Hi — I’m Tabiiku. I travel around Japan with my daughter on the principle that experience is the best thing you can give a child. This trip was Awaji Island: a day at Nijigen no Mori, the anime and game theme park, and a night in one of the cocoon-shaped cabins at GRAND CHARIOT Hokutoshichisei 135°.
Getting there
Public transport to Nijigen no Mori from Tokyo is difficult. With a hire car it is about forty minutes from Shin-Kobe, and roughly three hours door to door from Tokyo.
Two warnings about the drive. The roads immediately around Shin-Kobe station are complicated, and drivers in the Kobe area are on the aggressive side, so take your time. Once you are past the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, though, it opens out into a beautiful four-lane run that is straight for miles — a genuinely lovely drive.
We used Times Car Share, which I would recommend: you book in the app, unlock and return the car yourself, and refuelling is optional.
Nijigen no Mori
Which attractions to choose
The park covers about 1,348,000 square metres and has permanent attractions built around Dragon Quest, Godzilla, NARUTO and Crayon Shin-chan, plus limited-run collaborations.
Dragon Quest. An elaborate puzzle-solving adventure. The world of the game is beautifully realised and adults enjoy it as much as children. It took us about two and a quarter hours.
Godzilla. The zipline is good fun, but the Godzilla-cell shooting game had no staff around it and felt distinctly cheap. Unless you are a Godzilla fan, I would skip it.
Crayon Shin-chan. An adventure course that works up to around the end of primary school. There is a harness-free area for small children and a harder course up at eight metres. It also has an unusual zipline that runs in both directions.
Which ticket to buy
There are three tiers:
- Light — the basics
- Gold — the one that lets you do everything, including the Dragon Quest side quests and one run on the Crayon Shin-chan zipline
- Premium — the top tier, with merchandise included
If you are staying at GRAND CHARIOT there is a guest ticket, and its advantage is that you do not have to nominate a time slot and it is refundable.
GRAND CHARIOT Hokutoshichisei 135°: the room
The accommodation is a set of separate standalone cabins. The one I would pick is the Star Cocoon — from its balcony you look out over Awaji Island, and the view is remarkable.
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Inside, the living area and the sleeping area are separate, and behind the bedroom there is a bunk bed tucked away like a secret den, which my daughter adored. There is a lot of hinoki cypress in the construction and it smells wonderful. My one criticism is that the sofa is firmer than it needs to be.
GRAND CHARIOT Hokutoshichisei 135°: the food
Dinner was a tomato sukiyaki course. The beef is Awaji beef — apparently only around 150 head are produced a year and almost none of it reaches Tokyo. Every course from the appetiser onwards was superb, to the point where the food alone would bring me back.
For breakfast you choose Japanese or Western. The bread and the local produce are what people talk about, and rightly so.
In summary
The service at GRAND CHARIOT was of a very high standard and the hospitality was excellent from beginning to end. It is a place I would happily return to, and if you are pairing it with a day at Nijigen no Mori it makes for an unusual and very memorable two days on Awaji.
Book GRAND CHARIOT Hokutoshichisei 135°
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