Ikoma Sanjo Amusement Park

Ikoma Sanjo is a small, old-fashioned amusement park on the 642 m summit of Mount Ikoma, on the Nara-Osaka border, and it is mostly for families with young children. Kintetsu opened it on 27 March 1929, together with the upper section of the Ikoma Cable Car, and entry has been free since 1999. You pay per ride, 300 to 1,000 yen, or buy an all-day ride pass for 4,200 yen.

The reason an adult might come anyway is the Hikoto, the flying tower that has stood here since opening day. Biplane-shaped cars hang from arms on a tower about 30 m tall and fly out in a circle as it turns, and from about 20 m up you look out over the Osaka plain on one side and the Nara Basin on the other. It is often described as the oldest large amusement ride still standing in Japan, though the park itself has said it has no records to say whether any earlier ones existed. The tower survived the wartime metal drives because the navy used it as an air-raid lookout, and in 2021 the Japan Society of Civil Engineers listed it as civil engineering heritage together with the Ikoma Cable Car. The ride is 600 yen, and children under 6 can go with an adult.

The trip up is half the outing. From Toriimae Station, next to Kintetsu Ikoma Station, the cable car climbs to Hozanji Station, where you change for the upper line; allow about 16 minutes in all, more if the connection is slow. The cars are painted as a bulldog and a cat on the lower section, and as an organ and a cake on the upper one. Hozan-ji, the Ikoma Shoten temple under the cliff, is about 10 minutes on foot from Hozanji Station, so the two fit into one day: temple on the way up, rides at the top.

In 2026 the park is open from 7 March to 6 December, closed on Thursdays and through the winter, and hours change with the season, so check the calendar on the official site. On rainy days only the seven indoor attractions run. Driving means the Shigi-Ikoma Skyline toll road plus parking (1,500 yen, more on some weekends). Almost everything is in Japanese apart from an English park map.