Moominvalley Park’s Sounds of Winter
The shores of Lake Miyazawa in Japan spent the winter months wrapped in a warm blanket of discovery. Moominvalley Park in Hanno, Saitama prefecture, Japan, created a new wintertime walking attraction named “Adventure Walk.” The trail takes guests on a 1.8-kilometer-long nighttime journey that envelops them in the stories of the Moomins, a family of fairy-tale creatures created by Finnish author Tove Jansson. In 1945, Jansson first introduced the Moomin characters through a series of books. The saga became enormously popular in Japan as an animated TV series in 1969.
Two years ago, Moomin Monogatari Ltd. opened the 7.3-hectare Moominvalley Park under a long-term license from Rights and Brands, the global agent of Moomin Characters Oy Ltd. Visitors to Moominvalley Park enjoy many attractions and live shows based on Jansson’s books about the Moomins.
“Adventure Walk” is part of the park’s “Winter Wonderland” event, scheduled from Nov. 11, 2020, to March 21, 2021. The winter attraction combines large-scale light productions placed along the outer circumference of Lake Miyazawa and a new audio-technology experience from Sony. Named Sound AR, the advancements in audio storytelling merge sounds from a virtual world with those of the real world, thus creating an experience the park says hasn’t been done before.
As guests saunter along the natural terrain around the lake (normally closed to visitors during the majority of the year), they hear the sounds and voices of the Moomin world through earbuds connected to their mobile devices. Requiring guests to use their own devices, instead of providing headphones, helped the park maintain its coronavirus protocols. “We’ve upgraded and developed contents [so that] guests can download an app (Sony Locatone) and use their own smartphones to prevent COVID-19 infection,” says Arisa Kawasaki, creative director for Moomin Monogatari Ltd. Guests can feel the real dark and cold of the Moomin winter world and hear the Moomin characters voiced by famous actors in Japan.
Kawasaki says part of the magic of “Adventure Walk” are the ever-changing sounds and voices guests hear from the Moomin stories as they progress around the lake. The audio effect produces a three-dimensional sound field based on the position and angle of the guest. The system uses location mapping to produce audio cues, such as the sound of footsteps in the snow, as guests walk about the trail.
“Location/motion-based audio automatically plays back sounds based on users’ location of motion,” says Kawasaki. “It can create sound images at any point or distance from your ears and makes you feel as if you were immersed in sound from all directions. It means guests can go at their own pace without human guidance. This kind of innovation allows distancing without worrying about the pandemic.”
“Adventure Walk” takes 60 to 90 minutes and costs 2,500 yen for adults and 1,500 yen for kids.
