China + Japan 06/19 – Misaki Park
Swung by the car place again in the morning to sort things out. They were cool with it, no additional cost.
Last time we were in Osaka we flat ran out of cash taking a train out to Hirakata park on the last day (creds at all costs) and then struggled to get anywhere from there as they don’t tend to accept card payments at train stations. To add to that excitement we started heading towards the wrong airport which is at the complete opposite end of the city, realised halfway, then strolled into the correct one about half hour before the flight and still got on.
This time we felt like experts, but it still seemed to take forever to get around and cash was again running surprisingly low. Japan’s a harsh mistress.
There was one more park on the cards for this trip and I had pre-planned it up to the point of getting to a station that would serve as the ‘crossroads’ between going there or going straight to the airport.
We arrived at this station with an hour to spare. Asked the station guy how far it was to the stop we needed. 20 minutes each way. That leaves us 20 minutes to do the park. Eh, gotta try haven’t you. (Future note: This park closed forever less than 12 months after our visit – very glad we went for it)
Chucked the luggage in a locker and jumped on another train.
Day 6 – Misaki Park
Think I confused the poor girl at the ticket desk in my rush to get inside this place and get it done. She kept asking about passports, which is also what the Japanese like to call park tickets that let you on the rides – ride passports. I kept responding with no, intending to pay per ride.
On reflection, I believe she was trying to give us a foreigner discount and use our actual passports as proof for this. I think we got the discount anyway, but the numbers didn’t tie up with what I had researched previously and I was counting on that to not run out of cash again.
Yet another story of a completely deserted park with not enough staff to fill the gaps. All the ticket windows were closed and the ride ops had to be called over to run specific rides in the usual friendly manner. They also took cash in hand on the ride platform (with each transaction potentially being our last) instead of using their ticket system.
This beast was first. Doesn’t look very New any more.
A sketchy jungle mouse style ride. Bit of a laugh.
The most interesting one was this old 1950s Jet Coaster which was on top of what felt like a small mountain.
It had a lot of foliage to dive through and some decent speed and drops to it, even though it looks completely flat from the bits you can see offride.
Impressive stuff for what it was.
Last up was Child Coaster, scraping the coins together at this stage – I’m not leaving here without completion.
Might be one of the rides I’ve come closest to not fitting in, it took sitting with my knees at about 45 degrees to successfully settle down. Vicious but fun little thing, as these things often are when they’re not designed for you.
Park complete in under 20 minutes and back on the train. The ticket machine was doing a Plohn and not taking coins of a certain denomination, but luckily the man in the office was willing to receive.
Made it to the airport on schedule with the equivalent of £0.07 in cash left in the wallet.
Quite the cheeky +3 to close the trip. Needed that to make up for Washuzan Spiteland.
Summary
New creds – 16
Total parks – 9
Best coaster – Wood Coaster
Best park – Honestly? New Reoma World
Spites – 4/20 (20.0%)
Might have been low on numbers, but:
New ‘top 10’ rides – 2
Happy with that.