The was one of the world's largest

indoor waterpark An indoor water park is a type of water park that is located inside a building. An indoor water park has the ability to stay open year-round, as it is not affected by weather conditions. History Some of the first indoor water parks are at Duinr ...

s, located in Miyazaki,

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Layout

The Polynesia-themed Ocean Dome, which was part of the Sheraton Seagaia Resort, with the world's biggest retractable roof, which was opened and closed according to the weather conditions; 12,000 square metres of sandy beach, crushed from 600 tonnes of stones; an "ocean" six times larger than an Olympic pool, filled with 13,500 tonnes of unsalted, chlorinated water kept hot at 28 °C, equipped with a wave-machine with 200 variations, and listed in the ''

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, list ...

'' as the biggest simulated pool. A resort, it boasts five hotels, several golf-courses, a botanical park and a zoo.

History

The Ocean Dome water park, which opened in 1993 along with the rest of the complex, was visited by 1.25 million people in the peak year of fiscal 1995. Other accommodations within the area include the Seaside Hotel Phoenix, the Sun Hotel Phoenix, and the Cottage Himuka, with 14 cottages in a wooded setting. Depending on the season, the entrance cost for the simulated dome was 2600 yen ($21.17) for an adult and 1600 yen ($13.03) for a child. Seagaia filed for bankruptcy on February 19, 2001, being the biggest failure of public-private partnership in Japan and symbolized the excesses of Japan's bubble economy. The dome was later bought by Ripplewood, an American private-equity fund, in 2001 for 16.2 billion yen (US$148 million), which was less than 10% of its construction costs of 200 billion yen ($1.8 billion). Ripplewood had also invested an additional 3.5 billion yen ($32 million) on renovations for the dome; but even after the remodeling of the resort, the hotel closed down with liabilities of 276 billion yen ($2.5 million). The water park was closed in 2007 by Phoenix Resort K.K. The Seagaia Ocean dome was demolished in 2017, a year after the hotel had received major renovations which did not include the dome.

Gallery

Trivia

The Seagaia Ocean Dome was to make an appearance in the 1993 unmade James Bond movie ''Reunion With Death''. "Scripting 007: Behind the writing of the James Bond movies" by Clement Feutry (Version 2.2 - Nov 30, 2024)] - Chapter 18: "Tomorrow Never Dies" (Pages 1250-1256)

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