Tokyo World Lanes - Real bowling alley?

[jasonh300]

I’ve found the following on a dozen trivia websites:

The Tokyo World Lanes Bowling Center is the largest bowling establishment in the world. It has 252 lanes and one very tired pinsetter.

I was interested in seeing a picture of the place (which some of the sites say has now shut down) since I spent many nights working and bowling at a 40 lane house and the biggest bowling center I’ve ever been in was 72 lanes.

Does/did this place really exist or is it just urban legend created by some trivia site that’s been repeated all over the place?

Are there any pictures?

Google hasn’t been of much help.

[Sage_Rat]

I don’t see anything that looks like a “Tokyo World Lanes Bowling Center”, but without knowing exactly what the original name is in Japanese, I can’t say for sure that it doesn’t (or didn’t) exist.

I’m still searching though.

[Xema]

@jasonh300

“… 252 lanes and one very tired pinsetter.”

The implication that pins are set manually is of course highly dubious.

[Sage_Rat]

Alright, I found a thing saying that “Nagoya Toyo Bowl” was the largest ever in Japan at 240 lanes. I don’t get the feeling that it exists anymore. Apparently there was a “Bowling Boom” at some point in time.

This is just from some random posts to a bulletin board though. They also say that there was (supposedly) some place in the US at one time that had over 200, and a rumor of a 252 place in Tokyo.

[ElvisL1ves]

Too late

The Tokyo World Lanes Center boasted 252 lanes of bowling pleasure and held the title as the world’s largest bowling alley but has since closed.
We had a harder time finding any information on the current largest bowling alley than picking up a 7-10 split, but it seems the record is still held by Japan with a bowling center that houses 141 lanes.

More than you want to know about the history of bowling in Japan. Inevitably,

At the end of each lane, Hello Kitty glows under a multitude of black lights. But the ubiquitous cartoon cat, posing triumphantly with a bowling ball in hand, isn’t the only thing taking on an aura at Ikebukuro’s Brunswick Sports Garden. The balls themselves, neon pink, orange, yellow and green globes, are like props from an '80s Cure video.

[Sage_Rat]

Well that shows me for Googling for something Japanese in Japanese… :smack:

[pudytat72]

The birthplace of bowling in Japan is in Nagasaki. The “International Bowling Salon” opened on June 22, 1861. Since 1972, June 22 has been designated “Bowling Day” in Japan.

I need to get a photo place. I have a picture of the sign in Nagasaki. Stained glass with bowling ball and pins!

[jasonh300]

I wish someone could find pictures of this place…or even some of the others mentioned.

I know there was a huge bowling boom in Asian countries about 10-15 years ago. It quickly went out of style bankrupting most of the bowling alleys.

A few years back, we bought 22 almost-brand-new AMF pinsetters from Korea where these new state of the art bowling centers had opened and closed within a year. Even after being removed, put into those big intermodal containers and brought to the US and then installed, it cost about 1/4 what AMF would’ve charged us for brand new machines.

The 141 lane record-holder that someone mentioned interests me…what’s with the odd lane? I’ve heard of “stub lanes” being installed…basically an odd lane used by the pro shop so that people can test the drilling of their balls.

[jasonh300]

Oops…just followed the second link by ElvisL1ves…the Hello Kitty theme is new to me, but “Cosmic Bowling” isn’t anything new in the U.S.

AMF sells regulation AMFlite pins that have a special coating that glows under blacklights. The oil on the lanes also has a glow to it and we made a killing on the neon colored balls.