Dropped the trusty car back off in Osaka that night and had one more day in the city for
Day 19 – Universal Studios Japan
I had a good time here back in 2017. Strong coaster lineup, well rounded supporting attractions, manageable queues. Since then the stories haven’t sounded so pretty, but with a potential +2 on the cards it seemed worth a shot after so long.
It’s bad.
They haven’t improved their online ticketing system. Barely had a website at all back in the day but instead now you can try and fail to buy online as a foreigner. To compliment this they now no longer sell you anything on the door, instead insisting you walk to a nearby convenience store (which given my experience with Nagashima potentially wouldn’t work either) and then re-queue for half an hour of security checks.
So, as it always was, but shouldn’t be, buying through a third party online is the best option.
Despite being on the premises at rope drop, Nintendo land was immediately a total write off for the visit. I did my due diligence on the rules (which shouldn’t be necessary) and without some form of paid extra like fastrack or staying on-site, the only option was to furiously refresh the app at park opening and book a time slot. The slots simply never materialised on the app, so I assume everyone went for the paid option. -1.
One minor draw for me was the opportunity to experience Space Fantasy without a VR headset, for which it has had may IPs over the past decade.
It recently got rethemed to Club Zedd (who?) and has some new obnoxious preshows about going to Club Zedd for a party in space. Cheese.
The effect of this on the ride is some on-board EDM and a feeble attempt at a rave coaster.
As a ride that was raved about maybe 20 years ago, not being able to see the ‘scenery’ had always left us feeling like we had missed out a bit.
We hadn’t however, the hardware was exactly as I remembered – 90% lift hill, 10% weak layout. Your mileage may vary with spinning of course but there’s seemingly little opportunity to get too exciting with it.
This results in a lot of talking on the lift hill (thanks for coming guys, you made it, we’re gonna have a grrrrreat time), music and train building to a drop and then very little pay off, three times over.
X in its rave years was far better. Stupid Walking Dead.
Headed over to Snoopy land to get the only available new coaster for the day.
They’ve redone the inside of the building and replaced the old coaster with a Vekoma junior. #1 Snoopy’s Flying Ace Adventure was nice enough.
Another big deal for me here is that Jaws is still alive, and here only. I have much love for this attraction.
It’s so silly and impressive at the same time, and when acted well by the captain, never fails to deliver a great experience. One to be treasured.
Something else that loomed over the day was that, despite my due diligence, Flying Dinosaur got suddenly booked for long term maintenance after I was in the country. By far one of my favourite coasters in the country that I was of course greatly looking forward to being reunited with.
While this screenshot is symbolic of a bad day, there was some comfort in not even being able to lay eyes on the Mine Cart Misery queueline.
And this was a ‘quiet’ day, by measure of some of the shortest opening hours the park offers all year.
No Flying Dinosaur is double damage here, because it means the only other major coaster has to do twice the heavy lifting on crowd control.
As such, Hollywood Dream was a perpetual 90 minutes or worse, on a 5 train B&M.
I wasn’t going to be dealing with that more than once so went for the full commit to the only sensible option – backwards only. The queue for Backdrop barely moves because it’s only one of the trains, so it doesn’t even paint the illusion of efficiency, sadly.
90 minutes came and went and I was finally sat down in the train, ready to pick a song. Some faff was going on however, staff kept looking down between the train and the track and making panicked calls to supervisors over their radio mics.
Supervisors arrived and our row was evacuated to the exit platform with no explanation. Many more words were spoken over the next 10 minutes. Lost article? Sensor fault? Who knows. Everyone got very impatient, for Japan, and then back on we got.
So, how was the ride? Despite all the build up and negative sentiment, it managed to hit that magic spot for me once again. Feels like I’ve oversold this one in my head for nearly a decade now, but I’m still learning that I should never doubt myself. There’s no denying what rides make you feel at the time and backwards this was bliss.
In the here and now I also had a fantastic time on it. The airtime is surprisingly potent, for a B&M hyper. More like the unrefined lurching type of moments of a Silver Star than the famous fantastical floating of a Mako. The lack of anticipation of layout that comes with going backwards of course accentuates this at least two-fold and I have never bothered to learn every detail of what was coming or where it was going. And it goes on for what feels like an age, for it’s size.
As an added bonus, the song lineup has changed over the years and I feel my pick this time contributed better to the experience, so that was nice.
Peaked on that and left the park with little desire to queue for anything else. The end.
Sad state of affairs really. Thankfully the park is still reasonable value for money, as a tourist at least, even if you only get 4 attractions in 4 hours. There’s strictly no re-entry, which is odd considering the fact that there’s a citywalk with a plethora of food directly outside. Just don’t expect both completion and comfort,
Feels like the lineup has been cut significantly. This is partly me, because I’ve done too much and have no intention of doing stuff like Harry Potter any more. Partly circumstance, because no Flying Dino is a big no no.
From my personal nostalgia however they’ve lost Terminator, Backdraft and Spiderman which were all perfect for padding out your day and then maybe making you consider another 90 minute queue for the premium attractions. Instead they’ve added Nintendo, but it’s behind a paywall, has 3 hour+ queues and I know for a fact they’re not premium attractions. So it’s not an appropriate replacement for the average guest.
And it’s seemingly just far too busy now for the average guest to really enjoy at any time any more. Like Florida. And Cedar Point.
Give me a jet coaster any day.
Summary
Prefectures – 20 New parks – 15 New coasters – 27 New dark rides – 5 New jet coasters – 10 Best new park – Adventure World Best new coaster – Pink Typhoon Backwards Coaster Best coaster – Hakugei
The penultimate park had an awkward schedule, closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so we arrived bright and early on Thursday morning.
To what may be the best car park signage I’ve ever seen.
Day 18 – Adventure World
A generic name for a great park. They had a lot of complicated deals at the machines on the door, including and excluding rides, including and excluding a safari tour. Opted for the bare bones, figuring we’d figure it out inside.
Bit of dejavu walking past an elephant to start the day, whilst making a beeline for the amusement section.
Arrival here taught us many things. All coasters were due to open, but all at different times of the day with the slots clearly posted at each. Price for the 3 coasters was less than a wristband, so wins all round.
First and only one open to start then was this very long powered coaster with a confirmed bee on it.
#1 Little Adventure takes multiple laps around the entire building that contains it.
And even heads outside under this shelter for a bit. Unique and fun.
Took a walk and found some red pandas, just about the best animal.
Before the major coaster opened, perhaps the most significant jet coaster of the trip.
Staff for #2 Big Adventure were enthusiastic as always, providing a pep talk and pump up to the crowd (just me) on dispatch.
As expected, it goes on for a good while, but doesn’t do a whole lot. The perfect sit down really, pleasant views, wind in the hair.
Gets lost in the forest a bit at the end. Great stuff.
Final coaster wasn’t due to open for a while so headed round some of the wet animals
Ended up watching this stunt show, which was entertaining enough even if only for the seals > sealions.
Just about the best animal.
Turns out one of the safari options they offer here is free – no need for the upcharge ticket for it either.
It’s a land train that takes you through the different areas.
Think the paid ones come with a human guide. And walking.
That aside, there’s plenty of other animals about.
And plenty of incredible faces this goat can make.
Eventually it was time for the main event, the #3 Pandafull Coaster with plenty of incredible faces.
More single-file chaotic fun, the track shaping is very odd to look at but it’s the same old train track rails on top and rides about the same as you would guess.
With that success under our belts it just about drew our day to a close in time for the drive back to Osaka. Spent longer here than expected both due to the staggered openings and underestimating the significance of the place a little. No complaints about that though, a good time had by all.
Without it’s namesake amusement park these days, the city of Nara is best known to me for being overrun with deer. The buildings were a bonus.
Some people dare to feed, then regret.
It’s far safer to stick to just bowing.
Gardens were a bonus too.
On a hill between Nara and Osaka is Ikoma Skyland
This squirrel funicular takes you from the car park to the entrance.
And there it is.
Just the one coaster here, and not a particularly interesting one in #1 Spinning Coaster.
However the deal was sweetened with this dark ride discovery.
On the surface just another Senyo shooter.
However it was unintentionally hilarious, as the sound effect for hitting a couple of the big monsters was clearly just a man’s voice emulating slight pain in an amateur fashion.
Park is probably best celebrated for just the vantage points it provides though. There’s Osaka.
And here comes the rain.
Took a long drive down through the heart of Wakayama prefecture, half expecting another hair-raising journey like the main road to Kyoto.
The scenery was stunning, but the roads were of much better quality.
Even had some more bridges.
Nachi Falls
Following the trend of inconvenient tourism, the eventual destination was ‘closed’ upon arrival, but that doesn’t stop you from taking a wander.
Down some spooky stairs.
And there it is.
Tallest (year round, single uninterrupted drop) in Japan.
Further up the hill is some temple stuff.
So the game is to take a picture of different things with the falls in the background.
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:
The unofficial soundtrack you never knew you wanted for the ride.
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.
Like the other Kogen, this park lives in the shadow of a mountain.
Unlike the other, it only has one coaster.
A medium sized jet jaunt, named after the park itself, #1 Hiruzen Coaster.
Very standard layout for one of these, drop and turn,
Questionable airtime hills.
And a long helix, with hot tyre friction brakes to finish.
Jumped on the ferris wheel for a vantage point.
Then headed out. Nice place to kill a couple of hours as always.
Our next destination was Tottori, a city on the northern coast famed for having sand dunes.
There they are.
There is a chairlift contraption down to the popular bit, over some cacti. Unfortunately it closed very inconveniently early for a tourist attraction.
Oh well, here’s another Sandshrew to bookend the day.
Day 15
Had the most extreme drive of my career on what Google deemed to be the ‘main road to Kyoto’ the following morning. It contained one of those moments where the technology says 20 miles to go, that will take 2 hours. You think that just can’t be right. And then it is.
Very glad of the cubular car anyway, the route was scarily narrow and isolated with unprotected sheer drops in many places, quite the adventure.
Kyoto
First impressions upon arriving within the city limits weren’t great. The mountain road spat us out on a public road next to a shrine that was absolutely swarming with foreign tourists staring in bewilderment at a car on a road.
This trend continued all through the streets surrounding our first destination. Parked up and took an uncomfortably sweaty walk amongst the masses to see some water.
A bridge of course.
And some bamboo. This bamboo forest is deemed a major attraction, but as I remarked in relative distaste upon arrival, we’d seen many, many bamboo forests at the side of the road on our journeys already. The fact that we’d spent the past 2 weeks not surrounded by billions of tourists however made for a very jarring contrast. I’m thinking Kyoto has a problem.
Kinkakuji
This attraction was a bit better, with a simple paywall at the door and a one way walking system to maintain some order amongst the chaos.
Golden pavilion is gold alright.
Ginkakuji
This place was the same,
and quieter still.
Silver pavilion is definitely not silver though.
Has a decent vantage point, though the camera did it little justice with the positioning of the sun. Morning is probably better.
Matcha
Green.
Gion
Finished up with a gentle stroll around the district most famous these days for hating foreign tourists. And rightly so.
That was enough Kyoto for one day, potentially a lifetime. I’ve put it off for years, but it’s probably a lot nicer when the crowds have dispersed, whenever that may be.
Day 12 began in Nagasaki, where the first port of call was another vantage point.
There’s a cablecar station with free parking here, always a bonus.
The ride itself is a little on the pricey side, by local standards at least, but prompt and efficient of course.
Their main justification for this being that the vehicles were designed by someone who designs Ferraris, apparently.
You can drive up here as well though, which I have made a mental note to do next time.
At night, most likely. The city wins awards for night views, so they say.
It’s a pretty spectacular battle of infrastructure and nature at the very least.
Another bridge, as promised.
Deep within the city, the bridges continue.
This is known as the glasses bridge. A quaint little riverside walkway, complete with wildlife.
And adventure.
A few hours out of the city is Shimabara, supposedly famed for holes in the wall which may or may not contain dogs.
Like so.
They also have a castle.
And yet another for the volcano collection. Mt. Unzen here is a little more sinister with that spiky summit.
In it’s shadow is an open air museum of houses that were engulfed by an eruption in the ’90s.
From there it was another long drive back towards the north of Kyushu, near completing our circuit of the region.
Day 13 first found us at a frog shrine.
As one would expect.
This guy blows bubbles.
Relatable levels of commitment to a cause.
Down the road from there is a place called Dazaifu, which it turns out is well regarded for it’s shrines and temples.
I only knew it for the coaster it contained though, and having set the sat nav to take me directly to it, was surprised to find that you can’t really get near it by car.
So the search on foot began.
These colours aren’t nearly tacky enough.
Sure enough though, amongst the serenity, a sight for the soul.
Dazaifu Yuenchi
At the back of the park, and summit of the hill it sits on, is the lone jet coaster, known as #1 Train Coaster.
There’s the train.
Perhaps more notable are the goats that live under the station.
It’s a simple but elegant design, a slow build of a helix into one moment of questionable airtime before going out with a fizzle, just how I like it.
Park complete.
With that we bade farewell to Kyushu, headed back over the bridge to the mainland, and several more hours up the road to
Akiyoshidai Safari Land
Skipped the safari and headed straight to where the real action was.
#2 Super Coaster was rather super.
Damn near one of the biggest coasters on the trip.
It had a good length to it, filled with forces of some description. Very much my cup of tea.
I like this choose your animal ferris wheel.
Elsewhere in the park it was dark ride time, didn’t do so well on that front out here.
Nevertheless, this was a classic.
And I’m sure this lone image of the interior will leave you wanting more.
Not wanting more, we headed out for another few hours drive east to enjoy a sunset by the sea, which this coastline is supposedly famed for.
A quaint place with precisely 0 visitors and a catchy, repetitive, park-wide song.
Home to only the finest of coasters, behold #1 Ladybug Coaster.
One neat thing they have here is these little lookout towers next to each ride.
Might be my most photographed of the trip.
Elsewhere in the park they have cute animals.
A hill with a big squirrel slide on top.
This.
Free table tennis.
And free bikes.
All in all, everything Sanrio wasn’t.
Huis Ten Bosch
Down the road was one of the biggest parks of the trip, but you’ve probably never heard of it because it doesn’t contain a rollercoaster. I know I hadn’t.
It’s a fairly hefty resort, with a fairly hefty pricetag, and entirely themed to Dutchland.
First thing through the main entrance is another teddy bear museum.
Making a habit of these.
Back outside towards the action there are a few rides.
First up was Mission Deep Sea, which was timeslotted, and had a seemingly pointless fastrack system for 95% of the year.
It’s a weird one, with approximately 30 minutes of just pre-shows, moving from room to room with a couple of staff actors. They build hype rather well into each transition, but as with most show rides it’s lost entirely amongst the faff and procedure of making people stand in front of the next screen.
Very, very eventually you get to your cinema seats.
Where the main thing that sets it apart from most is that the lead actor sits in a game chair up front by the screen and performs along with the video. It only lasts about 4 minutes and despite their admirable efforts, is a complete and confusing non-event. Oh well.
Next door is a flying theatre. This is an odd one, because it opened just last year with the usual sightseeing faff. Now, less than 12 months later, it’s been overlayed with Evangelion the Ride 8K.
Which doesn’t appear to match the elaborate queue at all. More pre-shows! You get batched several times and have several instructional videos on joining NERV, military operations, high tech all-terrain (flying) vehicles.
As such they’ve just transitioned from one trope to another. Scary monsters attack your base (which is the park itself) and you tag along for the ride watching the main characters in big robot suits beating them up. You win, at the cost of the park being destroyed, the end.
It was all a dream though, the park is fine, here’s a triple-decker carousel.
Last of their big 3 is Horizon Adventure.
This is a strange one, because water based special effects show to me usually means very exciting. Instead you sit on some wooden benches and listen (via headphone translation if requested) to an old man tell a confusing story about water to his uninterested grandchildren.
They run off and knock a statue over, then the story stops, then you watch the flood, then he comes back and shrugs ambiguously, the end.
Ferris wheel time.
The Dutch illusion falls apart when you can see the landscape beyond.
Construction, get excited?
Observation tower time. For context, it’s a replica of the tallest church in the Netherlands, the Dom Tower of Utrecht.
And I feel like it needed that. While it was a very pretty place, all of the ‘rides’ were a bit underwhelming and didn’t live up to the theming quality of the rest of the park.
All in all, glad to have knocked it off the list, even if it’s only worthy of a ‘s’alright.’
The following morning found us in Miyazaki, a quaint coastal city with a zoo., with a couple of coasters.
Day 9 – Miyazaki Zoo
And there it is.
Found this little history piece on the main path in, showing a glimpse of an old jet coaster they used to have. Sad it’s gone.
Instead we get this magnificent specimen, #1 Mad Mouse.
Maybe it’s just me, but there’s always something about a ride with a funny face that makes it so much more desirable for the count.
And these single file things are usually pretty wild, embracing the chaos.
The other ‘coaster’ is a bit of a dubious one, but it’s well themed to dinosaurs and clowns.
#2 Pierrot Train had massive airtime, and it’s stood for 20 years without ever being photographed for RCDB so, as ever, you’re welcome.
Elsewhere in the zoo they have zoo things.
All in all, a decent morning out.
Took a drive over to Kagoshima for the afternoon, which has a couple of things going for it.
Predominantly a big volcano that came out of the sea right next to it, actively spewing on this occasion.
And the southernmost city of Kyushu.
Nice.
Day 10
The sort of original plan for the day (it could have also happened earlier, without rain) was to go from volcano to volcano. Unfortunately a helicopter crashed inside the crater of Mt. Aso earlier this year and obviously that’s a complete logistical nightmare to do even anything about. So, sadly, though you can usually drive up pretty much the whole thing, all the access roads were closed off for the foreseeable.
Instead, as a near equivalent alternative, nearby there’s a man and his dad who live with nearly 100 Shibas.
To many people that’s probably better.
While in the area, here’s some more general volcanic basin views, including what I assumed to be cracks in the ground from seismic activity.
Kōno Park
But to satiate the real thirst.
A very small park is another few hours away.
With yet another magnificent specimen.
Car park coasters are better when you can park directly under the supports.
#1 Mini Jet Coaster might be the flattest thing ever, but it wasn’t without its charm.
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.
Continuing ever westward, we found ourselves in Shimonoseki – the town that marks the entry point onto the island of Kyushu, via yet another big bridge.
Just before that though,
Day 6 – Haikara’t Yokocho
There’s a coaster to be had here. Guess I’m not retiring just yet.
Only the finest to break the fast of course, one of the nations many #1 Family Banana Coasters.
Alternative transport options are available.
In the interests of keeping things relatively leisurely, this was originally billed to be the only ‘park’ of the day. However, worrying weather reports were worryingly reporting that the following day was going to be a bit of a write off, so we upped the pace a bit in response.
But first, a horsecourse.
Via a bridge.
This is Kokura Racecourse, the biggest in Kyushu.
Nice place for a picnic.
Building was open, as other races were on elsewhere in the country, you can treat it like a big, fancy betting shop with free drinks.
And then, several down hours the road, you may have heard of this one.
Kijima Kogen
9 years ago, terrifyingly, we sort of almost came here. The circumstance birthed a quote of a lifetime in that we were done with Space World, put it in the Sat Nav, and were presented with arriving 5 minutes before close, with a cost of £70 in tolls. How times have changed.
Thus I suppose this was pseudo revenge, though mainly I’ve been haunted ever since by the relative significance of their signature coaster. And completing the Japanese wooden (not that impressive), Intamin wooden (better) and top 10 longest wooden (nice) sets of course.
Enough words, #2 Jupiter.
Ok, some more words. Similar tactics for the ‘biggest’ park of the trip, though a day early, this was intentionally a weekend for attraction availability over crowd comfort.
So, several hours into the day here, this had a pretty hefty, or at least slow-moving queue. As busy as it gets was only deemed worthy of one train operation.
Eventually made it on, the biggest source of discomfort being assigned seating taking fate out of my hands. Ended up near the front, in a non-wheel row.
Off we went. It’s got a fun little pre-lift section, one of the pioneers of the genre in that regard I guess. While only hitting moderate speeds here, this revealed that there probably was something to be worried about.
Up and round and down we go. I kinda liked it.
A very interesting mix really. There’s sparks of it being a very good ride, with even a few moments of what would be impressive airtime, as you would expect from a more modern Intamin, but not at all after riding Regina and Elf.
The tracking is patchy at best. I assume some work has been done at some point as all these things change all the time of course, it varied from laughable jiggle, to stay on your guard, catch this at the wrong time and it’ll kill you.
Did I dare to ride again? Probably, through 40% morbid curiosity, 30% a sense of respect to the name and the size, 20% the decent chance it won’t be around forever and 10% actual enjoyment. It held the same queue all day though, so no. On reflection now, glad I didn’t, as we so often learn these days, walk away on the high.
Back up the high end of the park are the other coasters.
The cold steel of a powered #3 Dragon.
The park’s signature steel, #4 Super LS Coaster, a Meisho rarity.
It has some of the charms of a jet coaster when wafting over the pathways, but loses the spirit a little bit in trying too hard with inversions.
Looks cool though.
Vekoma Junior, from both the old #5 Roller Skater days and a defunct park up the road. Should have saved their jet coaster instead.
And finally a ridiculously intense Meisho mine train thing by the name of #6 Gold Rush, that was nothing like the others of the trip in any way. Swear I took a picture of it, but have checked all 3 phones now so you’ll just have to believe me.
The warning signs – the back row is permanently closed off, more padding than usual, a 5 minute enthusiastic safety spiel form the operator before despatch (resulting in easily the second longest queue on park).
No idea what went on with this one, but every elevation change is marked by the most intense of transitions, which built and built until the very end. Like it wasn’t meant to have a long train or someone got their calculations off.
Amazing though, they accidentally stumbled onto a winning formula as it made everyone scream and shout every time. Sleeper hit of the park.
Was sad to learn that the building for this once housed the park’s only actual dark ride. It had an interesting history, originally being built as a showcase model over in Europe. Chuck some 4D seats in a box and call it a day.
Had a cheeky go on the old Intamin drop tower, Newton (one of the mascots of the park), which became my most efficient amusement attraction of all time. No one else there at all. Nodded at the guy. Sat down. Despatch. Drop. Nodded at the guy. Done. Less than 30 seconds?
With that it was park complete, Perhaps not quite as significant as I’d built it up to be in my head after all these years, but great setting, interesting set of coasters, good vibes, all that fun stuff.
