Moomin Valley Park

Meet The Moomins At -

Table of Contents

1 About The Moomin Valley Park
2 Who are the "Moomins"?
3 What Can You Find In The Park -
4 Photo Spot!
5 How to get there and around
6 Information

About The Moomin Valley Park

The Moomin valley Park (ムーミンバレーパーク) is a theme park located in Hanno City, in Saitama Prefecture. And about the Moomin characters created by Finnish author and artist Tove Jansson.

The park is opened recently in March 2019. And its the first Moomin theme park outside of Finland, which gives to the visitors a look into the world of the author and her creation.

Who are the "Moomins"?

For those unfamiliar with the Moomins, they are the cute characters in a series of Finnish children’s stories by Tove Jansson.

The Moomins are a family of large, white, almost-hippopotamus creatures that live in harmony in Moominvalley. Throughout their books, TV shows, and movies, they go on all sort of adventures.

Even thought it is originally from Finland, Japan has made it`s own TV Animation of the Moomins story. The Moomin Anime series made the moomin characters particularly popular in Japan, and being popular over the world.

What Can You Find In The Park -

The park is focus on enjoying the world of the Moomins as they do, in harmony with nature and less focus on attractions. There is few attractions that spread across the park, but mostly their for kids.
The Park located on a very large area. To walk for the park entrance , you need to walk through a Mesta Valley ( which is Finnish leisure park around Miyazawa lake and is a free part of the whole Valley) for about 10 minutes.
(P.s “Metsa” means “forest” in Finnish, and mostly the park names and areas are in Finnish)

Metsa Area

The park is divided into four areas:
1. Hajimari no Irie(Beginning Cove Area – where the entrance is) ,
2. Moominvalley(which the main attractions are),
3. Kokemus (which is the exhibition facility), and
4. Osabishiyama (which is the Forested Lonely Mountain) .

Beginning Cove Area:

At the entrance of Moominvalley Park, you pass through the welcome gate of the “book”, which is the original story of Moomin.
Also at the entrance area, there are restaurants and shops where you can enjoy a variety of pancake menus. There are goods for enjoying the world of Moomin.
The restaurants has a terrace seats. So if the weather is nice, the terrace is a great place to enjoy your meal and the lakeside scenery.

“Book” gates

Lettula Restaurant Café place

Some of the cute Moomin`s goods you can find at the stores

As you continue through the park, you’ll see an Uimahuone (bath house) at the end of a pier extending out into the lake.
In the Moomin story, this bath house was built by Moominpappa for the Moomin family, who love the sea.

Bath House at the lake

MoominValley The Main Area:

After passing the trees, You will arrive to the Main area of Moominvalley Park’s – The iconic Moominhouse (Muumitalo) comes into view!

A stream flows through Moominvalley and in front of Moominhouse. As it feels like the real Moomins area.
Also there is tours that takes you inside the MoominHouse!

In the Moominvalley Area, you can watch live shows starring the Moomin family and their friends and Emma Teatteri (Emma’s Theater), also a meeting with Moomin family characters and take picture with them!

Fun at the MoominValley!
Cute live show, and picture time with the characters!

Kokemus:

“Kokemus” means “experience” in Finnish.
A three-story exhibition facility which gives the visitors the opportunity to learn more about the life of author Tove Jansoon and to learn more about the Moomin story.
It is a must-see spot in the park, full of photo spots that make you feel like you are lost in the world of the story.

Here some photos from the exhibition:

Be part of the exhibition!

Osabishiyama:

Lonely Mountain – the forested area where Moomintroll and his friends went on an adventure.
The main attraction here is the Hemulen’s Playground, a large treehouse shaped playground on top of a small hill for both adults and children.

Also at the end of the area you can find Snufkin’s tent!

Photo Spot!

Annually in summer, the entrance road from the car park down to the village is becoming colorful pathway!
A popular umbrella sky is displayed! About 1,200 colorful umbrellas swaying in the breeze of nature. Makes the best photo spot in the area.

How to get there and around

Metsa is easy to arrive from Tokyo. It takes for one way about 1 hour and 20 minutes.
You take from Ikebukuro station the Seibu Ikebukuro Line to Hanno Station which takes about 50 minutes (You can take more fastest train which cost more ) , From Hanno Station, you need to take bus from the North Exits. The bus takes about 20 minutes to arrive to Metsa.

If you come with car, there is parking lot. Which costs on weekends and holidays upwards of ¥3,000 (pretty expensive.) On other hand, on weekday the Parking lot is free charge.
We still recommend to use the publis transport . Very easy and confartable.

Let’s go visit the Moomins and their friends, born in the imagination of Tove Jansson!