yakiniku BBQ restaurant. Most are walk-ups, but if you want to barbecue your own yakiniku meat while visiting on a busy weekend, it might be best to book in advance.
Sylvanian Family shop
This shop was incredible! It had all the Sylvanian family options and they even sold Freya Chocolate Rabbit’s signature red dress to take home for cosplay.
This store is located close to the entrance of Harvest Hill and outside Sylvanian Park. This is where we handed in our quizzes and were given a choice of which Sylvanian baby to choose as a prize!
After buying a few families, we were also gifted a seasonal Sylvanian Families, Lorna the Sheep Christmas gift set!
Inside the store, you will also find a Sylvanian Families photo booth, bring ¥600 in coins to take home a memorable family picture with Sylvanian backgrounds.
What to buy at the Sylvanian Families shop
This shop sells everything! So my suggestion is to buy Limited edition items or items only available in Japan that you cannot purchase in your home country.
Sylvanian Families released in Japan only:
- Seal Family (I couldn’t resist, they are so cute, see below)
- Deer Family
- Sea Otter Family
- Cream Cat Family
- Soyokaze Cat Family
- Lavender Rabbit Family
- Ivory Cat Family
- Grey Cat Family
How to get to Harvest Hill and Sylvanian Park
Harvest Hill is located in Sakai, Osaka and is best visited by car if possible. There is a large car park across the road for easy parking and access.
By public transport, take Nankai-Koya line train from downtown Osaka to Izumigaoka Station (approx 30 minutes), then take a roughly a 15-minute bus ride by Nankai bus from bus terminal platform 6 of Izumigaoka Station on the Semboku Rapid Railway. Allow about an hour including some walking.
Hours: 10am – 5pm (varies depending on season)
Address: 2405-1 Hachigamineji, Minami Ward, Sakai, Osaka 590-0125
Cost: ¥1,500 per adult to enter Harvest Hill, ¥800 per child to enter Harvest Hill, ¥700 per person to enter Sylvanian Park
Round up of Sylvanian Park, Osaka
If you love Sylvanian Families/Calico Critters, this park is a must-visit. Take the time to travel from Osaka and make a day of it.
The kids and adults will have a great time and many happy memories will be made. Best of all, you are unlikely to encounter hordes of tourists, so you can enjoy a relaxing day with all your most kawaii (cutest) Sylvanian friends.
Watch our YouTube clip for more on Sylvanian Park
