新托福阅读材料：Japan’sFirstThemePark

　看过宫崎骏的动画片《千与千寻》的同学大都对其中令千寻迷路的游乐园场景印象深刻，其实早在19世纪五十年代日本的浅草地区就建立了游乐园。

 

　　Opened by a gardener named Morita Rokusaburo in 1853, at the end of the Edo period, this is the oldest surviving theme park in Japan. Now owned by Namco, a Japanese toy manufacturer, the park occupies a tiny block of land; squashed between the Asakusa-Kannon temple and a once-thriving area of shops and restaurants from days when this was Tokyo’s HQ for organized crime.

 

　　Today the tiny block where the original park stood is covered in layer-upon-layer of themed rides and attractions, divided into three areas, Fantasy & Dreams, Mystery & Panic and Full of Excitement. The park's centrepieces are Bee Tower, a 60 meter high gondola styled ride, and what may be the worlds first steel-tracked roller coaster. It already attracts 55,000 visitors per year, and spokesman Takashi Matsushita says attendance is on the up, though the majority of guests are local Japanese. "We would like to change style from a common ride park to a traditional Japanese entertainment park at the historical and traditional town of Asakusa. The major aim of a theme park is to offer unordinary things to visitors. We think that Tokyo itself has become 'mega theme park' through development of a large city capturing entertainment traits, so we cannot be optimistic in the business environment. Each theme park should have more personality because people can make memories here. Children turn to adults to love them, and young people become parents [and return] with their children to visit again."

 

　　Children will surely love it, but the challenge for adults is that the seats are literally too small on some attractions.