Beppu, Harmonyland + Rakutenchi 05/26

The threat of rain that had accelerated the schedule of the previous day was still looming the next morning. With 2 more, smaller parks still to do in and around the town of Beppu, the ideal situation would have been to knock one out anyway, by hook or by crook.

Thus, as they had the most comprehensive website of the two, I kept tabs on Harmonyland religiously night and day. The rain never came overnight and was, in theory, deferred to mid morning by all reliable measures. As opening time approached, ride statuses were promptly updated and the park clearly stated that neither of their rollercoasters would operate for the day due to weather. I do like a decisive piece of information.

Day 7 – Beppu Hell

As a famous hot spring town, there’s plenty of hot air to be seen around here.

Headed into town and then up a steep hill to check out a couple of their many themed bodies of water known as ‘hells’.

First one was a geyser with a seating area. A long and annoying sequence of many, many announcements saying it was about to go off, please stop crossing in front of people was accompanied by a long and annoying sequence of many, many people crossing in front of people.

Eventually it went off. Then everyone got very quickly bored and left, to the tune of a long and annoying sequence of staff saying please stop crossing in front of people accompanied by a long and annoying sequence of many, many people crossing in front of people.

Fish.

Here’s the stats though, pretty cool, people and temperature aside, as most things are.

Just next door was the one with the red water. Had a bit of a queue to get in, through an obnoxiously busy gift shop, followed by some red water.

Steam.

That was enough of that, likely not helped by my mind being elsewhere, and my consistently clockwork remarks about the fact that it hadn’t even rained yet, yet coasters were supposedly closed for the day at the mere thought of it.

Sadly I then checked the Harmonyland website again only to learn that they had decided to open their coasters… I do loathe an indecisive piece of information. With perfect hindsight, getting there at opening while most people would have assumedly been put off, could have been the perfect inside hack, but just you wait.

The sky was still certainly threatening and it still felt like a risk to commit to the park with ‘more’ so instead we hit the road to

Rakutenchi?

At the very moment I pulled into the car park, it began to rain, and continued to do so for the rest of the day.

So we went to Oita, did some shopping and had some ramen. The end.

Day 8

Well the weather got it out of its system swiftly enough and it was back to business as usual for the foreseeable. We were now on the back foot however, with both parks left to do in a day and a long way to go afterwards.

Made sense to start at the park with ‘more’, that opened earlier, was the furthest away from our eventual destination, so we hit the road to

Harmonyland

Despite being in the initial queue of cars at the car park barrier before it even opened, and I’ll never know how, it took 90 minutes to set foot in this place. To add insult to injury, it was by far the most expensive of the trip so far.

Why? Because it’s Sanrioland in disguise, and as we found out the hard way, it’s ridiculously over-visited and under-capable.

Headed straight to #1 Rhythmic Coaster whilst everyone else headed into a queue for lottery tickets for meet’n’greets or some other Sanrio slop.

Despite this, it took 90 minutes to get on the ride. I know exactly why, poor capacity, but hey, custom Vekoma Junior.

With a distinct jet coaster feel. Worth it?

Headed up to the powered dragon next but after some quick mental maths it looked to be also hanging around that magical number of 90 minutes, so noped out.

Headed down towards the dark ride to find that both it, and the hill train that helps access it – the place is very hilly, weren’t open.

So there’s a hundred million people in here and they’ve got about 3 attractions.

They were open until 8pm however, so figured it was best to let them attempt to sort things out and come back in the evening, at risk to sanity. Got a hand stamp and left.

Rakutenchi

Upon second arrival here, the car park at the base of the funicular – the place is very hilly, wasn’t open.

You can drive to the top and go in the less impressive entrance however, it’s just a long way round, far more non-descript and slightly cheaper.

Another significant factor in the decision to abandon the other stupid place at that time was the opportunity to catch capybara feeding time here.

Which we did, it was great, and then they got in the water, it was hot.

Wish I could chill like that.

They have other attractive animals too.

Oh, and a #2 Jet Coaster. Without a 90 minute wait.

One of the more iconic looking old school jet coasters with great views and some acceptable levels of merriment.

This bridge makes more attractions than Harmonyland already.

Bridge from a bridge.

Sadly I then checked the Harmonyland website again only to learn that they had decided to close their car park because they had reached capacity… for the rest of the day. With perfect hindsight, this could have gone an infinite number of other, better ways, but let us never speak of Sanrio again.

And give all our love to Rakutenchi.

Suppose the one mercy was getting to do many hours of mountainous roads in the daylight, slightly annoyed, rather than at night and undoubtedly more annoyed.