Japan 05/26 – Nagashima Spa Land

Day 16

This very nearly didn’t happen. In the main planning stages of the trip, Nagashima’s extensive scheduled maintenance list on their website of course had ‘White Whale – unavailable’ on the only two days I could feasibly visit. The park and I had a chequered past anyway and there was nothing new to be gained for me, so it was no big deal to not include it on the trip.

As the time grew closer however, they upgraded the information to ‘White Whale opens at 11am’ on each of those days. Now you’ve got me very interested.

So here we go again.

Was amongst the first 5 cars at the parking barrier, who in a very orderly fashion had formed a single file queue despite the fact that 3 lanes were due to open. Have found in the past that this park in particular breaks the rules of local manners, so this was a pleasant surprise.

The positive trend continued at the entrance plaza gates. Last time I visited I had waited patiently in this queue for a good 30 minutes amongst fellow guests, only for people to come flooding in at all angles of the car park and queue jump once it hit opening time, significantly hampering my eventual start time with instant ticket window faff.

Instead we continued in a befittingly civilised manner and I was the second person to purchase a ride wristband for the day (having failed to purchase one in a 7-Eleven as advertised, because the fax machine required a name and local address in Kana characters only).

Another upgrade from recent years is that the park now has a website (not an app!) containing a map with live queue times and status. This was a source of both immense satisfaction and immediate concern. Until the moment the park had opened, White Whale had indeed agreed with the information I had been fed before arriving – opens at 11:00.

The second I set foot in the park, this switched to under maintenance.

Staggered openings were the order of the day and one of the very few things anyone was able to start on was old mate Steel Dragon.

Thus I garnered a very cathartic walk-on lap of it and it’s still just ok, for what it is.

Given my ever-growing obsession with good Morgan hypers of late, I can’t help but reflect that this experience could have been a lot better before the new trains. It wasn’t even rough on this occasion, but nor was it particularly potent. The whole experience just lacks a little of that old school terror which is usually the sort of thing that makes something of this vintage special to me these days. Ascending the lift hill for the views and the hill ending are still a blast, but I’ve had better.

Having cleared the list of things I wanted to ride in this park that weren’t Hakugei (amazing how this hobby devolves, isn’t it), I headed over to Hakugei to check on the situation first hand.

The maintenance part was true, I see hard hats. There was also a staff member at the entrance whom I asked if it would still open at 11. A worrying pause followed, I’m not sure why, but the eventual answer was yes.

Good.

I lied, there was something new for me here. Don’t quote me on it as it may well just be bitterness towards the place, but I swear Shooting Ride Farm de Bang Bang used to be an upcharge attraction and it now isn’t.

So, spirits raised again, I rode it.

I had put in my head that it was a clone of Stadlgaudi at Bayern Park (who?), but though the theming is directly shared, this one is an actual tracked dark ride rather than a revolving theatre, so that was a bonus.

Some tech didn’t work and at the end of the day it’s just your average shoot things on a screen affair, but it killed some time.

Sat on a plant pot and waited out the whale, before being amongst the first in the queue even before 11. Impressive impressions so far.

This process was also rather therapeutic, having queued at least 90 minutes a pop in opening year, barely moving, with a single song sample on loop:

These days the song is still used, but is accompanied by a wider playlist of J- and K-pop, so that’s a plus.

Also a plus after the mandatory lockers below the station is the downgrade from full security scan and pat down to a simple procedure of bowing, ‘anything in your pockets?’, positive hand signals, bowing.

Still a slight sufferance is the allocated seating, and because of it I’ve never had a front or back row to this day.

But here I was, waiting less than 30 minutes a go for multiple rides on the 3rd best RMC in the world – a sentence that still manages to excite me somewhat.

And 7 years on it is still exactly that for me. No changing of the guard, no revelations in opinion, no children in the wrong. Extremely, extremely competent, dynamic and exhilarating layout in every sense of the word.

I’ve probably reviewed it better before but here’s some highlights:
The pre-lift is stronger than most.
The first drop is stronger than most, I’ve found my favourites are the ones with a lead-in corner.
The airtime is immense in many places, but it’s the uneven ones that shine for me, like in the wonky double down.
Laterals have good pops in places, which is rarer for the ride type.
It ends on a diabolical hill in the structure, about 5/8ths the power of Wicked Cyclone, with less build up but similar surprise.
The inversions are just fine, but at least not offensive like SteVe.

Have some old photos:

Oops.

Anyway, I got talking to a fellow rider while queuing for my second lap. I won’t sully them with the term enthusiast as they were very level-headed with their liking of rollercoasters. This was very refreshing, I got the honour of being witness to their first RMC experience and then joined them for a number of other rides on their hitlist which I otherwise probably wouldn’t have bothered with.

Acrobat – eh, flyer clone that doesn’t get me going like it used to.

Ultra Twister – ok, I would have done this anyway obviously, but now I got to goon to someone new about the pseudo-reason I was in Japan.

I declined Arashi as though I’ve had some epic experiences on it, they probably wouldn’t be matched these days.

Looping Star – always a classic.

Shuttle Loop was broken.

Finally I recommended the Jet Coaster, even though it’s not the strongest of examples of the type, I got to goon to someone new about the psuedo-reason I was in Japan.

Our schedules diverged at this point and I took a final lap on Hakugei for some zen before heading out to the mall next door for a traditional ice cream. If you know 2017 Nagashima, you know.

That all took longer than originally anticipated so non-committal plans for a +2 at Suzuka Circuit (and a rethemed Senyo shooting dark ride!) were parked for another year.
Not much else anyone will care about happened that day.

A win for Nagashima I guess. Finally.