Japanese theme park offers remote working on ferris wheel

Visitors get four laps in a booth with wifi as part of amusement park package

Ferris wheel (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

A theme park in Japan is attempting to attract visitors by offering a remote working package that includes an hour in a unique workstation – a gondola on its ferris wheel.

Yomiuriland amusement park, based 30 minutes from Tokyo, has launched an “Amusement Workstation” package for those who fancy a change from home working.

It includes a spot at a “work booth” near the pool for the day, complete with chair, table, electricity outlets and wifi, for just 1,900 yen (£14) per person or 3,600 yen (£26) per pair.

But the most enticing part of the package is the hour-long reservation on the park’s ferris wheel. Visitors can work from a booth with wifi while enjoying the views during four circuits.

After the work day is done, visitors can make full use of the park’s other attractions, rides and hot baths (although some of these cost extra).

Packages are available to book from 15 October, with workstations available between 9am and 4pm.

It’s not the only Japanese theme park to get creative during the pandemic.

In August, Greenland, a park in Kumamoto, eastern Japan, announced it would be taking the innovative approach of giving visitors stickers adorned with screaming mouths that they could attach to their masks.

The idea was to give park-goers a way of expressing their enjoyment on the rides without actually having to resort to screaming or cheering.

The concept was unveiled on social media, with a video that showed a visitor wearing the sticker while whizzing around one of the attraction’s roller coasters.

“This is Greenland’s new scream style,” said the theme park’s Facebook page.

Elsewhere, a café at a Japanese zoo encouraged social distancing by filling its café with huge stuffed capybaras – giant rodents that are native to South America.

The toys were placed in chairs around the café’s tables, meaning patrons were forced to sit further apart from one another and therefore maintain a 2-metre distance.