I’ve just come back off my Easter holiday, deciding to head back to Japan, which I haven’t visited since living in Tokyo for a while back in 2009. The plan was to hit up a bunch of parks I hadn’t done before, with a couple of revisits to places that had a few new additions since I’d been before.
I stayed in Fukuoka the first night, leaving bags at the hotel in the morning and getting a train down to Greenland. You can get a train/bus/park admission combo at the train station. It didn’t save a huge amount of money, but saved a fair bit of pissing about buying various tickets.
Greenland
I was literally the only person on the bus going to the park, but I arrived to a bunch of coaches in the car park and s**tloads of school kids.
The ticket I had didn’t include rides – I’d forgotten that most Japanese parks have separate entry and ride/wristband options – so I got in the queue for a wristband. They had some special offer on, selling wristbands at roughly half price, though this might not have been the best option, which I’ll explain later.
It seemed really busy, but the school trips must’ve just arrived at the same time as me. The park is pretty big, with loads of attractions, so by the time people had dispersed, it was actually fine. Knocked off a kiddy cred on the way to the first more substantial one:
+1
It was right next to Grampus Jet, a Vekoma Swinging Turns coaster, one of only three. The others are at Bobbejaanland in Belgium and Dream World in Thailand.
It probably would’ve been smarter to not go straight to a coaster near the entrance, but the queue was only about two trains long and operations were fine. Not great, but not Chinese.
It’s the same as the other two, but has the original trains rather than the floorless ones that have been added to the others. Anyway, I’ve got the full collection now, which is probably quite exclusive.
Milky Way next, a Togo dueling stand-up/sit down thing:
They’ve recently added on-board audio to the sit-down side, but the stand-up was still more popular. The audio was pointless anyway since the coaster is so loud that you can’t hear it once you’re out of the station.
I did the sit-down first, then went right back around for the stand-up. I loved it. Both sides are excellent: pretty smooth with some really good airtime on both sides.
See that blossoming cherry tree? That’s culture that is.
So yeah, loved it. Moving on.
Didn’t do either of these two things. I planned to head back later in the day once I’d knocked off the coasters, but then that didn’t happen.
Crappy +1:
Back to this stuff later:
They have incredibly cruelly left a loop from a former coaster standing as decoration, as a cruel taunt to everyone enjoying the otherwise nice view around the lake.
It’s a much more attractive park than I had been expecting. I did the rapids later in the day. They weren’t very good.
They decided not to bother putting any restraints on the chairlift up the hill.
One of these things winds back down. I got stuck behind some absolute c**t who could’ve got down more quickly if he slid on his arse.
Cryptic age limitations:
Another +1, which had the actual audacity to have the longest queue.
It doesn’t deserve a second picture.
It had been years since I’d done a Togo Wild Storm things. They’re vile, but amazing.
Shooter was s**te, but luckily a walk-on.
Didn’t do the log flume.
The ghost train was quite different. You wear headphones as you go through, those things that make it feel like people are whispering in your ear.
Another +1. It was actually quite good for a powered coaster, but lacked decent theming inside.
Other than Milky Way, the coaster I was most looking forward to was the Togo Ultra Twister. I’d only been to one park which had one before, Nagashima Spa Land, but it was down on the day I was there.
This one was open though, so yay!
It was quite fab. There’s some harsh shunting as it moved into the lift, tilt track sections and brakes, but the actual coaster bit is totally fine.
\
The SLC had been closed up until this point, but opened as I was getting off Ultra Twister.
It was fine. I’ve definitely been on a lot worse. It felt really fast and forceful as well.
Ferris Wheel next:
Bastards.
By this point it was around 2pm and all the school trips were leaving. I’ve had this exact same experience in Japanese (and some Chinese) parks before and it’s all a bit weird. They go from being quite busy, with a decent atmosphere, to being totally deserted within minutes. I only had one coaster to polish off, Gao.
From pictures, most people get the idea that the dinosaur theming is on the lift and first drop, but it’s not; it’s actually the second hill. The first drop is ridiculously poor:
The coaster itself was kind of fun, but it really doesn’t do much. It looks amazingly ridiculous though:
Since the park was now dead, I planned to get a few rerides in on Milky Way, Ultra Twister and maybe Gao. I couldn’t though. I don’t know whether it’s because of the discounted wristband I’d bought or whether it was normal, but I could only ride once on each thing (they scan the wristbands at the ride entrances).
This really f**king pissed me off. They were literally sending the Milky Way trains with between 2 and 5 people in them, and I couldn’t just hop on.
Tat:
I ended up just leaving at around 3, getting a bus and train back to Fukuoka, grabbing my bags from the hotel and getting a train to the next city.
I liked this park though. It had been on my “must-do” list for a while thanks to the sheer number of coasters, but I left feeling pissed off because of the restrictions on the wristband, and that’s never good.
When I was planning this trip, I had thought to stop off at Space World since I was travelling past it anyway, but decided against it. Zaturn is new since I was there, but I’m sure it’ll pop up somewhere else.
Next up: Beppu area.
I stayed in Fukuoka the first night, leaving bags at the hotel in the morning and getting a train down to Greenland. You can get a train/bus/park admission combo at the train station. It didn’t save a huge amount of money, but saved a fair bit of pissing about buying various tickets.
Greenland
I was literally the only person on the bus going to the park, but I arrived to a bunch of coaches in the car park and s**tloads of school kids.
The ticket I had didn’t include rides – I’d forgotten that most Japanese parks have separate entry and ride/wristband options – so I got in the queue for a wristband. They had some special offer on, selling wristbands at roughly half price, though this might not have been the best option, which I’ll explain later.
It seemed really busy, but the school trips must’ve just arrived at the same time as me. The park is pretty big, with loads of attractions, so by the time people had dispersed, it was actually fine. Knocked off a kiddy cred on the way to the first more substantial one:
+1
It was right next to Grampus Jet, a Vekoma Swinging Turns coaster, one of only three. The others are at Bobbejaanland in Belgium and Dream World in Thailand.
It probably would’ve been smarter to not go straight to a coaster near the entrance, but the queue was only about two trains long and operations were fine. Not great, but not Chinese.
It’s the same as the other two, but has the original trains rather than the floorless ones that have been added to the others. Anyway, I’ve got the full collection now, which is probably quite exclusive.
Milky Way next, a Togo dueling stand-up/sit down thing:
They’ve recently added on-board audio to the sit-down side, but the stand-up was still more popular. The audio was pointless anyway since the coaster is so loud that you can’t hear it once you’re out of the station.
I did the sit-down first, then went right back around for the stand-up. I loved it. Both sides are excellent: pretty smooth with some really good airtime on both sides.
See that blossoming cherry tree? That’s culture that is.
So yeah, loved it. Moving on.
Didn’t do either of these two things. I planned to head back later in the day once I’d knocked off the coasters, but then that didn’t happen.
Crappy +1:
Back to this stuff later:
They have incredibly cruelly left a loop from a former coaster standing as decoration, as a cruel taunt to everyone enjoying the otherwise nice view around the lake.
It’s a much more attractive park than I had been expecting. I did the rapids later in the day. They weren’t very good.
They decided not to bother putting any restraints on the chairlift up the hill.
One of these things winds back down. I got stuck behind some absolute c**t who could’ve got down more quickly if he slid on his arse.
Cryptic age limitations:
Another +1, which had the actual audacity to have the longest queue.
It doesn’t deserve a second picture.
It had been years since I’d done a Togo Wild Storm things. They’re vile, but amazing.
Shooter was s**te, but luckily a walk-on.
Didn’t do the log flume.
The ghost train was quite different. You wear headphones as you go through, those things that make it feel like people are whispering in your ear.
Another +1. It was actually quite good for a powered coaster, but lacked decent theming inside.
Other than Milky Way, the coaster I was most looking forward to was the Togo Ultra Twister. I’d only been to one park which had one before, Nagashima Spa Land, but it was down on the day I was there.
This one was open though, so yay!
It was quite fab. There’s some harsh shunting as it moved into the lift, tilt track sections and brakes, but the actual coaster bit is totally fine.
The SLC had been closed up until this point, but opened as I was getting off Ultra Twister.
It was fine. I’ve definitely been on a lot worse. It felt really fast and forceful as well.
Ferris Wheel next:
Bastards.
By this point it was around 2pm and all the school trips were leaving. I’ve had this exact same experience in Japanese (and some Chinese) parks before and it’s all a bit weird. They go from being quite busy, with a decent atmosphere, to being totally deserted within minutes. I only had one coaster to polish off, Gao.
From pictures, most people get the idea that the dinosaur theming is on the lift and first drop, but it’s not; it’s actually the second hill. The first drop is ridiculously poor:
The coaster itself was kind of fun, but it really doesn’t do much. It looks amazingly ridiculous though:
Since the park was now dead, I planned to get a few rerides in on Milky Way, Ultra Twister and maybe Gao. I couldn’t though. I don’t know whether it’s because of the discounted wristband I’d bought or whether it was normal, but I could only ride once on each thing (they scan the wristbands at the ride entrances).
This really f**king pissed me off. They were literally sending the Milky Way trains with between 2 and 5 people in them, and I couldn’t just hop on.
Tat:
I ended up just leaving at around 3, getting a bus and train back to Fukuoka, grabbing my bags from the hotel and getting a train to the next city.
I liked this park though. It had been on my “must-do” list for a while thanks to the sheer number of coasters, but I left feeling pissed off because of the restrictions on the wristband, and that’s never good.
When I was planning this trip, I had thought to stop off at Space World since I was travelling past it anyway, but decided against it. Zaturn is new since I was there, but I’m sure it’ll pop up somewhere else.
Next up: Beppu area.
