All the fun of the fééry on the previous day had meant I could land a milestone on #1800 Wild Buffalo. Not too shabby a pick, when your options are limited.
Never mind me though, let us take a moment to congratulate the park on opening their new for 2025 attraction in April. April. Imagine that.
It also recompletes the European woodie set, again. Have to stay on top of these things.
A pleasant queue with some horses and cowboys leads to a stripped back, but functional station. They were only running one train, but it was just about justifiable given the crowd levels.
Appreciate the terrain game going on, and the fact that it’s basically built on sand. There’s a proverb in there somewhere.
Wild Buffalo marks the second wooden coaster in France to commence with audio of a man shouting, in this case yee-haw (except the French spell that weird), rather than tiimmbeerr! The drop itself is a little stumpy, this one isn’t going for raw thrills, but it’s decent enough towards the back, where the audio is also timed better.
Corners happen, GCI do love themselves a good corner. Airtime is optional.
Overall it’s an interesting, varied and smart layout, that maintains momentum rather well until the end thanks to the use of the terrain. Nothing to write home about though, potentially your weakest ‘as new’ GCI yet. I could throw some shade at Wicker Man here, but even I have to admit that that’s better. So I’ll give a shout out to how awful Lightning Racer runs these days instead. Horrible. It’s a interesting one, in a country blessed with multiple 30ft Gravity Group woodies that kick your ass, this shows off the milder side of what wood can do, I guess. Worth a few laps.
Couldn’t come here and not take a spin on the legendary dancing monkey dark ride. Love a puppeted ride and this one’s pure class.
And that was it for Mer de Sable, have been before and already ridden the other coasters, they’re all cloney +1s. So the buffalo is great for the park, a solid standout unique attraction, a crowdpleaser, good to see they’re going places, better than a Eurofighter etc. etc.
I particularly enjoy the fact that Mer de Sable can contently co-exist just 10 minutes from
Parc Astérix
As a man who doesn’t revisit places, this parc is now in my top 10 most visited of all time. And that includes back home in the UK.
Seems they’re always getting something to draw me back, in this case #2 Cétautomatix, a spinner that took too long to open. What year is it again?
Potatomatix is the latest spinning coaster attempt from Gerstlauer and the parc have, in keeping up with their standards, made it look very nice indeed. The queue and surrounding area are very interactive with the ride, there’s plenty of action going on around you most of the time. Being the new attraction it had a bit of a wait, but it moved well and had some theming to look at, inside and out. They’re obviously trying hard, staff with Ipads were counting dispatch times and the fancy live update queue TV system the park started at Toutatis makes all the guest information nice and accurate. Just needs to be rolled out to the rest of the park at some point.
After a quick indoor scene, something chariot related, you head up the lift hill to the faffing about up high section.
Faff happens, this one didn’t manage to buck the trend of Gerstlauers simply not spinning very much, unfortunately.
There’s a bonus tiny booster wheel boost in this shed (rcdb even acknowledges it, wow), which would usually be a great opportunity to me complain about such things, but I just thought it was funny here.
Then you spin round the queue a bit, experiencing some decent forces in the lower sections. Then you’re done.
S’alright.
To be honest that wasn’t really a draw, beyond the cheeky +1. I was just very excited to ride Toutatis again after it slowly but steadily smashed it’s way into my top 10, what feels like forever ago.
It’s crazy that a full queue for their biggest and best coaster is still only about 30 minutes, as if they actively don’t want it to get disproportionately busy compared to the rest of the park, which I respect.
Can someone please explain what happened to the loose article policy at this parc though? They now pull some of the dumbest shenanigans I have ever witnessed.
Gone are the station cubbies, replaced by several staff members with several trolleys that half-heartedly, or maybe not, ask some people if they want to put their loose articles in said trolley, after they’ve already been batched into the air gates. The air gates are 3 trains deep however, so it’s very much luck of the draw as to whether you even get access to the trolley, plus there’s a huge question mark over whether you actually want to use it because it’s just parked, out in the open, in the middle of a mass of bodies in the station. A great way to get your stuff stolen.
The ride though, god damn Toutatis. Forgot how crazy even the first section is, with silly hangtime in the first sideways flop and then kicking your ass even into the swing launch. Pantheon walked so this could run, swing launch is just so damn good with the backwards lurches and surprise airtime. The trim brake adds to the experience, for once. The designer himself explained it to me once, so I’m a believer now. It’s not poor design, it’s an effect. He says. Then the rest of the layout kicks ass with an over-correcting stall, that tree still sticking out there to kill you and that airtime hill still there to kill you. Classic modern sideways hill, because everyone wants to be RMC but not any more, that doesn’t do anything. Mosasaurus Roll. Mini-Kondaa ending. A thigh-slappingly good time on the brake run. Love it.
Back to these trolleys though, seriously why? After leaving the train and the station, you get viciously blocked on the exit path by several more staff members with several more trolleys, while all the guests are faffing around with their stuff, in your face. And I guess, if you’re very lucky, your stuff might be there too.
There are so many better ways to do this, including one they already had. This ain’t it. Especially in stinky Europe.
tl;dr leave valuables with a non-rider or invest in some goony zipped pockets, it’s a bad system.
Anyway, time to chill for a bit. The Epidemais Croisieres boat ride is always good for chilling.
Rerode Trace du Hourra, the Mack Bobsled, because it’s been a lifetime. A harsh lifetime for the both of us, this has not aged well, with an amusing level of brain rumble throughout the entire course. Maybe the baffes-meter was right all along.
Looks good though, can’t deny that. Also runs many, many trains, with multiple on the lift hill, it’s coaster capacity porn up there. And has since been greatly enhanced by backstage views of Toutatis.
Rerode Oziris, used to hate it, then was indifferent to it.
Still am, except this time the trolley lottery didn’t fall in our favour, so ended up sunglass on, not wanting to care, but caring about sunglasses.
Will these iconic towers survive the new land they’re building, or will they only live on through their likeness in an obscure Chinese park?
Went to ride Pégase Express, but it had somehow ended up with an insane queue, so bailed again.
Instead here’s the obligatory upskirt of Zeus.
Tonnerre 2 Zeus was running pretty poorly, thus the golden age of the retrack lasted about 3 years. As did the offering of the backwards facing seats on the train. The funniest part for me this time is that the ambient noise of the track and audible sounds of guest discomfort was actually louder than the deafening tunnel with themed thunder audio within the layout. I don’t know what to think any more, the violence of Gravity Group coasters seem to be both their blessing and eventual undoing and I’m scared to ever reride my all-time favourites at this point.
Rode Vol D’Icare because it’s the last in the world, didn’t you know? RIP the UK’s most beloved theme park, apparently, according to that one tabloid, even though no one’s ever heard of it and it was stupidly expensive. It’s fun, Zierer were on something for this technology back in the day.
In that time, Pégase Express had gone from 90+minutes to walk-on, somehow, so off we go. For some other strange reason the station staff here came at me at a million miles an hour, like a horror film, then full body-weighted my restraint. While attempting to relieve my sudden and immense discomfort, it launched, so that sucked.
The ride has picked up a bit of a rattle these days, dare I say the word, but still like how the layout just goes and goes out there, in an unually linear fashion. You get a nice long ride time out of this one. Or at least you would if you weren’t stapled by the restraint.
Medusa now spits on you as you leave the show scene in the shed, or at least I don’t remember her doing that before, so that’s something.
The entire queue must have evacuated to Toutatis at this point as we headed for our final laps. Guests were now doing their very best to break my earlier theorem by queueing well outside the entrance sign and around the corner.
Thus we only got to see it off one more time, but it was glorious. And take one final laugh at the new trolleys.
It’s 2025, so about time to go pick up some new for Spring/Summer rides, in September.
Timing and location of the first park of the day meant that we actually didn’t require a disgustingly early Chunnel for once, so that was refreshing and civilised. What park?
Day 1 – Fééryland
Have previously driven past this place, formerly known as Bal Parc, many, many times. Regularly saw the sign, or it pop up on coaster count as ‘nearest’, but it only contained a couple of dirty kiddie coasters, for too much money and some potential weird looks.
Not that the latter has ever been a consideration.
As of 2024 they rebranded, and in 2025 they’re up to a +4. We needed something to do, so took the plunge.
Arrived at opening with a soft spring rain in the air, bought some tickets, gates were opened, time for business.
Tried to start strong on the Dragon but, establishing a theme for the morning, it was having drive tyre troubles in the wet conditions.
Newest cred is the SBF spinner, #1 Magic Twist, which was also slipping on it’s tyres rather nicely, but cycling nonetheless. The operator gave a concerned look to a man that shall from henceforth be known as Mr. Fééry, who gave a nod of approval to let us on.
On we went, round it went, I’d like to say that SBF are actually improving over time, haven’t noticed the horrible transition on the final corner into the station on these in a good while. Hope I’m right.
To further test that theory, went over to the other SBF coaster, #2 Grand Prix. The operator gave a concerned look to Mr. Fééry, who was continuing to power around the park in front of us with an immense sense of authority. He gave a nod of approval to let us on.
On we went, round it went, once again the horrible corner transition at the base of this model was not present on this particular installation, even though it was travelling at a million miles per hour in the wet. It was brutally fast and forceful for what it is, but not rough.
After three laps it then overshot the station because of the speed, then couldn’t park itself because wet tyres. Oops.
Mr. Fééry powered into the ride area, almost dying himself on the slippery wet track to get to us, before an engineer also joined him. Tried once more to park it, no good, then voluntarily valleyed us, reset the ride and manually pushed us onto the lift tyres.
It took the smell of burning rubber to make it happen, but we commenced another amazing three lap cycle and then barely, barely managed to park it again at the end. Legendary.
Old mate wacky worm #3 Pomme doesn’t care about the rain, ran like a dream, parked like a dream. I like his stumpier than usual antenna, which are harder for children to brutalise.
Final mission was to get on #4 Balade du Dragon. The operator was continuously trying to make it happen, in manual mode, backing it out of the station for maximum run up and flooring the slippy tyres in order to make it clear the hump. Legendary.
Eventually it made it, to much celebration, and then 30 children descended on the ride in front of us. This led to a nervous moment, would it make it while now full of riders, or would we be spited? It made it, squeaked by and then only got stronger from then on as everyone’s confidence was built.
By the time it was our turn, we couldn’t fail. Go dragon go. Park complete. Great park for our specific needs, got the job done effectively. Next.
Jardin d’Acclimatation
Round of applause for this park too, who managed to open their new for 2025 attraction in March. March. Imagine that.
Parked up on a street next to the back entrance of the park, to beat the reasonably substantial looking queues at the main entrance and for maximum geographical efficiency in reaching the two new coasters.
First up is the temporary #5 Fils du Dragon, the placeholder between the sad demise of their old Dragon Chinois and the construction of their new Dragon-themed coaster.
This one is the rare wacky worm with diagonal lift hill layout, scary clearances and a scarier face. It’s leaving at the end of this season so perfect time to get it.
The real deal is the new #6 Défi du Dragon, another fine looking creation from Gerstlauer.
Love the theming here, for some reason my immediate first thought was that it makes Crapterra look like crap. Wonder why.
There’s some beautiful details in the station, from intricate carvings to the hosing tap for ‘essential cleaning’ having a dragon on it.
Knew this model had shenanigans, but didn’t know what they were. Took me watching it once and then riding it once, to figure out what happens.
Launches out of the station into a standard first half of the layout which is some swoopy fun.
Then you stop on a turntable, and the train can randomly turn 90° in either direction.
From there it does a random swing launch – either forwards, backwards, forwards or backwards, forwards backwards, resulting in four total possible combinations.
The second half is just a closed circuit with a wiggly bit at the highest point of the ride, over the station, then you hit the turntable again and turn back into the station.
I think.
Great ride anyway, bit faffy on one train but it didn’t matter in the slightest. Would be fun to see it run two. Gerstlauer have done it again, and what a year they’ve had. Paultons, 2026.
Headed into the rest of the park to see what was up. Sadly the violent Soquet was out of action, though probably wouldn’t have paid for it again and risk ruining it’s reputation. We know how these things can go.
Speed Rockets should always be good fun though, walked straight onto it and was treated to more Gerstlauer goodness that isn’t a Eurofighter.
Love the unconventional layout on this thing, very different from all the standard and cloney ones, it does plenty of funky stuff.
Had a bit more time to kill on the car parking, so took a mooch around some Korean festival that was going on. Arm wrestling was happening on a stage. Not sure what the connection was.
Saw whatever this is.
Whatever this is.
And some donkeys with no hats.
Great park, given we didn’t let them rip us off this time. Love the way they’ve tidied up the new area, the quality of their recent investments and the tranquil vibe of the place. Wish all capital cities had a green space this pleasant and full of creds.
By our final day in Tokyo I had put this place off for as long as possible.
Day 13 – Tokyo Dome City
Because it’s 2025, and they’ve put new trains on Thunder Dolphin, but then it had been closed for the entire duration of the trip. So I gave it every chance to return.
Don’t particularly care, got the cred, but would have liked to give it a fresh go.
As such we snuck in the back entrance, straight into the indoor part of the other half of the park.
Which is where their latest coaster lives, having replaced an old dark ride that had not long closed down forever just before our previous visit.
#1 Panic Coaster Back!? Daaaan!! currently has an overlay for these animated characters. There was some sweaty queue for their merch as well, one that I would totally been a part of had it been for something I cared about.
Which changes what happens on the station screens before each ‘launch’ sequence. This is the clever Gerstlauer family coaster that comes into the station both forwards and backwards in each sequence, utilising the same layout twice, in both directions.
And that’s probably the most interesting part about it, gooning about the technology and trickery, as there’s not a whole lot going on force wise. There’s a weird stunted double moment to the despatch as you hit a sharp corner pretty early and then it kinda flops around in a fun way in warehouse for a bit. Much like many other Gersts in this country. +1.
Park successfully back to completion, mooched around the city until the evening for
Tokyo Disneyland
After the relative success of the Disneysea cheap evening ticket, decided to do the exact same thing for the other park as well.
They have got one new major dark ride since my last outing here.
That being Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast.
Queue is rather impressive, feel like Disney don’t use fog enough.
Then there’s a lot of indoor shenanigans, though perhaps with a disappointing amount of movement.
This leads to a pre-show, which was exceptional. The stained glass screen sets the scene before full-scale animatronics of Beast and Belle have an interaction across the two balconies. Beast in particular is absolutely incredible with his movements, real top tier Disney stuff and perhaps the highlight of the whole attraction for me.
Bit more queue before the station. Bit more life in it.
Don’t remember this guy, nor do I remember the film from so long ago to be honest, which may have been a problem.
Because I wasn’t bowled over by the ride itself. It ticks a lot of my boxes with trackless technology and ride vehicles dancing around each other, but it almost takes this trick too far, in a way that detracts from the magic.
The opening scene is no doubt spectacular, with the signature Be Our Guest bonanza, but another issue lies here with the story having to open with what is essentially it’s hardest hitter for a general audience. The one that always represents the film, the one you’ll always hear in every park, in everything from Philharmagic to the nighttime shows.
Most of the following scenes, and there aren’t that many at all, are songs with less general appeal and gusto, with the movements of the vehicles limited to just aimlessly wafting around with no purpose. There’s always 6 of them so you just end up with a bit of a mess that feels like it has no visual intent, simply creating an endless flow of watching everyone else with their phones out, while listening to some light music.
There is one very magical ‘wow’ moment later on, using Shanghai Jack Sparrow-style trickery and doing a lot of the heavy lifting before the climax, but I’d kinda checked out of the story at this point.
And then it’s another dancing scene. Eh, it’s a vibe, but not my vibe. Impressive and underwhelming at the same time.
Went straight back over to Pooh’s Hunny Hunt to prove a point.
This is more my vibe. The intent is stronger, there’s more fun moments like the bounce, the chaotic thrust into vehicles dancing around each other for one scene lands a lot harder. It’s the OG and it’s so well done.
Still best on park for me, the destination attracion, with a lot of Tokyo’s counterparts being weaker than their global equivalent.
With darkness truly falling and some reasonably hefty queuetimes for those weaker counterparts, decided to go for a basically walk-on night-time Jungle Cruise.
Couldn’t actually remember whether I’d done this version before. As with all, it lives and dies a bit on the performance and enthusiasm of the driver and on this day they were just ok. If anything there were a couple of seemingly local super fans on board providing some extra energy.
Then it goes inside and does exciting cave scenes like I thought only the Hong Kong one has over it’s rivals. Hmm, maybe I haven’t done this before.
S’alright.
Definitely done this before, but can never say no to Pirates of the Caribbean. Scale and substance, truly one of the greats.
Also bagged a cheeky Star Tours for a final ride of the night and trip. It has so many different potential story sequences at this point as they keep updating it, so always fun to see what happens.
This occasion covered a full breadth of Star Wars history, from old mate Hoth to the space whales in the Ahsoka streaming series. Appreciate how up to date they keep it.
Headed out before the masses did from the show, straight into an unbearably long travel sequence of late night flight, layover and Heathrow sucking ass. The things we do for entertainment.
Summary
Total prefectures – 12 + China New creds – 38 New dark rides – 12 New parks – 13 New Togos – 5 Best new coaster – Ultra Twister Best coaster – Fujiyama Best new dark ride – Frozen Best new park – Rusutsu Spites – 3/41 (7.32%) plus SLC self-spite.
Successful trip overall, made me happy and want to return as soon as possible. Nothing spectacular on the coaster front, but there’s not a whole lot I can do about that at this point, sadly. Apologies.
Personally it was great to tick off some personal coaster legends, catch up with some Disney dark rides and generally just take things a bit more chill than usual. Relatively. For me.
Jumped on a train to Yokohama the next morning for a bit of a revenge run.
Day 12 – Yokohama Cosmo World – The Revenge
2018, Yokohama. Both the coasters in the main complex were closed for ‘the track being wet’ and the park were being shady about if and when they would reopen.
We only managed to nab the banana coaster over the road and then, 5 miles up the road rode Wet Bandit, an attraction that laughed in the face of wet track. Spitey place.
Thankfully #1 Diving Coaster Vanish was running this time, in 40°C, so finally got to tick it off the list.
The signature diving moment doesn’t really amount to much on board, particularly with dodgy restraints, it’s just visually spectacular.
The part you don’t often get to see – exit of the vanish, above a street.
What I didn’t expect is Giovanala hyper levels of prolonged crushing positive forces in the final helix, so that added a bit of character to the ride. Wasn’t paying twice out of principle though.
Also on top of the central building is the #2 Spinning Coaster, which was poor.
It took about 3 hairpins into the second, lower set of hairpins before the spin was unlocked, the latest I’ve ever known this happen, by which point I had assumed it was one of these that just doesn’t spin at all.
Didn’t spin much after that anyway, so it’s just janky and rubbish.
Creds complete, still not a fan of the place.
Cup Noodle Museum
Over the road is the cup noodle museum, not to be confused with the ramen museum. Yes, they have both.
Entrance to the museum itself was cheap and easy, though it had some convoluted time slot system for the ‘make your own cup noodle’ activity that it’s likely more famous for. Upon inspection, this seemed massively overcrowded and unpleasant. You can do the exact same thing and far more intimately at Yomiuriland, next to the cup noodle rapids ride, so I’d recommend that instead.
Museum starts with this. Yep, that’s a lot of noodles.
Then there’s a cinema bit that talks about the history of the guy who invented them.
It’s all done in a slightly jarring, curated fashion that leaves a lot of questions unanswered and seemingly wants to paint the image of this mythical, untouchable figure. But they also have him as an animated character getting up to shenanigans so it’s quite endearing.
Then you see his house.
Then there’s some pretentious abstract stuff.
He helped invent space noodles at the age of 90, so that’s cool I guess.
Then it ends. It was ok.
Asakusa
Another tourist trap.
Famed for decorative temples contrasting against modern skyscrapers. And there’s a massive market full of souvenir rubbish.
Out the back of it though is
Hanayashiki
Turns out this place can, in a way, rip you off if you come in the evening. They stop doing a paid entry with pay per ride option and instead offer a ‘cheaper’ wristband deal. But this deal still costs more than paid entry and a couple of pay per rides would usually, which was a bit of a spite for my specific requirements.
Forced me to do the trash ghost train Thriller Car at least, which was trash.
Then Japan’s oldest #3 Roller Coaster had a bit of a sweaty queue, so only got to do it once anyway.
Trains are great, cushy and open.
And it gets pretty violent. Great setting again, dipping up and down, in and out of the old buildings that surround the perimeter.
The climax is a particularly wild drop through another building and then airtimes you into the station, which is also the only brake section, at high speed.
Good bit of Togo history, goes out on a bang.
Headed over to the Tokyo Skytree for shopping reasons, not Skytree reasons.
Heading back south again now, the journey took us through the part of Fukushima prefecture closest to the location of the nuclear disaster in 2011, which the area is still recovering from. Evidence of this can still be noted by regular signs on the motorway displaying the current radiation levels which, reassuringly or otherwise, are less than an average day in London.
Day 11 – Kamine Park
First park of the day had a worrying stillness in the air. Not a single ride operated from driving past the entrance, parking, applying copious amounts of sun cream in the car for 10 minutes and then walking to the ticket desk.
As such my first question was ‘is the rollercoaster running?’ The response was a positive one, so paid up and headed in.
No sooner had we set foot inside the place, the coaster dispatched with guests on. Like magic.
#1 Dream Coaster is a medium-sized jet coaster with a great location and a bee on the front. It begins with a decently forceful terrain turn that got me wet somehow.
Before heading off into the skyline for some more hard cornering. Decent fun, and lap bars were appreciated of course.
Stopped for a drink as it felt mean on the place to be done so quickly. Next.
Pleasure Garden
Further along the coast is this big resort, which includes an amusement section.
Beelined the #2 Banana Coaster first, which wins the award for friendliest ride-op of the trip.
Then the bigger coaster at the back, #3 Wood Land Jet Coaster. There are some pretty cool shots of this ride that make it look a tad more impressive than it actually is. Track poking above the treeline and disappearing into nothing, it’s a good effect.
This happens out of the first drop, but overall it’s a fair bit less significant than I had anticipated and wasn’t particularly standout in any way. Just more simple fun.
Another one of these shooting dark rides next in Legend of Salamander. Sometimes they properly gamify the scoring system and you can win a prize, which this one was doing, and we won.
The prize is a nice shiny coin with the logo of the ride on one side and the park on the other. The intention is for you to then put this in a machine in exchange for a trading card. Kept the coin as it seems a far better souvenir than a piece of paper.
Spotted a few questionable attractions in passing that needed checking out. One was designated as a ‘VR coaster’ but it just uses a short piece of straight rail to give the illusion of being a cred.
Another was a 4D cinema but it just had cheap swivel stools in a room.
Lastly was an actual dark ride discovery, Smog Kingdom Great Adventure.
It’s another interactive one, but more AR style. You point a handheld tablet screen thing in the direction of different parts of the scenery and then little mould monsters appear on the screen that you have to tap and destroy. It also had a prize for beating a score, but we lost. In typical fashion, interacting with the screen also meant I took in almost none of the scenery. Turns out there are multiple versions of this particular ride found throughout Japan.
Job done, it was then time to head back into Tokyo and drop off the car, made more difficult by severe delays from a traffic accident and expensive detours.
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.
Another building here has a free observation deck, so headed up to that.
To see this.
Apparently this Zunda Shake is a thing in Sendai. Bean flavour, but a fair bit nicer than that may sound.
Matsushima
Then headed out of the city to a town called Matsushima.
Matsushima bay is famed for having around 260 islands in it.
Another morning, another jet coaster. This park is right next to a massive stadium and shares the car park, which was surprisingly full at bang on opening time.
Even though there were only about 3 guests on park.
This particular #1 Jet Coaster is cute for looking like a toy shinkansen. And the fact that it had nothing but a seatbelt was also a pleasant surprise.
A very spread out layout, improved all the more for having hundreds of kids at the academy across the road all waving at the train as it goes past.
Nothing else of note here, tick.
Nasu Highland
Here’s a park of note though, equal biggest of the trip for pure cred potential.
Known for its glorious mess of multi-coloured coaster track, which we headed down to first.
Sadly this area doesn’t quite have the magic it once did, with the loss of ‘the green one’, there’s now only blue, yellow and red intertwined.
The yellow one was also closed all day, though they repeatedly sent test laps.
From where I was standing it looked like the spin these cars were picking up was borderline dangerous, so maybe that’s why.
#2 Big Boom first then, a name with a certain degree of legendary status that’s been living in my head forever.
Entirely for that drop, which is just way steeper than any hardware like this usually goes. And the panoramic turnaround before it I guess.
There is a bit of a lurch to it, albeit an uncomfortable one given the shoulder restraints, more like a Gerstlauer Eurofighter first drop than an airtime machine.
Then there’s a loop.
Then a corner and it ends, hitting their weird friction tyre brakes at like 50Mph on a downhill slope and providing a potent smell of burning rubber.
It’s a thing.
The red one is one of many camel-related jet coasters, #3 Camel Coaster.
Was great, incredible views in the outbound direction heading just over the tips of the trees, looking over miles of forests, mountains and nothing else.
Quite forceful as well, some of the oddly banked turns giving a bit of lateral whip, rather fun and not too uncomfortable. Best ride here probably.
Back up the hill a bit is the rare #4 Batflyer. Struggled to climb into it as you have to straddle the seat through some fabric and that required a bit of contortion.
Then my head was very, very close to the bat’s decorative ass, which was very hard and unforgiving. So I spent the entirety of the ride trying to stay as low as possible in order to not bump it.
Layout does a grand total of 0, while overly blocking itself at every (one) opportunity. The spinning one at Skyline Park is superior in every way.
Next was the SLC, #5 F² Fright Flight, which was absolute trash. I’ve reached the point where I don’t expect too much of a beating from these, thinking the worst is behind me and they’re not that bad. They are, they really are. It’s not the headbanging, it’s the violent shaking as it tracks so roughly. Awful.
Moving swiftly on, they’ve got a mostly-indoor powered coaster with some scenes. #6 Shinpi was very popular given the shade, so had the longest queue of the day. Have I complained about how hot it was yet?
Starts off very sedate in the first bit, then trundles outside for a bit of waving shenanigans. Then you head back in and get eaten by a frog and suddenly the ride goes crazy fast and out of control for about 15 seconds. S’alright.
Couple of dark rides next, beginning with Curse of Dark Castle.
Liked this one, scary omnimover with some elevation changes and haunted stuff going on. There’s not enough mid-tier dark rides in mid-tier Japanese parks like this, and it’s quite old and got a bit of character to it.
Just next door is the dinosaur themed Dino World, which had an onboard screen with quiz.
Didn’t understand a word so had to guess, got a grand total of 1 question correct, which moved us out of the bottom ranking. Like the shooters, it kinda distracts from actually looking at the ride though.
Last cred was a powered dragon, but it’s #7 Woopy Coaster, the park’s mascot.
Glorious.
The wild mouse type coaster behind it was also closed all day. 2 spites in total, and pretty much the only traditional ones of the trip, as we shouldn’t count breaking a conveyor belt lift hill.
Don’t begrudge them that badly as in the absence of these parks every getting anything new, it’s an excuse to return if in the region again, assuming the rides aren’t just fully cooked.
Nice enough place overall, if a little tired. Good scenery, bit of quirk, weird obsession with dogs.
Then we went to a cheese garden, a brand name for some upmarket restaurant, cafe and shop that likes cheese.
Bade farewell to Fuji-san the following morning and headed deeper into the mountains.
Day 8 – Shirakaba Resort
This place was another inspiration for the trip, though unfortunately more in sentiment than execution.
They had the last remaining Togo Bobster, but it closed at the end of last year. RIP.
Still got something to do though, in the form of this funky looking #1 Shirakaba Wood Coaster.
A wood coaster in name only, it didn’t do a whole lot beyond a slight punch in the launch.
Looks more interesting than it turned out to be. +1.
I had got the impression from the website that there was a lot more to this park, but it turns out that their other listed attractions are spread across the ‘resort’ with different entrances, tickets and even separately paid car parks, which is an oddly inconvenient setup. As such the actual amusement bit was probably the worst value of any on the trip. Ah well, have to try these things.
Passing on animals, as we’ve done those, walked down the road to the teddy bear museum.
Does what it says on the tin.
Had a little interactive game in which you had to spot certain ones in certain scenes in order to win a prize, so that was nice.
As was their concept of a bear UN.
Onwards. Couple of hours back out of the mountains and skirting around the north of Tokyo was this place
Kezoji Park
At least that’s what it used to be called.
Another odd setup here, the coaster isn’t through the park entrance.
Instead you have to cross a road away from the car park to get to it, and a log flume if you so desire.
#2 Cosmic Express is a standard jet coaster affair. Looks cool, doesn’t do a whole lot. +1.
There is a dark ride in the main bit, one of these very common Senyo sideways omnimoving shooter attractions with overcomplicated names like Super Shooting Ride (Monsta X Heroes 3D).
Standard shooting dark ride affair. Looks cool, but you aren’t looking because you’re shooting. +1.
I was a tad apprehensive about revisiting this one, for a myriad of reasons, but mainly that the original visit went so well, all things considered. You hear the stories about how legendary but brutal the coasters are, and how equally diabolical the operations can be. We smashed all the creds, enjoyed all of the big 4 and big Eej was an instant top 10. The only thing that went wrong was not seeing Mt. Fuji.
+1 to be had though, they have #1 Zokkon now, looking all Fury 325 at the entrance but not impressive. Headed here at rope drop to knock it on the head.
Despite being close to the second person into the queue, it took about 30 minutes before I headed out the exit of the ride, in another typical snowballing of faff.
There’s lockers, security scanners, all that fun stuff, then you get batched into a preshow room.
This isn’t a fun preshow in any sense of the word though, and set up a bit of a concerning theme for the day and the park’s future as a whole.
It’s literally just a spoiler-packed instructional safety video of how to ride a rollercoaster, with footage and diagrams of the whole experience. Sit in this specific position, hold onto this bar properly, look into the corners because there might be forces etc.
There’s two tunnel sections here, there’s a launch here, there’s a transfer track here, it goes backwards here. Be warned, be prepared, brace your ass.
I just found this process to be such a buzzkill. It’s extremely clear that the nature of Dodonpa’s (RIP) demise has scared the pants off of the park and they’re just doing everything in their power to not have to take down another $50M worth of steel over a complaint letter campaign. And Zokkon as a product just plain sucks as a result.
‘Lucked out’ on a front row and was thoroughly bored by the experience. It’s such an odd coaster design that makes no sense, seems to appeal to no one in particular and, at a guess, was heavily modified from potential previous concepts for the above reasons.
The launches don’t do a whole lot, the layout doesn’t do a whole lot. Then it goes backwards which doesn’t make sense on motorbikes. Then it does a Hagrid and backs into a shed, but instead of dropping it just sits around, then slowly rolls forwards again to audible yawns.
Just about the only redeeming feature about it is the onboard soundtrack, which plays a happy-go-lucky theme tune, painting a picture of yay, fun, future, motybikes. Very Japanese in that regard.
Trim it down boys.
Sad times. RIP.
Hoping for a pick me up, I headed straight to Eejanaika, my favourite coaster in Japan. Had about a 50 minute queue, not too bad.
They’ve seriously jacked up both their English announcements and safety announcements in the queuelines here. About the only words I understood on park last time were the ‘attention guests, Eejanaika is now open’ announcements, following intermittent rain, followed by the running of the bulls.
These days it’s a constant barrage of DO NOT RIDE THIS RIDE IF THERE IS ANYTHING WRONG WITH YOU. Heart problems? Skip it. Headache? Skip it. Hangnail? Skip it.
Also noticed on all the physical boards now that they’ve lowered the age limit on their attractions to a low, low 54 years old. That’s an ouch for the previous generation of coaster fans.
So all in all, more buzzkill that doesn’t really hype up the most intense coaster in the world in any positive manner. Just about the only redeeming feature about it is that they still play the themed Eejanaika chant with tin tapping audio.
Up in the station, after you’ve de-shoed and lockered up, you enter the same batching process but with an added instructional pep talk including school classroom signage and pointy stick.
Sit in this specific position, hold onto this bar properly, look into the corners because there aren’t any. Ok maybe 1.
What they don’t explain well is how the restraint system works, which I’ve never understood, but staff are always there to help out. It has been ‘enhanced’ since my previous attempt with several more seatbelts, much chonkier ‘padding’ around the shoulders and head making it more like an SLC and some sort of strap to stop you legendarily legging over the seat hump on the final element. The staff went through a process of additional restraint checks, verbal verification and a mutual thumbs up with each rider no less than three times, every time.
I didn’t think much of it however, as this was all happening, I felt like I knew the score. Excited and nervous, these particular contraptions still get to me in a way that little else does any more. Amazing despatch, unnervingly tilting you onto your back out of the station, terrifying lift hill, business as usual.
Then it Shambalaed at the top of the lift and slowed itself right down. Huh. That’s new.
It’s gone.
It is with great sadness and regret that I must report that I no longer like Eejanaika. Rather than something to be scoffed at, all of the safety instructions and warnings here became entirely justified, while also meaningless because you can’t really do anything about it. It’s gotten rough as balls and I hated every second of it, from the moment it first shook my brain, to the moment the new ‘safety features’ cut my leg open when hitting the brakes, to stop me legging over the seat hump. I wouldn’t recommend the experience to anyone.
I’ve always struggled to describe what exactly it is I like(d) about the 4D coasters. They’re so unconventional in forces applied when compared to any other major coaster we like to review. Great airtime there, nope. Great laterals there, nope. Great hangtime, nope. What does it actually do to you that’s measureably good? Not knowing that and simply embracing the chaos in a petrified yet elated manner was just the whole deal, start to finish. It was an unrefined, raw type of thrill and love.
Now there’s just as much doubt in my mind as there was when I first rode one. Did I get too used to it? Who changed more, me or the ride? No, it’s the children who are wrong.
On the upside, I got confirmation that I still care far too much about this stupid hobby as I very nearly shed a tear for Eejainaika on the exit ramp, once the reality of the situation hit me. Even while writing about it now, there’s a tremble in my hands. Sometimes these are more than rollercoasters to us, they’re characters, and our time spent with them is precious. And they’ve killed this one.
RIP.
But don’t worry, you can still do VR Dodonpa with a fan in your face. For the Eejanaika one, the staff now club you with baseball bats.
Back to business, had to go try out the flying theatre. It’s currently running two different layovers a day, the traditional Fuji Airways in the morning and Attack on Titan in the evening. Thus the queue doesn’t know what it wants to be.
Fuji Airways was about as boring as Zokkon, I just don’t vibe with wafting over poorly animated scenery, alongside animated NPCs flying in Gerstlauer Skyfly cars, which was very jarring, especially having done attractions just like it 50 times over.
We’ll be back again for it later.
I then caught myself in a weird trance, willingly walking into the back of a 70 minute queue for Takabisha. Gotta tick it off for the day, right?
As I stood still for about 30 seconds the question just hit me, ‘why?’ So I left again.
In fact I left completely, headed out of the park, via these.
Look at these bad boys.
Didn’t know that one was a thing, but it just made the time travel bucket list.
RIP
It was both sobering and freeing to take some time out from the park that usually causes so much stress to the first time visitor. Had some lunch and went for a little drive to settle a little 7-year vendetta.
Fuji-san was finally out, as famous for spiting people as any good Fuji-Q coaster. Not quite the postcard picture being August, but still a majestic old thing. Tick.
Fuji-Q Highland
Went back later in the afternoon, revitalised, to dust off the rest of the park. Oh, did I mention it was too hot yet?
Thomas’ Party Parade has become Thomas’ Treasure Hunt.
To fit this new theme, it now has flashlights like Disney’s Monsters Inc. ride. S’alright.
This was new.
And this Naruto X Boruto Ninja Voltage 3D Shooting Ride was cheap and lazy, not a fan.
RIP
Went back to the flying theatre for the other showing, Attack on Titan THE RIDE, and it was a significant improvement. To start, the same batching staff was now putting on an act and scaring the crowd in the build up to the preshow.
Know very little of the franchise, other than big blokes, and it ruining Space Fantasy: The Ride for us many years ago. Very different from the usual experience with this hardware, focusing more on just a single, storytelling scene with much more limited ‘soaring’ but much more violent reactions to what was happening.
Some big blokes beat up some other big blokes, notably quite graphic and with some swearing. Rather cool, and very Japanese once again.
Park started to clear out as the evening wore on, so got onto Fujiyama with about a two train wait, which is incredible in itself.
The sky didn’t look like this though,
It looked more like this, but good. And god damn.
Eejanaika’s loss is Fujiyama’s gain as I absolutely adored it. It’s the perfect Togo, stupidly huge but with comfy seats and lap bars, poorly designed but with insane and intense forces.
It was a scene to be painted, with a crescendo of magical moments. Heading up the stupidly massive lift hill in the dusk, sunset behind a Fuji I could actually see. Ride begins, it’s big and it’s fast but it doesn’t do a whole lot.
The flat turnaround at the other side now goes around the weird giant observation deck they built within the ride, which I always imagined to be a dumb idea, but it’s glorious. There’s people up there, waving to the train as you go round and that was equal parts surreal and endearing.
The ride builds. More drops, more speed, more slow corners, gradually amping up those forces. In the final third it reaches the point at which Togo clearly didn’t know what to do. We went 260ft up to break a record here and now we’re carrying so much speed, in a specified plot of land that doesn’t have the room to deal with such speed, so…
Bam, super intense, ground level 90° banked hairpin. Off-axis airtime hills but they’re not, they’re off-banked and super janked and what the hell is happening it’s horrifying and hilarious and so, so out of control. How is this 30 years old, how has it not torn itself to shreds over that time like Eejanaika? I hit the brakes absolutely buzzing with joy, slapping the restraint and laughing my arse off.
It’s such a wild and intense finale and the perfect summation of what Fuji-Q represents, or at least what it used to. You can’t experience any of what I’ve just described anywhere else. It’s a legend of the industry. There’s never been another one like it and there never will be.
They used to have 4 legends here, and very little else. Collectively these were always their global draw, and ticking them off always felt like an impossibly daunting experience, where any one of them could be your new favourite, but any one of them could also kill you. You could obsessively cycle through them in your head for days, months or years before a visit. What’s the rank order of priority if I can’t ride them all? What’s the most efficient way to ride them all? What if it rains and they all go home?
Now one’s been removed for safety, one probably should be removed for safety and one’s a clone. When the park announced their largest investment ever, it should have been lifechanging. Instead we got Zokkon, which now simply exists to suggest they’re too scared to build anything adventurous any more.
There’s 1 legend left and it’s stood the longest. Fujiyama, the King of Coasters.
Oh yeah, the clone. Figured I may as well complete the set now that the queue had died down for Takabisha, which it had, but nowhere near as much, depressingly.
Should have left it alone, it’s also rough as balls now, bottom of Saw’s first drop rough in every valley and juddering headaches through the rest of the inversions. Used to be ‘decent fun for a Eurofighter, shame about the restraints’. Now it’s ‘kill it with fire’. And in an American mall, not operating. Paultons, 2026.
So those were some ups and downs to end the day with. I could have walked back onto Fujiyama several times but I felt it wasn’t worth the risk to it’s reputation and that there was a lesson to be learned here. A cred is only as good as the last time you rode it, so try and walk away with that W.
As for the park, a sorry state of affairs really, made me sad. Dodonpa has left a huge hole physically, in their lineup and in their future as a coaster destination of the world. While it was nice to have a much more relaxed visit, I feel like the jeopardy and adventure of making it onto that big 4 is what made the place special. The golden era has passed and now it’s just a bad collection of rides with a special Togo.
Picked a car up the following morning in order to, sort of, escape Tokyo. Didn’t have massively solid plans for the day, just a sprinkling of potential +1s here and there, and the main focus ended up being to simply not die from heat exhaustion.
First establishment was down on a little southern peninsula, about an hours drive out. Noticed it pop up on coast2coaster and that it had no photos, so for the good of the community…
Day 6 – Nagai Uminote Park Soleil Hill
The place is free to enter and has a range of other activities. Main focus seems to be on general wellbeing, seeing some animals, touching some grass, playing in some water, a nice escape from the mad metropolis.
Tucked away in one corner is a small amusement section that I assume has been around a while, with some views out over the sea.
But the coaster is brand new so, you’re welcome. Picked up a couple of ride tickets from an automated machine under the ferris wheel and hopped on.
After becoming the most popular animal on the internet, it seems they jumped on the bandwagon here in creating #1 Capybara Coaster, a change from the old faithful dragons we’ve come to know and love.
Interestingly the front car was closed off and, from the second car, you could see through the shell of the footwell and into the ‘engine’/cogs/power system for the train inside it’s brain, so I guess the custom moulding didn’t go exactly to plan.
Elsewhere they have a very chill petting zoo, where you can meet the real deal and get kicked by a kangaroo. Too hot for that thankfully.
And this lot.
Nice place, grabbed an ice cream and headed out.
I remembered the next park was a bit of a pain to get to by train before, so also had it on the ‘with car’ hitlist.
Yomiuriland
Downside is that you don’t get to ride the cablecar across the park if you enter via the car park, but been there and done that, wanted to just be in and out as efficiently as possible for the sake of self preservation.
Hit the record for the trip on the drive to the park at an eye watering 41°C. This had me worried at the entrance to the park as it seemed the gates were closed, with a large crowd stuck outside them. Have they (sensibly) deemed it too hot to theme park?
Asked for clarification at the ticket desk and it turns out I’d just rocked up seconds before 3pm, at which point they had a cheap afternoon deal on, so everyone was just being held back for that. Sweet, I’ll take one of those please.
Thus one of my favourite parks in Japan was offensively under-priced.
Once inside, headed straight to what I knew as the new cred, #2 Lipovitan Rocket☆Luna, the weird Gerstlauer family suspended thing that very much suits this place. Had about a 30 minute wait (as advertised), but in a beautifully air-conned building, so all good.
Queueline has a bit of storyline setup, but most of it went over my head. Bad robots show up and pink power ranger shouts for help to blue power ranger, so loud that it carries through space.
The coaster itself is partially interactive, as you’re encouraged to scream or clap at certain key moments and then your train gets given a score on the final brakes. This is mainly on audio cue as the show building doesn’t really contain much of anything visually striking. You just sort of waft around some disco lights and sounds in a rather awkward layout that seems to not know what to do with itself. Kinda like the fashion themed spinning coaster across the way.
I had forgotten the details of the installation and was hoping for a launched lift or something to spice things up a bit, but there’s just two chain lifts, the second leading to the little outdoor fly by and then ending a tad slow as the station is elevated.
S’alright.
The actual newest coaster, though we use the term loosely here, was #3 Dino Runner. It’s a weird little powered contraption that barely, barely seems to be affected by gravity.
Trains are fun, as you can be seated on carnivores, herbivores or in a 3-adult-wide mine cart, all of which rhythmically rock back and forth during the layout.
It goes round a volcano, bit of smoke, bit of a water effect at the end, so all tarted up rather nicely. Just a complete non-event in terms of hardware. Good for a little cooldown.
You know what else is good for a cooldown. Wet Bandit.
This ride, specifically the summer upgrade that gets you wet, was life-changing on my first visit. On a day that had been riddled with rain-related spite, because ‘tracks were wet’, this 250ft monstrosity of a jet coaster was actively soaking everyone and itself by means of geysers, ridiculously powerful water jets hidden in forests and general summer party vibes.
It still delivered all of that on this occasion, though this time themed to anime babies and it’s remained an insane coaster to experience. The layout is just so weird, but weirdly good, starting out with the epic views from the top and a huge drop into some intense corners.
The highlights though are heading out into valleys and plains that feel miles from the station at that point, a true terrain coaster. The second half is interspersed with surprisingly good airtime hills, considering the restraints, age of it etc. These old Togos really are something special.
They were running it super efficiently for Japan too, two trains and all. Also upgraded the loose item system from ‘here’s a weird canvas sack for your stuff, stick that under your feet’ to free lockers. Ok, maybe that’s more boring and less quirky, but an upgrade to most.
Headed out just as an epic thunderstorm rolled in and evacuated the extremely sweaty water park, so that was good timing which then provided a very atmospheric drive out into the mountains. Pleased with the flying visit overall. +2 and some love to a legend of the industry. Great park.
