The Spanish amusement park in Japan has celebrated 30 years of flamenco shows, tomatinas and Fallas parades. José Barrios came to choreograph the dancers’ shows.
For the Japanese, Spain is among the TOP 5 of their favourite destinations outside Asia. And from Spain, what they are most curious about is everything that surrounds flamenco. In many cases, this curiosity turns into pure infatuation.
A business group from Japan appreciated this affinity and thought that developing a Spanish Disneyland-style theme park would be a good idea. And they were right. The park, which opened almost 30 years ago, receives more than one million visitors each season.
For this 35-hectare complex, the city of Shima (3 hours from Kyoto) was chosen as the site. This little piece of “Spain in Japan” is called Shima Spain Village, Isa Shima or Shima Supein Mura, depending on the circumstances in which you use these names, and even Parque España. In addition to the attraction complex, it consists of a spa hotel and two other small hotels.
Its atmosphere is very spectacular and colourful, yes, but not perfect. The music of the complex is flamenco, which we already know that this part of the world connects with Andalusian art even though it is thousands of kilometres away. What happens is that they play a saeta as well as a sevillana.
The attractions all have to do with monuments or festivals of the Iberian Peninsula. A roller coaster called “Montserrat”, a “Gaudí” style carousel or flying cars reminiscent of a “Tomatina”. You can visit the Alhambra, the courtyards of Cordoba or an Andalusian farmhouse. The costumes of the employees (almost all of them Spanish, by the way) bear some of the flamenco imagery, as do the bars and restaurants serving Spanish food, such as Bar Torero or Alegría.
A show by José Barrios
Flamenco performances are one of the most popular activities and also one of the most expensive. They are not concentrated in a single space, but, for example, small performances are improvised in the hotel lobby.
The main show of this Spanish amusement park is called Legado, and the one offered in the complex and on the TV channel in the rooms is Clásicoa mixture of Cantando bajo la lluvia and letters of Antonio Machado that choreographed by José Barrios. The artist, who died in 2020, had been collaborating with Parque España for more than 10 years and, on the official website of the Japanese company that manages it, there are words of remembrance and affection in his memory. www.parque-net.com
El Parque Español estaba operativo en 1993 y se inauguró formalmente en 1994.
