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Japan's Many Expo's And Their Coasters

roomraider

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Japan has an interesting history of hosting huge world and local expositions over the years. Many of which hosted small amusement parks with coasters. It's something we did in the UK way back at the start of the 20th century with numerous Scenic Railway type rides going from those Expos to various parks around the country.

Japan had a history of this as well but like the UK this was stopped during the wars. However where we kind of ditched the Expo thing post war the Japanese took it into another gear throughout the 80s and 90s with a crap ton of Expos almost all of which debuted new coasters.

While we know about many of these there are plenty that have flown under the radar I've been doing a fair bit of research for the RCDB this week trying to clear up some of these missing Japanese Expo's and link coasters that came from them to their current locations.

And since I'm doing that a post about some of the more interesting ones seemed appropriate.

Japan World Expo - 1970 - Osaka
Without a doubt the most famous of the Expo's amongst us coaster lot was the Expo in Osaka in 1970. Running between March and September 1970 the expo had a truely colossal visitor count of over 64 million visitors.

But why is this expo so well known? well because it opened with Daidarasaurus an enormous jet coaster with 5 (Yes 5) racing tracks.

Expo702.jpgExpo70.jpg

The coaster lived on when the park area became Expoland which survived all the way up to 2007 and housed the B&M Raptor clone Orochi.
Daidarasaurus may have lived on but it did lose the 3 shorter tracks while eventually the 2 larger ones were combined into what was at the time the worlds longest coaster.

International Flower and Greenery Expo - 1990 - Osaka
Perhaps the most interesting of these coasters from an enthusiast perspective came from this expo again held in Osaka but this time between April and September 1990 in Osaka.

The expos signiture ride was the Togo Strandup racing coaster now known as Milky Way at Mitsui Greenland. At the Expo it was known as Wind God Thor and both sides featured Stand Up trains, Later on Mitsui Greenland converted the pink side to sitdown trains. According to the photo below there was a Giant bannana sculpture within the rides helix's

Expo90.jpg

The expo was a huge success recording over 23 million visitors in just 6 months. While just a 3rd of the earlier 1970 expo its still a positively insane amount which to put into context is more than Florida's Magic Kingdom gets in a year.

Expo902.jpg

Yokohama Exotic Showcase (YES) - 1989 - Yokohama
Going back just a year there was an expo in Yokohama that was one of the one's i dug up yesterday. The expo was held from March till October and had a more modest 13.3million visitors. Which is still mighty impressive,

This overview of the park section of the expo shows 2 coasters which the very eagle eyed among you may recognise.
Expo89.JPG

The smaller coaster on the right was known as Space Coaster

Space Coaster Expo.JPG

This ride is now more well known Boogie Woogie Space Coaster at Space World which closed in 2017.

The second larger coaster was known as Cosmic Express also got moved and still operates today at Kezouji Park, still known as Cosmic Express the ride seems to have moved with the Expo's log flume

As a side note, the Expo's giant Ferris Wheen (not seen in the image above) now operates at Yokohoma Cosmoworld with Diving Coaster Vanish wrapping around it.

Asia Pacific Expo - Fukuoka - 1989
The same year there was another Expo in Fukuoka called the Asia Pacific Expo, An all together smaller expo it ran from March to September and attracted a still respectable 8.2million visitors. The park had one coaster and unusually for these ride I haven't as of yet pinned down where the ride ended up, if it ended up anywhere at all.

The coaster was a Senyo design and was called Giant Camel Coaster with a height of 27m (89ft)

Fukuoka Expo.png
The parks iconic central tower still exists to this day in Fukuoka

World Food Expo - 1988 - Sapporo
A year before that was this much smaller expo in Sapporo in the north of Japan which was one of the few to lose money. Known locally as Juno 88 it ran from June to October in 1988 and the expo only attracted 1.7 million people. It was considered a huge failure. But from an enthusiast point of view it contained one unique coaster.

Ultra Expo.jpg

The amusement zone included the legendry Togo Ultra Twister with a dive loop now found at Rusutsu Resort. Unfortunatly pictures of the actual ride at the expo seem to be pretty much non existant but its cool to know this ride also came from an expo.

Interestingly the Expo was positioned on the exact same site as the 1982 World Food Expo which also featured a coaster

Expo82 Loop.JPG

One of the larger models of Meisho built shuttle models, And where did this one end up? Well perhaps fittingly its along side Ultra Twister and is now known as Loop The Loop also at Rusutsu Resort.

Otaru Expo - 1984 - Otaru
Jumping over to 1984 for reasons that will shortly become apparent. This smaller expo in the city of Otaru only ran for 3 months from June to August but still managed 1.6m visitors.
The coaster here was a Togo Stand Up coaster that once again moved to a park.

No guesses what that park was, Yup it can be found along side Ultra Twister and Loop The Loop and now resides as Standing Coaster at Rusutsu resort as well
Oratru.jpg

Seems that park in particular benifited from these expos hoovering up 3 from various expos in the 80s.

Kobe Port Island Expo - 1981 - Kobe
This one is perhaps more well known. But stands out for being an expo with a Schwarzkopf coaster. Running from March to September in 1981 the expo managed a fairly enormous 16.1million visitors and featured a looping coaster known as Double Loop.

Kobe Expo.jpg

The park section of the expo of course stayed around and became the infamous Kobe Portopialand, Double Loop stayed and was eventually joined by BMRX which eventually became Camelots Knightmare. As well as a Mack Bobsled which despite the dates on the RCDB appears to have opened when the park became seperate after the expo.

21st Century Exhibition - 1979 - Setouchi
An interesting coaster at an expo was found at this smaller expo that ran from March to June in 1979. The expo only attracted 1.3million visitors but featured one of Japan's first inverting coasters. Jet Spiral was an Meisho design and a clone of the recently defunct Thunder Coaster at Nasu Highlands which opened the same year.

Set Expo1.jpg
The ride went on to have a decent life at Kibinokyo Wonderland as Jet Spiral eventually closing in 1996.

Japan Expo - 1992 - Toyama
As time went on the coasters at Expo's seem to have become less important. This one ran from July to September in 1992 and garnered a still impressive 2.3million visitors.
It coaster though was tiny compared to previous expos

Toyama1.jpg
Seen on the right hand side of the image the coaster did find a home after the expo and still runs to this day at Hachinohe Park as Jet Coaster.

Okinawa World Expo - 1975 - Okinawa
Jumping way back in time to one of the earlier examples of an expo coaster we have this Jet Coaster which i believe was a very early Senyo design. Once the expo closed the amusement land stayed as a park called Expoland lasting right up until 2000 when the park closed down. The photos below are from the park rather than the Expo but its interesting to see such an early coaster last right up to the 21st century.

OkinExpo1.jpgOkinExpo2.jpg

That's it for now. I have an absolute ton of these to get through but have just run out of time at the moment. A mans gotta eat.
So will post some more when i get a chance.
 
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Steely Dan

Mega Poster
Awesome and informative post!

What a capacity monster the original 5-track
Daidarasaurus must been. That pic with the 5 long trains all going up the lift together is an amazing sight.
 

cookie

Giga Poster
I didn't realize until now that Rusutsu is pretty much a retirement home for Japanese coasters that had brief stints elsewhere. I think only the SLC was built for them?

Also, did we ever find out why Venus GP wasn't put up there? Was it always meant to just be stored there temporarily?
 

roomraider

Best Topic Starter
I didn't realize until now that Rusutsu is pretty much a retirement home for Japanese coasters that had brief stints elsewhere. I think only the SLC was built for them?

Also, did we ever find out why Venus GP wasn't put up there? Was it always meant to just be stored there temporarily?
The Meisho built "Mountain Coaster" doesnt appear to have come from anywhere else either. Although there was an expo with a coaster the year before that I've not dug up any pictures of yet so who knows.

Right lets do a few more

International Science and Technology Exhibition - 1985 - Tsukuba
A more obscure expo it seems with not a huge amount of info around. The expo did of course have a coaster. The Togo built standup/sitdown coaster Star Jet was the star of the show.

Tsukuba 85.jpgWuz Expo.JPG

The ride found a new home at Brazilian Park Washuzan Highland as Pink Typhoon Standing Coaster and still operates to this day. A second coaster called Plasma Jet appears to have existed too but nothing is really known about it.

Gifu Chubu Future Expo - 1988 - Gifu
Running from July to September ant attracting over 4million people this expo had yet another Senyo Camel Coaster, Although this time with more aggresive turns and drops than most of the others. Pictures of the ride at the expo are thin on the ground but heres a couple.

Ena Expo2.jpgEna Expo.jpg

The ride found its forever home at Enakyo Wonderland as Camel Coaster and is still operating to this day

Great Seto Bridge Bridge Commemorative Exposition - 1988 - Okayama and Kagawa
An interesting Expo in that it was split between 2 sites, The expo was held to commemerate the opening of the Great Seto Bridge and there was one site either side of the bridge itself. It ran from March to August 1988 and gathered 3million visitors in Okayama and 3.5million in Kagawa.

Most interesting from our point of view is both sides contained a coaster.

The Okyama side had a Meisho built jet coaster called Himalaya Coaster which featured a few airtime hills and a large 900 degree helix.
Him1.JPG
Again the ride found a home after the expo and still operates to this day at Miroku No Sato in Hiroshima as Music Coaster.

The coaster at the Kagawa site was very similar but built by Senyo rather than Meisho
Ohashi2.jpgOhashi1.jpg

I realised when researching this last night that this ride appears to have moved from this expo over to the 1989 Asia Pacific Expo in Fukuoka which was covered in the first post.

A comparison of the rides at the 2 expos. This expo on the left and the 1989 Fukuoka Expo on the right
Comparison.jpg
And after that it seems to vanish for a few years. Until

World Festival Exposition - 1994 - Ise
Until the ride pops up again in Ise at this Expo. Running from July to November 1994 it attracted 3.5million people and is almost impossible to find good photos of. However a lot of digging dug up these shots of a coaster.

Ise2.jpg

Ise1.JPG

Which appear to be the same coaster as seen at Fukuoka and Kagawa. Where it was for the years between 89 and 94 is unknown. But i wouldnt be surprised if it showed up at other Expos as yet uncovered/researched

Future Tohoku Exposition - 1987 - Tohoku
A few years earlier there was an expo in Tohoku held between July and September 1987. Hosting 3 million people the park section of the expo had yet another Senyo Camel Coaster.

The ride was similar to the Meisho coaster at the 1988 expo in Okayama seen above with an out and back style layout with a helix at the end. The first drop was fairly distinct with a slight left hand kink

Heres a couple of shots of the ride in 1987

Tok2.JPGTok3.JPG
The coaster didnt move to a park after the expo but appears to have been sent to another expo

Satima Exposition - 1988 - Satima
A year later there was an expo in Satima held between March and May 1988, hosting 2.5million visitors.

The coaster here appears to have been the same ride as the one seen above at the Tokoku expo with the same distinct left kink off the lift and an identical layout

The layout of the ride can be seen here. However it appears there was no helix at the right hand end.
Tok1.png

An image of the Camel Coaster at the expo.
Satima.png

After this expo the coaster moved again. But once again it appears to have moved to yet another expo

Seikan Tunnel Opening Commemorative Exhibition - 1988 - Aomori and Hakodate
Later that same year another Expo happened up in the north of the country. The expo was held for the opening of the new Seikan Rail tunnel linking the two main islands of Japan. The southern part of the expo was held in Aomori the nearest city to the sourthern end of the tunnel and contained no coasters while the northern site of the expo was in the port city of Hakodate and did include a coaster.

Running from July to September the expo hosted 1.5million guests in the south and 1.2million in the north. The coaster on the Hakodate site was our old friend from the Tohoku and Satima expos making its 3rd expo apperance.

The image below shows the location of the expo along the dockside with the coaster at the end.

Hakodate3.png
A couple of images of the coaster with its distinctive lift hill and first drop clearly visible.
Hakodate2.JPGHakodate1.JPG

Footage of the ride running can be seen at 15:30 mark in this video


And after that? who knows?

Perhaps like the other one in this post it just toured expos until its eventual death.

Anyway thats if for now. Cup Final is about to start :)

More soon
 

gavin

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Thank you for doing God's work with this.

Rusutsu has been on my list to visit for absolutely ages. I've just got a horrible image if making all the effort to get there only to find the ultra twister not running.
 

roomraider

Best Topic Starter
Thank you for doing God's work with this.

Rusutsu has been on my list to visit for absolutely ages. I've just got a horrible image if making all the effort to get there only to find the ultra twister not running.
Ive done a ton of work on this today and found some ridiculous stuff but heres an image of Ultra Twister before it made it to Rusutsu

DIveloopExpo.JPG
 

JustLarry

Roller Poster
A. Thanks for posting all this @roomrader its fascinating !
And B. What on earth is this flat ride????
 

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CanobieFan

Strata Poster
I believe the base spins slowly and the cars slide up the arms/poles. I feel like rides like that have shown up in other 60's/70's videos from Japan.
 

roomraider

Best Topic Starter
Right lets carry on with this then

First up heres a few more pictures of the Super Tornado @JustLarry mentioned at the 1985 International Science and Technology Exhibition in Tsukuba

SuperTornado3.jpgSuperTornado2.jpg
SuperTornado1.jpg


And lets go back to Expo Coasters

Kochi Kuroshio Expo - 1988 - Kochi
A smaller expo held in 1998 in the small city of Kochi this expo garnered a relatively small 1million visitors but did pay host to a coaster, The Coaster was another of Meisho's larger model of shuttle loop coaster

Kochi2.jpgKOchi1.jpg

The ride is thankfully quite recogniseable as its one of 3 that used the tubular rather than box style backbone on the loop and it seems the ride did move onwards to a park called Tedori Fishland after the expo and was called Loop Coaster.

The ride lasted at Fishland until somewhere between 97 and 2005 and can be seen here alongside the parks Jet Coaster (which has its own interesting history but thats another story)
Tedori.jpg

7th National Greening Fair - 1989 - Sendai
The 7th National Greening Fair in 1989 was one of a series of local expos for greenery, farming and flowers. These expos are still ongoing with the 40th version held in Sendai in 2023. The 1989 one was interesting for being one of a few with a roller coaster present

Greening.jpg

The ride was built by a small Japanese outfit known as ACA and was as far as I know the only coaster they ever built. It has similarities with Hoei Sangyos old rides (And i guess they may have been involved). And the ride lasted right up until 2005 as the greatly named W Face Coaster W at Oyama Yuenchi

8th National Greening Fair - 1991 - Kitakyushu
The following Nation Greening Fair was held 2 years later in Kitakyushu and also played host to a coaster. And its an old friend.
Kit1.JPG

This ride has been mentioned 3 times before at various expos in my last post. Heres quick quide
SenyoExpoCoaster1.jpg

After 1994 its unknown what happened to the ride but I wouldnt be surprised if it shows up at other expos once we find pictures of them.

World Resort Expo - 1994 - Wakayama
One result of researching these expos is I keep finding the same rides over and over. A relatively late expo was this 1994 example in Wakayama. The World Resort Expo attracted 3million visitors and at the time held one coaster which we've seen already.

PortoEuropa.jpg

A close look at that image reveals the small coaster to the left of center and it seems to be the same coaster seen at the Toyama Expo seen in one of my previous posts.

SenyoExpoCoaster3.jpg
The ride still exists today at Hachinohe Park as Jet Coaster.

Interestingly when the expo closed a park was built on part of the site called Porto Europa but it did not include the coaster seen above. Instead a Vekoma Rollerskater and Meisho sitdown (Later converted to a spinner) were built on site. Unfortunatly the spinner was removed in 2021 but the Roller Skater still exists.

Porto.jpg

Hokkaido 21st Century Exposition - 1986 - Hokkaido
The last one for this post also two coasters both of which still exist to this day. This 1986 expo ran from June to September in 1986 and played host to 1.4million visitors.

The 2 coasters were a Meisho built jet coaster called Big Boom Coaster (Now Go-On) and a Senyo built modified loop screw called San Kaiten (now Dragon King).

Hokkaido.pngHokkido21stCenturyExpo.JPG

Dragon King has always been interesting to me as its a standard loop screw with a weird first kind of pre drop and then an insanely shallow run down into the first inversion.
Both of these coasters stayed exactly where they were built and now operate at Hokkaido Greenland, A park that was built around the rides when the expo ended.
 
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thank you so much for this extensive post!
I appreciate the research you did and how you compiled it all together.
I am a huge Japanophile and finally visited the country for the first time in April and May.
The culture, food, people and everything about japan completely enchanted me!
Got to ride Eejenaika, Hakugei, Flying Dinosaur and Steel Dragon 2000 among others on my trip and I will be returning next April!!!!
thanks again
I really loved this post!
 

roomraider

Best Topic Starter
thank you so much for this extensive post!
I appreciate the research you did and how you compiled it all together.
I am a huge Japanophile and finally visited the country for the first time in April and May.
The culture, food, people and everything about japan completely enchanted me!
Got to ride Eejenaika, Hakugei, Flying Dinosaur and Steel Dragon 2000 among others on my trip and I will be returning next April!!!!
thanks again
I really loved this post!

Big Japan fan too. Was my first love back in the late 90s and early 2000s when the rcdb was USA only and no one knew much about huge B&Ms and Intamins like Pyrenees and Jupiter. Had a website back then called Fright Time which was based entirely on finding stuff about those rides. (What eventually turned into VH)

I've just managed to order myself a book on old parks direct from Japan. But unfortunately it arrives while I'm away over the next 2 weeks. But maybe some more tidbits after then.
 

roomraider

Best Topic Starter
My Japanese research exploits have continuted (Arbeit after a break for Walibi Belgium, Plopsaland and Glastonbury) and have dug up a few more random coasters from Japanese past that are quite interesting.

Although in this case nothing to do with Expos, so this is a bit of a tangent to the topic title but hey ho

This indoor mouse coaster operated at indoor park Fantasy Park in the city of Izumi. it opened in 1990 but theres no clear date that it closed (The park is now just an amusement arcade) Its a tiny little ride but quite interesting it its weirdness.

Indoor Mouse.png

I recently purchased a book on old Japanese parks and got it shipped over from Japan. Theres some interesting tidbits in there including this weird jet coaster around Shin-Shirahama Tropical Botanical Garden which was later renamed Hama Blanca in 1971.

The coaster was gone by 1995 and the buildings removed in 2010. But the drops through the trees in the background and the weird long straight section over the carpark are a bit odd.

Hama Blanca.jpg
Another shot when the coaster had a rust coloured paint scheme

Hama Blanca2.jpg

A shot of the trains and some happy riders
Hama Blanca3.jpg

Thats it for now but this new book could be a bit of a gold mine.
 

roomraider

Best Topic Starter
International Science and Technology Exhibition - 1985 - Tsukuba
A more obscure expo it seems with not a huge amount of info around. The expo did of course have a coaster. The Togo built standup/sitdown coaster Star Jet was the star of the show.

View attachment 25126View attachment 25127

The ride found a new home at Brazilian Park Washuzan Highland as Pink Typhoon Standing Coaster and still operates to this day. A second coaster called Plasma Jet appears to have existed too but nothing is really known about it.

This is a great example of how tough this crap can be.

The stuff above is from the 1985 Tsukuba Expo.

The expo was known to have 2 coaster. Star Jet which is the Togo Stand up mentioned in the previous post. (now here https://rcdb.com/1432.htm )

But its always been known there was a 2nd coaster called Plasma Jet and we knew nothing about it, the photo above and the one below were the only photos known of the ride until this week.

Wuz Expo2.JPG

So its always been difficult to figure out this ride because... yeah even myself and my fellow researchers have limits :p

But as of this week we have two more photos of this mysterious Plasma Jet ride.

358669442_660071749312696_6277147017749707380_n.jpg358612652_3563788730573187_1217611586429199122_n.jpg

Look at the truss at the top of the lift in the first picture, and the helix at the end of the coaster (on the left) in the 2nd photo.

Moving on

This photo is from the Satima 88 Expo

355999123_1798411610617510_3661129156539517976_n.jpg

The Coaster on the left of this image matches the coaster in the previous image, note the truss at the top of the lift, the station steps and the truss on the helix that was originally over the log flume in 1985 and is still visible here.

and that coaster is this one yet again (Seen in some of my previous posts)

SenyoExpoCoaster2.jpg

So we now have a 4th place for this Expo hopping Senyo coaster..... Im willing to bet there are more. there is a 2 year gap after all,

As your local news reader would say.... More news as it happens.
 
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