Big In Japan - May 2017

[SimonSays99]

16 days in Japan and had a great time - only one rainy day - but missed out on 2 smaller parks due to temps around 35C during the last weekend.
This will be report only for pics check https://twitter.com/SimonProD

It was my first time in Japan and it was an overall great experience:
- easy tourist immigration: I just needed my passport and was only asked my purpose of travel and date of return flight to get a 90 day tourist visa in my passport - no ESTA, no nosy and unfriendly interrogations - hello US Homeland Security - and no lines at the airport. And Japan isn't less safe...
- public transport is the best in the world!!! Except for some luggage falling onto the tracks during rush hour there are no delays. JR Museum stated on my day of visit that the overall delay Japan-wide was 0.4 minutes
- Impeccable clean: trains, stations, streets, public toilets so clean you could nearly eat from them

Coaster etiquette is a little more strict so here are some tips for anyone going to Japan:
- no loose articles!!! No coins, glasses (not with straps also), no nothing. Get used to it
- do not fill up empty seats as other riders and attendants will look weirdly at you. So if in front of you is a group of 3 and you are single do not attempt to fill the fourth seat unless asked to - only Universal did Single riders and even they asked the GP in the main line if they want to sit with a Single Rider
- slow operations: Yes its nice to have storage on the platform but it slows. Specially as most parks only assigning seats after the previous group has vacated the platform. Add to that the additional time to remove you wristwatches, shoes, etc - and putting them back on again

 

[SimonSays99]

Tokyo Area Parks

Tobu Zoo

Visited Tobu Zoo on a weekday and the park was nearly deserted. For lack of major thrill flats I took a few spins on their two bis coasters and grabbed a quick lunch and headed to my hotel before the evening rush set in.

Kawasemi: Intamin Mega-Lite - what to say, amazing coaster, crisp airtime, mostly rode it alone or with max 2 other riders, all rides back seat
Regina: Intamin Wooden Coaster (no prefab) - called by some the best wooden coaster in Japan, well did two turns and clearly was enough, not that bad but quite bumpy and aside from that not doing that much

Tokyo Dome

Had my hotel here. The whole area is a huge entertainment complex with a huge sport arena in the middle of it. Rides were overall quite generic except for their stand-up Parachute Tower and spokeless ferris wheel.

Thunder Dolphin: Intamin Mega-Coaster - not much airtime here but smooth and fun ride specially at night were zip around the nighttime Tokyo skyline. As I had my hotel here ended each day with a ride.

Yomiuriland

Welcome to one of those Japan-style wacky parks with Anime/Manga characters everywhere. Some thrill flats also with Looping Starship and S&S Drop/Shot-Towers.

Momonga: Togo Stand-Up - I choosed the sit down trains which were a very tight fit for me at 1.92m. Its a loop and a helix.
Bandit: Togo, Sit-Down - Better than expected with some floater air in the front, okay there were some weird transitions mid-track but hey its a Togo
Spin Runway: Gerstlauer Spinner - quite short but spins a lot

Tokyo Disneyland

Very close to California Disneyland in layout and rides with French Quarter and Toon Town. Main Street is roofed and the layout is a little more compact with Tomorrowland on the side of Main Street for example. Sadly Space Mountain was down for major rehab. Even during the week solid crowds with Big Thunder at 80-120 minute waits all day. After doing my last fastpass rides around 5pm I called it a day early.
As you enter the parks make sure you stand in the right line for tickets or entry - sadly these are not signposted. Dunno for US but I failed with both my EU issued credit cards - Visa and Amex - to buy tickets online.
Big Thunder was a fun ride with great operations as known from other Disney parks.

Tokyo DisneySea

Now this is a unique and totally amazing beast. One day was barely enough to brush the highlights - one of the best parks in the word! The whole Jules Verne area is so immersive with great attractions complete with evening volcano erruption. The New York area also amzingly themed with the Japanese version of Tower Of Terror "Hotel Hightower" as great as the ToTH in the US. Also to visit the mock-up steam ocean liner complete with full bar offering cocktails and Japanese Single Malt.
Raging Spirits was better than expected after what I heard about the Paris version. The coaster here was smooth and big fun - I even got a behind the scenes tour as their "big guys" testing seat in inside the engine room.
In the evening I got my fastpass ride for the brand new Nemo simulator ride. Its Star Tours in XXL - added bouncing seats and water mist sprayers.

Tokyo Joyplois

Mainly an indoor video game area on 4 floors its a kind of visual and audio overkill and everything blinks and blares.
Gekion Live coaster is short - with a video game part in the beginning followed by a short but glass smooth coaster part but having a spinning inversion.

 

[Hixee]

Sounds like a good trip!

With both you and Gavin having posted trip reports from Japan in the last few weeks, I'm starting to think I should push Japan up the "to-do" list... Although I'd have to convince the girlfriend to do the cred-running with me.

Going off on a slight tangent here:

I just needed my passport and was only asked my purpose of travel and date of return flight to get a 90 day tourist visa in my passport - no ESTA, no nosy and unfriendly interrogations - hello US Homeland Security - and no lines at the airport. And Japan isn't less safe...

This is a funny one. Whilst I do think the USA can be quite dramatic about this sort of thing, they're really not that bad. I found the attitude of the staff in the Middle East (Bahrain, UAE, Oman) far worse, and they weren't much better in South America (particularly the Chile/Argentina mountain pass). Okay, sure, you've got to fill in an ESTA beforehand, but having flown to/through the USA five times, and one of those being on a year long student visa, I've never had any issues passing through USA immigration. I'll grant you, sometimes the queues aren't great, and the 'passenger experience' (i.e. facilities, temperatures, etc) could be better, but it's always gone smoothly for me.

 

[SimonSays99]

Outside Tokyo Parks

FujiQ

Heard many a bad thing about their loooooong lines. But on both days I was rather lucky. No line longer than one hour with Kawasemi having a 10-20 minute line both days. The only flat having any line at all was the new Gerstlauer SkyRoller.

eejanaika - Arrow-style 4-D spinner, quite intense and really fast. Here you have to remove your wristwatches, fitnesstracker and shoes - with me one day was a Finnish guy wearing army boots - it took him 5 minutes to remove them and put them on - but the attendants patiently waited...
Fujiyama - Tall, fast, bumpy
Takabisha - with Dodonpa down by far the best coaster in the park with slight to none headbanging
Wild Mouse - fit into this better than into the Togo sit down coasters, unique Japanese made Mouse with a different layout than all the Mack mouses around

Universal

Visited on a Tuesday and the park was packed. With Hollywood Dream having a 150/220 minute line forward/backward this was the only park were I bought a fastpass lifting my entry fee to enormous Yen 17.000 (€135, $150) to just get all the major rides once. The park combines the best of Universal Orlando and Islands of Adventure adding some unique attractions plus the "Cool Japan" area featuring various Anime based attractions including Neo Genesis Evangelion VR ride Mack spinner.

Hollywood Dream Backdrop - B&M Mega, crisp layout, some nice pops of air. Only did the Backdrop with my fastpass due to the lines
Flight of the Hippogriff - Vekoma junior, did this as it was included with my FP, rode with an amazing Japanese senior who really celebrated the ride
Forbidden Journey 3D - adds not much to the 2D US version, the films were filmed in 2D an later converted, so only little and not very good 3D effects, but a solid ride nevertheless
Flying Dinosaur - not included in my FP, so waited 80 minutes as single rider for a fun solid coaster
Jaws - YEAH - They still have Jaws!!!
Minion area - while they still have Jaws they converted their Back to the Future areas to Minions (Boooh!!!!) - but the simulator ride still has the Delorean style cars...
T2 - Arnie in Japanese is hillarious to the max!
Evangelion XR Ride - for the new "Cool Japan" area the Mack spinner was set to not spin and only the forward two seats were loaded. You get Samsung Gear VR sets. The Vr is the best I had so far - fits greatly the Anime setting as you mount a NERV transport navigating Neo-Tokyo as a Evangelion battle robot takes on an Angel. Moving your head there no delay which I encountered on other VR coasters - likely the reduced Anime style color palette helps to reduce load on the portable graphics unit.

Space World

Space World closes this year - and well deserved so. The park is in various states of decay with cement cracking a paint peeling. Not much on rides except their coasters

Zaturn - Intamin Accelerator similar to Thorpe Park, nothing wrong with this one, this has the best chance of getting moved
Venus GP - Fun and smooth Maurer-Söhne but late Schwarzkopf style coaster but already a little outdated on what it does, maybe goes to some 3rd world country park
Titan MAX - what a bad coasters! Demolish this asap

I did not fit into the dark-ride and family coasters...

 

[SimonSays99]

Nagashima Spaland

Welcome to the Japanese rides exhibition. Rides here are not themed and mostly named after the makers model name. Adding to an impressive lineup of coasters it features also a ton of flats including nearly every swinging flat in existence - Huss Pirate, huge Japanese double-Viking, Huss Frisbee, Huss Giant Frisbee, Intamin Looping Starship...

Schwarzkopf Shuttle-Loop - Is there any better shuttle coaster? (Note: This is a rhetorical question!!!)
Schwarzkopf Looping-Star - classic and still fun
Arrow Corkscrew - as always: The corkscrews are okay but the transitions are worst
S&S FreeSpin - Boy does this one spin fast, this one has no trims and no spinning brakes, great addition
Steel Dragon 2000 - no problems with my 1.92m, a very good ride considering age and make of this huge coaster, the only coaster with a small line on my day of visit
Acrobat - Clone of Sea World Manta and as fun, had to wait until 8 riders were there to ride
Jet Coaster - a quite old but still enjoyable Togo coaster, wooden benches, only seatbelts
White Canyon - huge wooden coaster and a real spine-buster, once for the credit is more than enough
Wild Mouse - hey, another Mack Wild Mouse. Sadly only the standard version was open with the mirror version closed
Togo Ultratwister - unique experience but nothing to travel so far for, some hard bumps on the lift and switchbacks and while the in-line twists are smooth its mostly forceless and quite dull

Yes, and I did all the swinging rides....

On the last weekend temps rose to 35C and I skipped Hirakata and Parque Espana - instead found myself some well AC'd museums. As I visited the JR Shinkansen museum in Nagoya took a short look at the new Legoland. On a sunday they had a 150 minutes line - to buy tickets!!!

On my last evening in Tokyo before my return flight I took a last spin on Thunder Dolphin. Really liked Japan with DisneySea and Nagashima being the highlights. Would love to return some day!

 

[SimonSays99]

non-coaster stuff

Studio Ghibli Museum - Mikata, Tokyo
You need to buy tickets for this one in advance from a local travel office in your country - in Germany and according to the museum website in many other countries the travel office to search for is JTB - they also sell the famous JR Rail Pass. Quite lucky I had my ticket for the only day it was pouring - so no theme park lost. The museum itself is rather small but very cute. If you like Anime movies - do this! The Museum café had a 30 minute line and offered - like nearly everywhere in Japan - great foods plus they have their own craft beer - Pilsener or Red Ale. The Museum Shop offered the best merch on my trip - way higher quality than all the overpriced plastic crap you get at Disney or Universal - at half the price.

Hiroshima Peace Park and Museum - Hiroshima
A sobering experience as you walk the area of the Hypocenter of the worlds first wartime atomic blast. The museum tends to mostly look at the Japan victim role in WWII but dropping an atomic bomb onto a suburban area with schools and hospitals it at least a questionable decision. Many school classes around from all over Japan - mostly lining in front of the Children's Memorial singing their school song.

JR Shinkansen and Maglev Museum
Huge hall with trains from the last 150 years including all Shinkansen models including the "Dr. Yelllow" track inspection trains. A separate smaller hall with mock-up of their new Maglev Shinkansen which first tracks are already under construction - aimed at 800 kph the travel time from Tokyo to Osaka will be one hour. The current Maglev world record they have set with the MLX-01 trainset at currently 1.024 kph - faster than subsonic airplanes.

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

Kawasemi - with Dodonpa down by far the best coaster in the park

Lucky that you caught Kawasemi in both Tobu Zoo and Fuji Q. That was a quick relocation.
I assume you mean Takabisha?

 

[SimonSays99]

^ fixed

 

[Mysterious Sue]

Nice little reports. There's so much to see in Japan, you really do end up packing it all in on a trip. We had to deal with typhoons as well which put a spanner in the works and made us double back on parks. Gutted that we never had time to go to the Ghibli museum, it sounds fab, but I'm definitely planning to go back one day.

 

[Coaster Hipster]

What a really dense trip! So many coasters and some pretty unique ones in one stay... it is pretty incredible Good to read your opinions.