Hikari no Yuenchi: Hirakata Park Illumination

Hikari no Yuenchi, the park of light, is the winter illumination at Hirakata Park, an amusement park in Hirakata, Osaka Prefecture. From late autumn into spring the whole park is lit after dark, and the rides keep running under the lights.

The lights

The display is spread across the park in a set of main areas and smaller ones, each with its own theme and colours. Among them are a rose garden lit in gold, a road lit entirely in blue, and a tunnel of flowers whose colour changes with the direction it is seen from.

One of the main areas is a square hung with lanterns. There, and at the centrepiece of each year's display, a show of music and light plays several times an hour, using the whole space and lasting about three minutes.

In spring the display takes on a cherry blossom theme, and while the Somei Yoshino trees are in bloom they are lit at night.

Night rides

More than twenty rides run after dark. The two-storey merry-go-round is lit along its canopy, and two slow rides, the Gnome Train and the Fantasy Cruise boats, carry riders through a garden of lights. From the top of the Sky Walker, about 80 metres up, the lit park and the night view of Osaka spread out below.

Shows and food

The park's mascots, the gnome characters known as Gnome no Nakamatachi, appear in short stage shows on the Magical Lagoon Stage. Around Christmas the stage puts on Christmas Gnome Night, a show of about twenty minutes in which the characters and dancers act out a story under coloured light.

Food and goods sold only during the illumination include churros with coloured toppings, cotton candy that glows, drinks served in glowing light bulbs, glowing balloons and hand-held lanterns.