Japan 08/25 – Kamine Park + Pleasure Garden
Heading back south again now, the journey took us through the part of Fukushima prefecture closest to the location of the nuclear disaster in 2011, which the area is still recovering from. Evidence of this can still be noted by regular signs on the motorway displaying the current radiation levels which, reassuringly or otherwise, are less than an average day in London.
Day 11 – Kamine Park
First park of the day had a worrying stillness in the air. Not a single ride operated from driving past the entrance, parking, applying copious amounts of sun cream in the car for 10 minutes and then walking to the ticket desk.
As such my first question was ‘is the rollercoaster running?’ The response was a positive one, so paid up and headed in.
No sooner had we set foot inside the place, the coaster dispatched with guests on. Like magic.
#1 Dream Coaster is a medium-sized jet coaster with a great location and a bee on the front.
It begins with a decently forceful terrain turn that got me wet somehow.
Before heading off into the skyline for some more hard cornering. Decent fun, and lap bars were appreciated of course.
Stopped for a drink as it felt mean on the place to be done so quickly. Next.
Pleasure Garden
Further along the coast is this big resort, which includes an amusement section.
Beelined the #2 Banana Coaster first, which wins the award for friendliest ride-op of the trip.
Then the bigger coaster at the back, #3 Wood Land Jet Coaster. There are some pretty cool shots of this ride that make it look a tad more impressive than it actually is. Track poking above the treeline and disappearing into nothing, it’s a good effect.
This happens out of the first drop, but overall it’s a fair bit less significant than I had anticipated and wasn’t particularly standout in any way. Just more simple fun.
Another one of these shooting dark rides next in Legend of Salamander. Sometimes they properly gamify the scoring system and you can win a prize, which this one was doing, and we won.
The prize is a nice shiny coin with the logo of the ride on one side and the park on the other. The intention is for you to then put this in a machine in exchange for a trading card. Kept the coin as it seems a far better souvenir than a piece of paper.
Spotted a few questionable attractions in passing that needed checking out. One was designated as a ‘VR coaster’ but it just uses a short piece of straight rail to give the illusion of being a cred.
Another was a 4D cinema but it just had cheap swivel stools in a room.
Lastly was an actual dark ride discovery, Smog Kingdom Great Adventure.
It’s another interactive one, but more AR style. You point a handheld tablet screen thing in the direction of different parts of the scenery and then little mould monsters appear on the screen that you have to tap and destroy. It also had a prize for beating a score, but we lost. In typical fashion, interacting with the screen also meant I took in almost none of the scenery. Turns out there are multiple versions of this particular ride found throughout Japan.
Job done, it was then time to head back into Tokyo and drop off the car, made more difficult by severe delays from a traffic accident and expensive detours.