Immersive Fort Tokyo: The World's First All Immersive Theme Park, Now Open in Japan

While Tokyo locals might have fond memories of dates or family outings in Odaiba with a trip to the unusual Venus Fort shopping complex, foreign visitors are less likely to be familiar with this area of Tokyo or the history of Venus Fort itself, including its recent rebirth as the brand new indoor theme park Immersive Fort Tokyo. So what exactly is this place? Branding itself as the world's first totally immersive theme park, Immersive Fort is a new Tokyo destination constructed within the skeleton of Venus Fort - already known as a "theme park-style shopping center" thanks to its unique interiors styled to look like quaint European streets, complete with ceilings that cycle through sunny blue skies and pink sunsets. Leaving much of this funky interior design intact, Immersive Fort has now transformed many of the spaces that once hosted the mall's shops and restaurants into "immersive attractions" of all kinds that "go beyond a regular theme park," from interactive theater experiences to escape-room-type attractions that have you running from clowns and hiding in lockers. The themes range from past to present, including Jack the Ripper horror and anime inspiration with the characters of Oshi no Ko and Tokyo Revengers, and even the restaurants claim to immerse diners in experiences from another time or place. As the first destination of its kind, in its very first days open to the public, Immersive Fort still leaves a little room for improvement, but its unique setup offers plenty of thrills for the curious visitor looking to immerse themself in something new.

Immersive Fort Tokyo (イマーシブ・フォート 東京)
1-3-15 Aomi, Koto City, Tokyo
Hours: 11:00 - 19:00 or 20:00 (check the official calendar for details)
Official Website (en)

As of its grand opening in March 2024, Immersive Fort Tokyo has a total of 11 attractions, including three main immersive theatrical features, a restaurant show, a handful of "happenings" planned to occur in open areas throughout the facility, and a varied collection of attractions along the lines of a haunted house or escape room. While ticket passes offering access to just the smaller attractions are available (6,800 yen for adults), most visitors will probably want to buy one of the more expensive passes (9,800~14,800 yen) that include all the little stuff plus one of what you might call the "main attractions." These three large-scale attractions each have their own themes: classic Sherlock Holmes, a rather spicy story concerning courtesans in a historic Japanese red light district (for guests 18 and up), and an "immersive escape" designed around the anime Tokyo Revengers. You actually can buy tickets for them each separately so you can do more than one in a single day, but you might find yourself exhausted by the end of it all - with a focus on immersion, all of the attractions are pretty active! With lots to choose from, here are a few spots you might want to check out.

More than 300 million players have enjoyed the Identity V survival horror game on their phones and computers, and now the concept has been brought to life in Tokyo, with participants forming teams to dash across the rooms and find codes, hide from evil clowns, and try their best to make it out of the locked chamber before their three minutes are up. This immersive attraction will have you on your toes, with a little more active excitement than your average escape room.

Make sure you're in the right place at the right time to get wrapped up in this spy-themed adventure! Slick gang members and their lackeys order the crowd around in an attempt to steal an important computer chip, suited spies bravely arrive to rescue the innocent, and choreographed fights take place through the theme park halls. As an audience member for Spy Action!, you never really know when or how you might get involved, and the short and sweet performance is really the epitome of everything Immersive Fort is trying to achieve.

Immersive Fort calls this attraction an "Immersive Horror Maze," but most visitors would probably call it a haunted house, themed around the real-life serial killer who terrorized the women of London in the late 1800s. Within the twists and turns of the narrow maze hallways, a masked Jack pops out of doorways, gruesome victims beg for mercy, and London policemen eye you with suspicion. If thrills and horror are your thing, you'll want to check out this tour of Jack's territory.

Less interactive but certainly still immersive, this Hansel and Gretel themed attraction takes you on two different journeys. Will you choose to follow the two little children who find themselves stuck in the woods, gobble up the delicacies of an evil witch's candy-coated house, and burn the place down to manage their escape? Or will you instead follow the witch through her years as a sad little waif, discovering the backstory behind her crimes? As you make your way through a series of artfully sculpted rooms, the main story plays out through a series of voiced animations, projected onto the walls to make it feel like you're inside the room with the characters. The attraction is witchy and whimsical, and a little bit creepy, just like the original Grimm Fairy Tale.

For visitors interested in the anime aspects of Immersive Fort, there are two attractions worth taking note of. The Tokyo Revengers Immersive Escape lets you join the Tokyo Manji Gang as they slip away from the flames of a burning building, escape rival gang members coming to destroy "Toman" for good, and of course save Hinata from dying a tragic death. Buy a pass including this main attraction, and you'll find yourself right along Takemichi, Mikey, and the rest of the gang as they battle their way out of all the chaos.

The other anime attraction is the Oshi no Ko Immersive Rally, an interactive puzzle-solving attraction where participants work together with the girls of B-Komachi, before dancing along to the music at their show. If you're a big Oshi no Ko fan, you can even buy a glowing light stick at the gift shop beforehand, to wave along to the beat.

With so many of the attractions at Immersive Fort Tokyo involving frantic running and death-defying escapes, it's not hard to work up an appetite, and when it's time to eat the theme park has three restaurant options plus a shop selling sweet treats. Casa di Peroni or The Cabaret are probably the best options for a hearty meal. Casa di Peroni is built to make you feel like you're dining in a homey restaurant right off an Italian piazza, with main dishes like pesce al cartoccio and pasta genovese, and lighter options like sandwiches and Basque cheesecake. The Cabaret also offers filling options like red wine beef stew, and cute sweet treats like their "dress cake," but the real focus is the stage show featuring a cast of genuinely quite talented performers, singing and dancing their hearts out like something from a movie.

Tokyo Revengers fans won't want to miss Cafe Flower, designed to look like the kind of old-fashioned Japanese cafe where members of the Tokyo Manji Gang might hang out and grab a bite to eat. Borrow the gang's seats (with their jackets still slung over the backs) and dine on bento box rice balls and "cream soda" floats!

Or grab a sweet snack across the way at Dolce Vita, which offers a selection of parfaits, along with the rather unique option of a "melonbread sandwich" - sweet Japanese melonbread stuffed with crisp veggies and savory slices of ham!

There's nothing quite like Immersive Fort anywhere else in the world, let alone in Japan, and the fresh newness of this unique destination comes across in places as lacking polish. But if you're the kind of person who's never satisfied with just watching a story play out, this new theme park will let you be a part of the action like nowhere else. If you're in Japan and you're looking for the very newest spots in Tokyo, a day at Immersive Fort Tokyo will certainly leave you with experiences you're not likely to forget!


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