Next morning was a rainy one but, for a welcome change, that didn’t even matter.
Headed over to see the signature castle of the city, which can be accessed via this cable car station.
The plastic school chair version was out of action, so up we went on big blue.
Even after that there’s a hefty hill to climb to get up to the castle grounds. Accessibility wasn’t a top priority when choosing the location.
There’s separate ticketed entry if you want to go inside, which is recommended both for something to do and the views. Once in, there’s a locker room for shoe removal, so you can get to pad the wooden halls and climb the steep stairs in slippers or socks, which adds to the experience.
Plenty of history stuff.
Can’t beat a good vantage point.
Yes, that’s a ferris wheel. No, no coasters here.
That was fun. Headed back down and took a drive to see some oranges, the famed fruit of the region.
Yes, it’s called a park. No, no coasters here.
Only oranges.
Juiced up, drove all the way back over those bridges again to reach Hiroshima for the evening.
First and only priority upon arrival was their famed pizza vending machine, which as far as I know is a one and only. Used to live near a convenience store, now it’s just under an apartment building. So, how was the pizza? Pretty good, considering.
Day 5 – Hiroshima
Took a wander through the city the next morning.
Main stuff in the middle includes the museum.
Peace park.
And A-bomb dome. There’s also an overpriced vantage point with a slide in it, inside that building to the right.
We had planned to head to Miyajima for the afternoon, mainly to finish a joke I set up in Florida, but the weather ruined the ferry scheduling.
Looked something like this, I would imagine.
But if you zoom in real close, there it is from the mainland, specifically the car park of a convenience store. Keep it a secret though, or they might put a wall up.
An hour down the road, something that didn’t require a ferry.
The bridges are back with Kintaikyo bridge.
There’s a toll gate at one end, and another cable car up to another castle at the other end, but the latter was closed by this time.
7 years ago I arrived at the ticket desk of Washuzan Highland to be helpfully informed that all three rollercoasters were not operating that day.
Time for revenge.
Day 3 – Washuzan Highland
Arrived to a reasonably long queue to get in. As with Rusutsu last year I had intentionally aimed for what was expected to be a busy or ‘peak’ weekend in order to prioritise attraction availability over crowd comfort.
The history of why this place has an obsession with Brazil eludes me, but it seems to be toned down these days. The only time it kicked off was for a weird bingo event in the middle of the day (everyone got a card with their entry ticket) that had a couple of folks in carnival attire trying to rile up a mostly mute Japanese audience, while of course shouting numbers and giving out prizes.
We’re not here for that though. It is with immense satisfaction and sadness that I have now ridden every existing version of my namesake coaster.
Despite the queue to get in, the fact that it’s front and centre as the first ride you see upon entry, and the horrendous capacity of this running a single 6-person car, #1 Ultra Twister hadn’t drawn too much of a wait.
Turns out the restraint system I described for the dive loop version in Rusutsu is entirely unique (amongst those that remain at least). Here the first thing I noticed is a much chonkier shoulder restraint and lack of weird little lap bar.
It all amounts to a similar amount of fear factor however, I can never say enough how much these things are fascinatingly over and under engineered, for the era.
It delivered the appropriate amounts of glory. Two terrifying out of seat moments, one thriling hurl of a heartline, a car crash of a brake run at the far end, and a graceful backwards descent through two more inversions that no one else sees coming. Seems obvious now, but I was surprised at the speed difference of these vs the dive loop edition, which carries an insane amount of momentum and intensity in comparison to that which comes to a dead stop at less than half the height.
This park is quite the athletic workout, as it’s built on a massive hill. Also at ground level, but with views here not even halfway up, is the other major coaster.
For the morning #2 Pink Typhoon Standing Coaster was running its backwards, not standing, train, which I found to be extremely potent in the back (front) row.
I’ve experienced the layout before, but not for a long time and never in this manner, so the sheer element of surprise in each of the surprisingly sharp hills led to some surprisingly strong airtime surprises. Loved it.
At the summit of the park is the final, family friendly coaster. Old mate #3 Chupy Coaster.
It’s great not only for the setting, but the very open cars with no restraint beyond a seatbelt, and of course the train decoration.
Did a nearby cycle railway, also for the views.
An interesting touch was that they added a little trick track to it, for a bit of scary illusion.
They’ve also got this ferris wheel with open air seats. Seemed to be a few downsides however, in that it’s upcharge, your view is restricted by restraint and there were a lot of scary bugs flying around.
Opted for the regular of course.
Can’t beat a good vantage point.
This looks far more impressive than it rides.
Around lunchtime they were due to swap the trains on this over to the standup version, as proclaimed on a sandwich board on the path to the ride.
This also coincided with the bingo, so doubled up as being dead quiet and avoiding that.
Now in this mode, it’s the same as the Togo stand-up in Italy, which I absolutely adored. Didn’t ride quite as potently in feet-off-the-floor airtime for whatever reason, be it weather, front row or me related.
Still terrifying though, and definitely reinforced for me that, whilst B&M have finally come a bit closer to replicating the fear through actually standing up, and having a restraint that moves with you, Togo have been doing that and better since the ’70s. Insane.
Closing lap on that closed out the visit, which was lovely to finally tick off after so long of a tease. Great setting, great rides, a gem of a Japanese park. Having now ridden all the Heartlines, I can officially retire from the hobby.
The drive for the afternoon took us over a set of bridges through the inland sea and over to Shikoku. Not to be confused with the bridges over the inland sea to Shikoku we’ve just seen from the park. That’s the other way.
Who needs coasters when you can have bridges?
Let’s count.
At the end there’s a rest stop where you can look back at some of the view.
Finished up in the city of Matsuyama, our base for the night, and took a wander over to some touristy place.
Old train and new tram.
A pretty clock tower that does a show every hour – the top rises up, doors open out from the sides with little dioramas and music plays. It got dark, so no pictures, you can probably find it on the gram.
Reminded me of a few other places, up in the hills in the middle of nowhere, by a lake.
Initial pathway is somewhat blocko-inspired, though this particular theme soon dies out as you reach the amusements proper.
Wait, is that a bonus coaster in the distance?
First things first was the Meisho, very similar hardware to the previous day.
Name here is far less apt however, #1 Hill Billy Coaster Texas Bronco? Not much of that makes sense.
Was a fair bit heftier in duration, picked up a fair bit of speed over time and the near misses with the rockwork in the end felt rather scary.
While nothing special in any particular way, I came off far happier about it than I had any right to be. A delayed culmination of emotions about being back at this nonsense again, still a spark for it somewhere deep down I guess.
This also Meisho shuttle loop is long gone, just an eye-catcher from a time gone by.
Huge, in what is very much a park aimed at young families these days, I question whether it would have lasted no matter the circumstances.
And missing the rest of the layout, albeit just a straight line. It’s been exactly this way for at least 20 years and the park has added precisely 0 coasters in that period, an apt summary of the state of the scene out here.
Mooched around and killed some time as there was a staggered opening on the other, smaller cred.
#2 Waku Waku Coaster opened a little earlier than posted, which was welcome. A functional +1 if ever there was one.
Didn’t hang around much longer, took a drive down to Okayama, specifically a touristy bit dubbed the ‘Venice of Japan’ for the afternoon.
Not entirely convinced, but here we are.
Was quiet and pleasant for that time of day at least.
Content warning – this trip contains whole days without rollercoasters. I would say it’s me slowing down, but choose to blame the industry doing so instead.
It’s been far too long since my last visit to Japan at just over 6 years months. The simple FOMO of the previous trip carried over once again, inspired by some longstanding unfinished business with a particular couple of places, and a continued desire to explore new parts of the country by means of their fading amusement parks.
Day 0
Nothing much to report on the travel front, thankfully. Flew into Osaka via Beijing because it was offensively cheap, but too short of a layover to get up to anything cheeky. Oh, they did try and cancel the Japan leg earlier in the year when the two countries fell out politically again, because the airline anticipated not making any money on flights between them, but it was rebooked with relative ease and only ended up being a minor inconvenience.
Hit the ground half-running with some shopping shenanigans before near-passing out in a Mcdonalds once sitting down and travel fatigue could set in. Time for a reset.
Day 1
Picked up a hire car the next morning, a loyal and faithful cubular Suzuki that served us faultlessly and provided a quintessential local driving experience. Didn’t have much in Osaka to hang around for so immediately busted out of the city in search of a new genre entirely.
Why ride coasters when you can look at horse courses?
This is Hanshin Racecourse.
It’s free to enter on non-race days.
Good place for a picnic.
And generally very pretty.
Can’t help but think of Thunder Dolphin when I see the hole in that roof.
Not sold? Coasters it is then.
Kobe Fruit & Flower Park
The flower bit of the name is up through there.
But turn left before that for the real deal.
Started strong, as always, on the #1 Hurry Coaster, a mini Meisho with some inspired shaping.
Both coasters here came from a defunct park in Osaka in the ’90s, so that’s fun.
The other, bigger #2 Jet Coaster also has a bee(?) on it.
It’s somewhat jet coaster inspired, as the name would suggest, but also a bit jankier and wilder than usual with the stumpy two-car trains.
In a mine-cart-esque kinda way, was a rather fun experience to kick off the obscure coaster hunting.
Had some local strawberry sorbet to fulfil the fruit part of the equation, then hit the road, simple.
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.
Tateshina Teddy Bear Museum
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.
