Strategy on Schematic Japan Trip

Any specific strategy for Nagashima Spaland? Likely going to be there the first half of the day on 6.30 (a Sunday?)

How early do I need to arrive before opening to queue for fast passes at Fuji Q, assuming I want to grab the skips for the four major rides, in subsequent hours of the first portion of the day. Looking at tenatively a Monday, 6.24, but weather depedent Mt. Fuji hike may recirculate things.

Looks like I am going to skip Bandit/Yomuirland becasue I am going to be in Tokyo 4.5 days (one being Disney Sea)

T minus 5 days.

-K

If you get to Nagashima and it’s not busy, I’d enter through the main entrance then at the first chance head left towards Acrobat, then Ultra Twister, then SD2K.

It it’s busy, head straight to Hakugei (the RMC) then SD2K.

We arrived an hour early at Fuji Q and went to the rear entrance (by the train station). We were the first people there, and about 10 minutes later, people started arriving and lining up. So I’d say be at the back entrance at least an hour beforehand.

Also, you can get skip the line passes for the big four in the same hour. That’s what we did. Got Fujiyama and Takabisha for the 10am hour, since they’re across the midway from each other. So we rode Fujiyama at 10 and had a whole hour to get to Takabisha, which we headed to immediately after getting off Fuji. Then you could to Eejanaika and Dodompa the same way if you want. Just make sure at rope drop you RUN to the quick queue building. Look at a sat map. It’s a little diamond shaped building between the copper roofed tea cup ride, and the round carousel building. Plan it out so you know where to run.

Thanks Tek

On NJPW, I land on the 17th so was playing the Koruken show by ear. If not, I see there is the opportunity in Saitama on the 19th, I also had my eye on.

Sumo: Any good recs of a specific dojo that would be receptive to go into to watch a morning practice? (as a lone westerner, not part of a tour?)

Actually on 3rd thought. The latern and firefly festival at Yomuirland looks appealing enough that maybe I make time toward the end.

It has been about a month since I returned from this trip. I originally intended to write out a report of the 18 day experience, but life and work got in the way. I’ll share a couple acedotes on the coastering parts. Pulled from a journal I kept in real time and some texting with my friends. Maybe revisit the entirety at another time.

Day 1- I landed at Narita at 3 pm. And got into the city about 7. I realized on the train ride in that Thunder Dolphin would be closing tomorrow (6/18) through 7/5 for annual rehab. I was leaving on 7/4. So I dropped my bags at the hotel in Shinjuku and raced over to Tokyo Dome City. When I emerged from the city I heard the train cycling. It was 7:58 pm. And closed by the time I got there. Oh well. I walked back across the city dazed ready to begin my 18 day adventure.

Note on the Capsule. I lasted one night. It was an experience I am glad I participated in however, it was way too unpleasant in every way. Maybe it was the jet lag, but I couldn’t sleep at all. It lacked private space to set out. Which was very difficult with a tightly packed travel backpack. The smells and the noises were too much. I woke up zombified at the 4:30 am sunrise, checked out after a night and into the Ginza Creston on the opposite side of the city for the next four. Nice value hotel ($100 a night) and well located in a quiet area. I enjoyed staying on that side of the city more than in Shinjuku, where I wound up back in a different hotel at the very end of the trip.

Day 4- Tokyo Disney Sea

“Wow, this place is incredible. I havent ridden anything yet but it's like if IoA and Epcot f’ked and the baby was as powerful as Thanos.”

Real mature. I know.

But those were my initial written thoughts. I spent a lot of time in the Orlando parks. I was skeptical of the hype. The hype is real.

The rides are okay. There is nothing from a ride standpoint to bring you in the door. That’s not the point though. I have never seen anything themed so immersive and so complete. The little things, the fake leaking sea gate behind Nemo. Cinderella’s Castle in the next park sited to be part of the Agrabah skyline. I was in the park from open til 8 pm. I did most of the attractions but spent more time just hanging out then anything.

My top 3 would be:

1. The Little Mermaid show (I didn’t know if it was going to be screens, actors or animatronics going in. All three… plus puppets)
2. Journey (It is really short though, unless you get stuck on it for half an hour)
3. The Sinbad Flume ride (The hell with Mickey we'll make up our own characters.)

The roller coaster looks beautiful (Water on Fire!) but the ride is balls. Indy is good but same as California.

Tower of Terror is really cool too. Although it is pretty much the same ride plus an Indiana Jones stolen artifact plot. It is done really well. The tower is incredible detailed. Cement plaster not EIFS? How do they keep that from cracking during the constantly vibrating building? Different then Orlando but equally well themed. The effects of the vanishing demon statue character. I didn't miss the Twilight Zone. I want a cursed African god statue now. I searched the gift shop til I wound up with a plush one.

My last ride of the night I got evaced off Journey to the Center of the Earth after getting stuck in like the 4 scene for 20 minutes. It was my third ride on it, so I didn’t care. I did not understand the announcements being made, but we were eventually picked up. Escorted back up through a now empty station, picking up each terravator along the way. Long time since I’ve been in a ride envelope and the first time I’ve ever been pulled off a ride.

They unapologetically cancelled the fireworks on the spot. I love Disney.

Day 5- Yomuirland

I wasn’t originally planning on going to this park. It was ad-libbed once I realized it also a location of one of the Tokyo area firefly festivals. I had fun buying advanced tickets off a 7-11 MSM copier machine for the festival using my phone for translation.

Bandit was cool. It is located on a hilly wooded park like site in suburban Tokyo. It is the closest park to the city and surrounded by dense development. The coaster and ferris wheel provided great expansive views of the Tokyo skyline.

The coaster is a little rough (being a TOGO I expected it) but reminded me of a supersized version of SooperDooperLooper at Hershey. It was a good ride. But rough enough that I subsequently skipped the TOGO stand up, their other big coaster. The park itself had like 10 people in it. It was windy on the hill, unlike the humid bowl of downtown. The park felt creepily abandoned. Especially with the whole place having kind of a run-down Coney Island vibe. A weird old school dark ride themed to trapping poachers, a tumble bug and a looping starship.

I am glad I went. The festival with traditional lanterns and firefly viewing in the real park (woods and temple shrines) under the far end of the roller coaster. It kind of reminded me RL Stine's the Beast when they are partying in the woods. It was a local scene and I was the only non-Japanese person there in a crowd of like 500 (vs. Tokyo proper where Westerners are about 10%). Japanese fire fliers are nightmarish big (the size of wasps) and slowly moving more lethargic then the American kind.

Day 7- Fuji-Q

After hearing about the complicated slow loading, fastpass system of this park, I did a lot of research on how to hit this park. It was all for nothing and I wound up abandoning my original strategy.

After climbing the mountain Saturday, I was staying in the Onsen across from the park. Sunday was going to be my recovery day and I would hit the park Monday morning for a few hours (less crowds) before heading to Kyoto.

Late Sunday afternoon I was wandering around the area and figured I’d go buy the fast passes in the park (for tomorrow), since ride less admission is free. I was on my way to the grocery store anyway. Well I couldn’t get the passes in advance which was fine. The helpful entrance assistant, warned me the weather wasn’t optimistic for the AM. And the park looked pretty empty now. Walking past Fujiyama, I notice single rider and Zekkyo fast pass were one in the same.

Ticket upgraded, two Zekkyo’s for DoDopanda, one from Eejanika and a haunted hospital ticket all scheduled for the next two hours later…

Fuji-Q was fun. Smallish park for the random assortment of heavy hitting rides. If Bandit was supersized Sooperdooperlooper, Fujiyama was like the supersized Gemini. I liked Bandit better. I only rode Fujiyama once.

DoDopanda was interesting. The launch is really intense but only a second. It does in one second what Dragster does in four. I probably prefer the Dragster sensation. It really feels like you're being shot from a gun. I probably would of liked the ride better with the hill then the loop.

Eejanika was actually my favorite of the three. Much much smoother and more intense then I remember X being 5 years ago. I only rode inside seat though. I didn't want to push it. I apparently didn’t need the Zekkyo here either because of single rider. So at the end of the night I doubled back for a second ride. It started torrentially raining during the second time, which kind of sucked. My Japanese riding mate insisted I pose crazy for the photo and made great efforts through the language barrier to accurately describe to me where exactly on the ride the photo was. A difficult feat considering how hard it is to describe at all what happens on a 4-D When we got to the unload, they transfer the other train off with us on the ride. So we moved on the transfer station and then back. Okay? I thought it was Journey to the Center of the Earth all over again.

The beyond vertical one was closed. But apparently they're building a copy of it in a mall in New Jersey, so whatever.

The ride that is half condor/ half flyers is batsh!t. How come these aren't in the states? You can stay stationary. Or rock the wings til you start barrel rolling. I did that, but it was hella intense. So then I stopped, and got myself stuck INVERTED. Which was a position that was difficult to reach the controls to revert. That ride is awesome.

The haunted hospital is seriously the best haunted house I had ever been in. 45 minutes to get through it. Alone. Up and down stairs, very disorienting. Three scare actors total. Mostly motion sensors, moving prop scares. Very effective. No one in front or behind you to spoil the scares. No movement in the periphery to spoil the jumps. I've been to the Scarehouse in Pittsburgh multiple times, HHN, Terror Behind the Walls at the 18th Century prison in Philly. This destroys them all. It could never exist in the US though, the American palette would destroy and trash it.

I was lucky, I went Sunday. When I left Kawaguchiko for Kyoto the following morning. I hadn’t seen a ride running, even though the park was open for over an hour.

Day 14- Nagashima Spaland

This park looks really cool. Much more impressive and more my style then Fuji Q. It felt like Cedar Point at the end of the earth. In a dreary industrial port area surrounded by water.

Steel Dragons got that Magnum look, but it is not nearly as good. They have an Arrow corkscrew, Schwarkopf Single Looper, Swartzkopf Shuttle, 1st Gen Freefall, Manta Clone. Bunch of sharp looking flats. The biggest f'kin dual pirate ship I've ever seen (which unfortunately never ran).

I only took one lap on SD2000. My planned four hours in the park got cut to three by a torrential rain storm that wouldn’t let up. I opened the park, and it again was completely empty. Walk-on one train operation empty. Maybe the weather kept people away.

Ultra Twister was awesome. I really enjoyed it. The whole thing is so unique. Glad I was able to ride one after seeing it dormant at Great Adventure 30 years ago.

I finally went on a RMC 4-D after skipping it at a couple six flags. Really intense, but I didn't like it. Never again.

Hakegui is really good. Not Steel Vengeance, but solidly in the RMC 2nd tier. I'd rank it something like the below.

1. Steel Vengeance 2. NewTexG 2. Hakegui 2. Twisted Timbers 5. Outlaw Run 6. Iron Rattler 6. Wicked Cyclone 8. Twisted Colossus 9. Kentucky Kingdom

(I’ve since been on Twisted Georgia Cyclone and would slip that one in between SFNE and SFMM)

Unfortunately it started pouring. I took two laps on the Ferris Wheel but the rain would not stop.

Everything closed except the RMC. I took two more laps on the RMC in the rain then left. When you can’t anticipate the transitions because you can’t open your eyes is a different animal.

Japanese Ferris Wheels are awesome. They are detailed significantly different from what I’ve seen anywhere in the west. So thin, elegant and wiry. And huge. Really, really awesome. All the slow moving, continuously load, one cycle type.

On the Shinkansen it seem liked every urban area I went through held multiple Ferris wheels. Not just in amusement parks. But the lightness made them feel pretty unobtrusive to a skyline. Unlike the clunky neon lit variety we’re getting. Who is making these? Can we export some? Maybe one of those airplane condors too please…

Thanks for checking back in! My wife and I leave on the 29th. We are only doing the Disney parks and Universal, maybe Thunder Dolphin if we find ourselves over there. Turns out Journey to the Center of the Earth is closed for refurb while we are there which is a bummer but the rest of the park seems incredible.

FWIW Thunder Dolphin is soooooooooo...boring. It’s pretty though.

Glad you had a good trip! I was just thinking early this week “I wonder if that person on CBuzz had fun in Japan...”