Japan 08/25 – Benyland, Sendai + Matsushima

Our next destination was the city of Sendai, which is home to

Day 10 – Benyland

Car park is a bit of a tease here as it places you in front of a service gate that would provide incredibly convenient access to the park.

Instead you have to trudge a significant distance around the perimeter, Magic Mountain style.

This does eventually grant you a more picturesque entrance, if you don’t then mind the stairs.

First coaster we came across was the #1 Mini Cyclone, the one and only known extant coaster from Midgety Engineering. That’s a win.

Lots of weird history here, such as the trains which came from a Hoei Sangyo ride at the now defunct Toshimaen in Tokyo.

And if you look further into Midgety, they were responsible for constructing a few big names like Titan MAX at Space World, all deceased now.

They still sell bins for your park on their website though.

Oh, the ride, functional.

Next was one of these plane things, #2 Aero 5. Also functional.

Main draw for the visit was the #3 Yagiyama Cyclone, Excalibur’s smaller sibling.

Panda height gauge is an appreciated touch.

As an Arrow ‘mine train’ with a wild first drop it kinda lives and dies on that first moment, which is pretty wild in the back.

The remainder of the layout is far less notable, but still gives you something to think about. Bit of poke, bit of interaction.

Sadly the last cred is another Arrow.

But at least this #4 Cork Screw ran in an acceptable fashion. No headaches today.

Park complete. Nice place, very chill, cheap, and mildly interesting.

Sendai

Headed into Sendai for some shopping shenanigans, including Pokemon centre and some poxy challenge to find all the posters in a mall, except one was in another mall, a massive walk away through burning sun, all just to get a piece of paper that says well done.

A more interesting part was our arrival at the car park, which I didn’t realise was one of those magic automated ‘car goes up in an elevator and gets stacked away by machine’ things. The process was so sudden and unanticipated and I regret not getting a picture.