Sylvanian Families is a popular line of collectible figures and miniatures created by Japanese company Epoch in 1985. The cute little woodland creatures were beloved by 90’s kids like me and we continue to enjoy them into our adulthood today!
Their immaculately crafted cute faces made of soft felt, pilgrim-style/hand-made clothing, and muted colors sets these toys above the other types popular at the time. I’ll always stop by to peek inside a select store when I see one to look at the Sylvanian Families collections there!
Recently during a visit to Umeda I discovered my childhood memory was on display in Osaka! I stumbled upon a special exhibit in Whity Umeda of a GIANT Sylvanian Families scene. I enjoyed how they used the Whity’s space to create something like an art installation complete with my favorite characters popping out of the columns and surrounded by a sea of sunflowers! As it turned out, it was a much smaller version of what was to come in Sakai, Osaka!
One day a friend of mine posted on her instagram that she took her family to “Sylvania Park” in Southern Osaka. I’d heard of Ghibli Park for Studio Miyazaki fans but I never expected one for my favorite figures as well! This was a Sylvanian Family-themed immersive experience created in 2020, the first of its kind in Kansai. All of my favorite characters and scenes were life sized and like the other attractions, one could dive into a 3D world of beloved animals. Overwhelmed with nostalgia, my friend wrote that SHE had more fun than her children visiting her favorite fuzzy friends. Located in Sakai, Osaka -it’s relatively easy to get to. I was ready to play with my (now bigger) toys again!
Table of Contents
Getting to the park
OPEN TIME: 10:00 -17:00
PRICE: The park has a number of separate areas, each with their own fee to visit. The basic price is 1500 Adult / 1000 yen child (under 13 years old) ticket.
ACCESS: directions from the website include: “From bus terminal stop number 6, take a Nankai route bus bound for “Harvest Hill” for about 20 minutes. (This is not a direct bus.) To get to Izumigaoka Station, take the “Semboku Rapid Railway bound for Izumichuo” for about 22 minutes from Nankai Namba Station.”
I’ll mention that this countryside area of Osaka with its fields of rolling green hills didn’t conform to my conception of a bustling downtown -but for that reason it’s worth taking the trip to see another side of Japan’s second largest metropolis!
The train ride
The train ride getting there turned out to be an extension of the park fun! I was surprised to see it was decked out in Sylvania Family decorations from front to back to advertise the attraction!
I thought it was so cute that they had a little cat in the driver’s seat of the Nankai Line train that Osaka Dot Com writer Sam and I rode to get there. I’d seen other such promotions such as Tom and Jerry steering the Hankyu Train in Umeda or the Osaka World Fair mascot Myaku Myaku plastered over the monorails near Expo Park -but this was another “only in Japan” moment! It was a pleasant surprise indeed!
I love the attention to detail in putting the advertisement on the hand ring as well! I thought perhaps I was the only person appreciating it – it must be a subliminal advertising strategy nonetheless.
Arriving at the park
Once I arrived at the park I was surprised to see that it was in the middle of the woods on the side of a mountain. As I walked up the long path to get there the toy replicas were poking out from behind tall trees amidst rolling fields. It smelled like the forest. I was surprised that there was so much nature in Osaka, (as opposed to an urban metropolis.) But the more I thought about it, it fit the toy’s Old Europe theme -it had a rustic amish vibe.
As I arrived and took care of the business of buying a ticket and crossing the turnstiles I was handed a special paper that could be used to enhance my enjoyment that day. It was a scavenger hunt sheet for searching all around Sylvania Park. Participating gave me a chance to win a souvenir for the day. It was a fun way to enjoy the space and made me feel I was really getting my money’s worth in the ticket price! I’ve included a picture below of the toy that I won which was an original Sylvanian family character! I was so impressed!
I can’t think of another park generous enough to give such a high quality toy -and they give it to adults too! With each member of the family getting one it adds up! You could even say I visited that day just to get this prize! In the end, I failed 2 of the scavenger questions but they still gave me a small figure anyway! One interesting fact is that on a rainy day the little characters also include a mini raincoat as you can see below.
As I entered the life-sized world of Sylvanian Family for the first time I got a chance to see it on a human scale. The signature soft felt material used for the characters was the same but BIGGER! The toy sets were meticulous about details -but even when blown up to gigantic size they still preserved that without cheaping out on shoddy materials like plastic because it’s “just for kids.”
I visited each “house” and got to join my friends! In the kitchen I touched the bread, silverware, furniture, etc -it wasn’t some walled off museum display you couldn’t interact with! In addition to the lifesize exhibits there was a museum that showcased the history of S.F. With some original miniatures from the first set. This offered some fun info for adults to read and learn about as they accompanied the children that day.
Before arriving, I was worried the park would be crowded with kids and I wouldn’t be able to immerse myself -but luckily that day it was empty! I was able to enjoy some of my favorite characters such as the chocolate rabbit family -as you can tell from the brown tipped ears! Some interesting details in their habitat include the black and white portrait in the corner and the old telephone too. It’s so realistic and different from a Japanese home -so much so that I always thought Sylvanian Families was a toy from overseas. We kids loved it because the European/Western style was so different from what we know in Japan. It’s similar to Rikachan, our favorite Japanese version of Barbie, with her exotic blonde hair, makeup and big eyes.
You can see in these floral patterns (above) as well: it’s so different from Japanese decor. These Western elements touched our hearts! We rejected other types of dolls with a kimono or a typical Japanese house with a tatami mat. These Sylvanian sets had chimneys and fireplaces as well -I’d never seen one in a Japanese house!
These days the variety of S.F. characters has increased! When I started collecting I had the original rabbit but now there are cute porcupines and elephants like these! They definitely haven’t lost the “annoyingly cute factor” -it’s hard to describe!
I also found this amazingly cute halloween set at the store -the elephant and the dog tickle my heartstrings! For those looking to buy a set, in Umeda’s Daimaru department store a specialty Sylvanian Family store opened recently on September 9th! (Sylvanian Family Mori No Uchi Premium Store Daimaru Umeda) It may explain why they had a display in Whitys Umeda close by! I thought perhaps I could buy my favorite aforementioned pumpkin and zombie character there but it was only sold as a set! There didn’t used to be these limited edition types back in the day so I was so excited to see it anyway!
Food Samples
I had written about food replicas recently for Osaka Dot Com, a uniquely Japanese creation -commonly seen in restaurant displays. I was so excited to see it incorporated here at Sylvania Park -in as high quality as I had ever seen! The small toys, which are the basis for the bigger displays here also include miniature omrice, bread, jam etc -realistic even at the small level. Blown up to human size, the cheesecake, jam and shrimp doria, as you can see above, look ready to eat! Almost as impressive as the detail on the Sylvanian Park mascot wearing a real conductor embroidered uniform on the Nankai train!
Similar to this, another scene that caught my attention was the bread making family, complete with a real waffle maker and toaster! This attention to detail must have been inspired by the toy’s housing decor: the original furniture was all green -an interesting choice! Even the windows in the house opened too. When my cousin bought the grocery store toy collection it even had a jam making set and tongs to take every piece of candy. Everything was functional which made it that much more immersive!
Each character could change their clothing too and it’s spawned a whole movement of people who crafted original character clothing by hand. You can change their outfits every day or according to the season (as I had mentioned the raincoat!). Back in the day the buttons used to all be hand sewn as well -even as I child I noticed how well done these were!
I had mentioned the museum exhibit, and visiting there I stumbled upon a picture of the 1st generation of Sylvanian Families house -the one I owned. You can see it has the signature green furniture that was so iconic! These days the designs for the collections have modernized and I don’t enjoy them as much as these classic types.
After thoughts
As an artist, I’ve made rabbit art throughout the years and I think Sylvanian Families cute bunnies are what inspired me to make them. Even as an adult the things that inspired us as children continue to affect us and intertwine with our daily lives.
With that in mind, I hope that with the creation of Sylvanian Park, a new generation of children come to appreciate and be inspired by these unique toys in the same way that I was. On this larger and grander scale, perhaps there is a new opportunity to spark a child’s imagination like mine was. Here’s to a new generation of (rabbit) artists just like me! Until next time!
