Japan 04/26 – Washuzan Highland
7 years ago I arrived at the ticket desk of Washuzan Highland to be helpfully informed that all three rollercoasters were not operating that day.
Time for revenge.
Day 3 – Washuzan Highland
Arrived to a reasonably long queue to get in. As with Rusutsu last year I had intentionally aimed for what was expected to be a busy or ‘peak’ weekend in order to prioritise attraction availability over crowd comfort.
The history of why this place has an obsession with Brazil eludes me, but it seems to be toned down these days. The only time it kicked off was for a weird bingo event in the middle of the day (everyone got a card with their entry ticket) that had a couple of folks in carnival attire trying to rile up a mostly mute Japanese audience, while of course shouting numbers and giving out prizes.
We’re not here for that though. It is with immense satisfaction and sadness that I have now ridden every existing version of my namesake coaster.
Despite the queue to get in, the fact that it’s front and centre as the first ride you see upon entry, and the horrendous capacity of this running a single 6-person car, #1 Ultra Twister hadn’t drawn too much of a wait.
Turns out the restraint system I described for the dive loop version in Rusutsu is entirely unique (amongst those that remain at least). Here the first thing I noticed is a much chonkier shoulder restraint and lack of weird little lap bar.
It all amounts to a similar amount of fear factor however, I can never say enough how much these things are fascinatingly over and under engineered, for the era.
It delivered the appropriate amounts of glory. Two terrifying out of seat moments, one thriling hurl of a heartline, a car crash of a brake run at the far end, and a graceful backwards descent through two more inversions that no one else sees coming. Seems obvious now, but I was surprised at the speed difference of these vs the dive loop edition, which carries an insane amount of momentum and intensity in comparison to that which comes to a dead stop at less than half the height.
This park is quite the athletic workout, as it’s built on a massive hill. Also at ground level, but with views here not even halfway up, is the other major coaster.
For the morning #2 Pink Typhoon Standing Coaster was running its backwards, not standing, train, which I found to be extremely potent in the back (front) row.
I’ve experienced the layout before, but not for a long time and never in this manner, so the sheer element of surprise in each of the surprisingly sharp hills led to some surprisingly strong airtime surprises. Loved it.
At the summit of the park is the final, family friendly coaster. Old mate #3 Chupy Coaster.
It’s great not only for the setting, but the very open cars with no restraint beyond a seatbelt, and of course the train decoration.
Did a nearby cycle railway, also for the views.
An interesting touch was that they added a little trick track to it, for a bit of scary illusion.
They’ve also got this ferris wheel with open air seats. Seemed to be a few downsides however, in that it’s upcharge, your view is restricted by restraint and there were a lot of scary bugs flying around.
Opted for the regular of course.
Can’t beat a good vantage point.
This looks far more impressive than it rides.
Around lunchtime they were due to swap the trains on this over to the standup version, as proclaimed on a sandwich board on the path to the ride.
This also coincided with the bingo, so doubled up as being dead quiet and avoiding that.
Now in this mode, it’s the same as the Togo stand-up in Italy, which I absolutely adored.
Didn’t ride quite as potently in feet-off-the-floor airtime for whatever reason, be it weather, front row or me related.
Still terrifying though, and definitely reinforced for me that, whilst B&M have finally come a bit closer to replicating the fear through actually standing up, and having a restraint that moves with you, Togo have been doing that and better since the ’70s. Insane.
Closing lap on that closed out the visit, which was lovely to finally tick off after so long of a tease. Great setting, great rides, a gem of a Japanese park. Having now ridden all the Heartlines, I can officially retire from the hobby.
The drive for the afternoon took us over a set of bridges through the inland sea and over to Shikoku. Not to be confused with the bridges over the inland sea to Shikoku we’ve just seen from the park. That’s the other way.
Who needs coasters when you can have bridges?
Let’s count.
At the end there’s a rest stop where you can look back at some of the view.
Finished up in the city of Matsuyama, our base for the night, and took a wander over to some touristy place.
Old train and new tram.
A pretty clock tower that does a show every hour – the top rises up, doors open out from the sides with little dioramas and music plays. It got dark, so no pictures, you can probably find it on the gram.
And the building that the area is named after.
Dogo Onsen. Nice.