or just simply Dreamland, was a theme park near Nara, Japan, heavily inspired by Disneyland in California. It was in continuous operation for 45 years, from 1961, closing permanently in 2006 as a result of falling attendance. The park was left abandoned until it was demolished between October 2016 and December 2017. Beginnings On July 1, 1961, Nara Dreamland was opened to the public. The entrance to the park was designed to look almost identical to Disneyland, including its own versions of the Train Depot, Main Street, U.S.A., and the familiar Sleeping Beauty Castle at the hub. It also had a Matterhorn-type mountain (with a Matterhorn Bobsleds-type ride, called Bobsleigh) with a Skyway running through it, as well as an Autopia-type ride and a monorail. The park also had its own mascots, Ran-chan and Dori-chan, two children dressed as bearskin guards. The park was initially popular as it was the closest thing to Disneyland in Japan. At its peak, the park had 1.7 million visitors a year. Decline In 1979, The Oriental Land Company made contact with The Walt Disney Company to create a Disney theme park in Tokyo. After Tokyo Disneyland opened in 1983, the number of visitors to Nara Dreamland slowly began to decrease, as more people were interested in going to the said Disney park. This marked the beginning of the downfall for Dreamland, with attendance numbers dropping to around a million visitors a year. MEC, including Nara Dreamland, was bought by the supermarket chain Daiei in 1993. In 2001, Tokyo DisneySea opened next to Tokyo Disneyland, and Universal Studios Japan opened as well in Osaka, the latter of which is about 40 kilometers away from Nara Dreamland. After those two parks opened, Dreamland's attendance numbers worsened, plummeting to 400,000 visitors a year. In 2004, the park began to decline in quality; some stores closed down and some attractions began to rust. On August 31, 2006, the park closed down for good. It was left abandoned for 10 years and it would be demolished in October 2016. Sale and demolition Nara City's government gained ownership of the park after the park's owner fell behind in property taxes. In 2013, the city put the site up for auction but the auction received no bids. In 2015 the city put the property up for auction again. This time, an Osaka-based real estate company named SK Housing won the bid,