Indeed, according to this random weblog entry the artificial beach is right next to a real beach. I guess that makes sense logistically but it takes us into the territory of a Vegas casino whose theme is "ripping off the other casinos on the Strip". Which undermines my point, because that would be the most awesome casino ever.
(1) Fri Dec 22 2006 08:02 Artificial Beach:
I'd known for a long time about the artificial beach theme park in Japan. I've been to an artificial beach myself (though not such an opulent one), so I didn't think there was anything especially odd about it until immediately after waking up this morning, when I realized that Japan is an island chain and they've already got more beach than they know what to do with. It's like having a Vegas casino where the theme is "desert and gila monsters".