3 Week Japan Trip with 19 Parks and 70 Coaster (LAST UPDATE)

Hello TPR-Forum,

now it`s time for our massive tripreport from Japan.

We toured this great country the first three weeks in april, needed some weeks to calm down and now I`ve a bit of time to write an exclusive coverage of our whole trip (we did a a daily coverage in our forum www.coasterfriends.de/forum, but that was only in german).

I`ll split the whole trip in 4 parts (over the next days), because we did over 70 coaster in 19 parks and a lot of cultural sightseeing (okay this one will be left out in this forum), I shot over 1.200 photos, and I`ll try to upload about 200 of them.

Before I start with Part One I`ll like to thanks Elissa, Robb, Rollermonkey, Mr. Morgan and all the other forum members who helped a lot in planning this trip.

Please feel free to leave your comments in this thread or visit our new build english forum thread at www.coasterfriends.de/forum.

Part 1:

Tokyo (Aqua Stadium)

Fuji-Q

Nasu Highland

(Sega Joypolis)

Yokohama Sea Paradise

Yokohama Cosmo World

Part 2:

Yomiuriland

Toshimaen

La Qua

Tobu Zoo

Part 3:

Expoland

Hirakata

Nagashima Spa Land

Universal Studios Japan

Nara Dreamland

Part 4:

Central Park Himeji

Tegarayama Park Himeji

Tokyo Disney Sea

Tokyo Disneyland

Disney´s Miracosta Hotel

Part1:

Okay, now straight into the buzz. We departed in Munich-Germany, through London-Heathrow right into Narita Airport. We arrvived after a 20 hour journey, taking the comfortable limousine bus to our hotel the Park Hotel Tokyo.

We decided to end this long first day with a short trip to Aqua Stadium, a small indoor amusement area at one of these big hotels in Shinagawa. The main reason was the launched Intamin coaster “Galaxy999”, which was quiet short but smooth. Nothing special at all.

Next day started with some sightseeing around Tokyo. It was cherry tree blossom time and this is such a big event in Japan you can`t miss it. It really stands the big hype and it`s so beautiful to see the whole nature changing colours and to see all the drunken japanese people celebrating it. But hey, this a coaster forum and so I`ll left this part out.

Fuji-Q

First topic in our packed Japan schedule was the park on the bottom of Mount Fuji– the Fuji-Q-Highland Park. A lot of people are saying this park is really bad, and we thought hey give them a chance – but this park really sucks. It has no theming, the unfriendliest stuff in whole japan and looong queues. You think the park has some great rides, so this all doesn`t matter?

You`re maybe right if you`ll ever have the chance to hit a good day at Fuji-Q, because they`re looking for every little wind, rain, dust or whatever to close the damm attractions. So we started on such a beautiful day in Tokyo, blue sky, no wind, no clouds, nothing at all. But we arrived at Fuji-Q with a little wind, the kind of wind you`ll maybe experience 200 days a year. And guess what? All coasters were closed (only the lame indoor Zola7 coaster was open). So we strolled around the park, tried the biggest Japanese Walk-Through Horror House (hey another 7 $ extra but not bad at all) and waited, and waited and waited.... for our next bus back to Tokyo (just a two hour drive). What a great day at the park.

Nasu Highland Park

Another day waiting for us, with temple sightseeing in the morning and Nasu Highland themepark in the afternoon. This park is really, really far outside of any mayor city and a little bit harder to reach. We took the great Shinkansen train for 2 ½ hours from Tokyo and than a 30 minute taxi ride. This park is one of the nicer parks in Japan. There are 9 coasters, 4 of them are inside each other tracks what makes a nice picture. Some theming and some nice kiddie rides, one of the nicest ghost houses (most of them are really crap in Japan) and friendly stuff. Well worth a visit.

Sega JoypolisThis big arcade is a kind of Disney Quest stlye arcade, but with much more interaktive rides and it makes real fun to visit this “park”. They also has a small indoor coaster called “speed boarder”, the special arranged seats makes this ride a little uncomfortable. If you`re hitting this arcade please try all the special interactive things on the last floor, I can`t say what to expect but it`s really funny, even for non japanese people.

Yokohama Sea Paradise

This small seaside park, is famous for its Sea World like shows, but we weren`t interested in that and so we went straight to the two main attractions – the Blue Fall – the extreme 107 meter (about 320 feet?) tall freefall tower, which has a tilt modus to get it even more funnier.

The only remaining coaster in this park is the “surf coaster”, a Togo coaster which is really smooth for a Togo. It also has a nice setting with a little bit of the track going over the sea.

Yokohama Cosmoworld

This is a small kind of amusement park, like the old seaside parks, but it`s not really on a dock, its more near the sea in the middle of downtown Yokohama with a great skyscraper scenery. We didn`t like it that much, because it was a little bit to expensive for what you get.. The bigger of the two coasters was a Senyo coaster called “Diving Coaster:Vanish” because one drop goes directly into a tunnel, built in a small lake, what makes an nice effect. The other coaster was a Reverchon Spinning Coaster, but nothing special at all. The typical two dark rides (ghost house and a shooting dark ride), the big ferries wheel and some arcade games, that`s it.

Now straight on to the photos, because this is the thing you`re waiting for....

I`ll try to set up Part II tomorrow...[/b]

another Yokohama shot is ending Part One....

the Reverchon Spinning Coaster

the Diving Coaster with its effect

nice setting....

Yokohama Cosmoworld

not too bad for Togo!

Togos Surf Coaster...

here it is - 107m (about 320 feet) tall and with the tilt modus on the top of the tower...

Yokohama Sea Paradise is greeting with Blue Fall...

they don`t eat Sushi all the time, there are more Crepe shops than sushi restaurants....

the kind of coaster who fits in your garden...

it`s fun to ride on some toy

fresh prepared catch

you also can fish at Nasu

nice kiddie theming at Nasu

Vekoma`s Inverted F2 Fright Flight (not as smooth as it should be)

some nice caroussel

they also have a Lego exhibition

the Camel Coaster

a nice overview, with the mountains in the background

Batflyer with vertical lift

Rock`n roll theming

Corkscrew, but smooth

4 coaster - one labyrinth

this park is not so easy to reach, but well worth the extra energy

Next try, another park - Nasu Highland

Hey the vending machines are working....

okay so we`ve time to take some photo shots (you`ll see the bad weather, this is the reason for closing down the coasters!?!?)

okay lame Zola7 is open....

Dodonpa is closed...all the other coasters are closed....WTF....

...the new one is still not open.. no problem we knew that...

oh we`re so happy to be here in the park and we`ll pay a lot of money....

here we go...

a wonderful day to get to Fuji-Q...we thought

Yes - we Like it too....(the cherry tree blossom not the drunken people...)

the people like to picknick under the trees, and getting drunk in the evening

this is the perfect time for Japan

some cherry tree blossom impressions before we start with coaster-touring...

First Night - First Coaster - Intamin`s Launched Galaxy 999 - indoor and nothing special

Awesome man! Can't wait for the next part! (part 3 especially!!)

-Don

I'm not 100% sure, but you may have been at Fuji-Q the same day I did my April construction update. (You and your travel companion look familiar.)

I'm looking forward to another opinion of all the Japanese parks and in part 4 you went to a park I haven't been to.

HA! I'm glad someone else finally shares our opinion in FujiQ!!!! Again, the SFMM of Japan, poor operations, bad capacity, etc.

I feel for you, but at the same time, you didn't miss much! (except for the Hamster Coaster!)

Keep the reports coming!

wow, great pics. I had it the other way round in that Fuji Q was open but bth Yokohama parks were closed.

I am ambivalent about FUji-Q. Since I had to return to the park three times, just to get all the credits, I'm not too impressed. They do shut down the two main coasters (Dodonpa and Fujiyama) at the slightest hint of wind or rain, but a lot of the parks in Japan do that. (But not all! I rode Through the Woods Jet Coaster and Mad Mouse @ Hitachi Kaihin Koen in a downpour!)

The theming, what little there is is decrepit. The throuput is terrible on several of the rides. (Hamster coaster and Dodonpa are the worst!)

However, I have had a couple good days where everything was open and ruunning. The dark walkthrough attractions are actually pretty good. The food is good. etc.

I generally enjoy my visits to the park.

I'm not looking forward to the Eejanaika line, though! It lookslike a single load / unload station, and if they run two trains, there's going to be a LOT of stacking!

(Jeezus Juice liked Fuji-Q! He said so!)

@ chris

What a pitty we didn`t see you at Fuji-q. We had so much freetime at Fuji-Q that we had loved to talk to you. Can you remember where you saw us? I just saw one "caucasian guy" in the food court.

By the way I think someone can have a good day at Fuji-Q, but you`ve to catch the best weather and less crowds - I think that`s really hard at Fuji-Q. Fuji-Q was our first big park in Japan and so we were frightened the whole trip if wind or rain will cancel some more coasters on our trip - but nothing at all happened. We even rode ASKA in Nara Dreamland during heavy rains. So I´ll think the owners of Fuji-Q are looking for this "bad weather conditions" and saying "Hey, let`s save some money".

@Elissa

The hamster coaster was about to open on that day and we waited one hour to ride it. But after one hour they decided to close it again. So we said "okay, Elissas ride has to be left alone".

Strangely we had a pretty good day at Fuji Q back in August (but I've also had good luck with my few visits to SFMM so go figure). The strange thing is that it rained for a while and I was sure Dodonpa would shut down but it didn't. It ran consistently all day. But we did got stuck in the hamster coaster line during rain which was a painful wait.

They really should do something about continually adding lower capacity rides as it is a serious problem but we found the employees to be good and as efficient as the low capacity rides would allow. But I must say that this park seems inconsistent. To go in April and have virtually nothing running on a clear day certainly would have frustrated me. I guess you just have to prepare for the worst and hope you are lucky when going to Fuji Q.

Hey, Tim! 'Tsup?

^^ I was there jsut for a construction update, so I didn't stray to far from Eejanaika. I think I saw you between the Shoot the Chutes and the Hamtaro Swinging Ship. Was it just the two of you?

Great 1st part. Looking forward to the rest...

Really good to see and hear your opinoins of many of the parks that I went to when I lived there 5 years ago.

I went to Fuji-Q twice in my time there. First time was in the autumn. No problem. Everything open and running although the Hamster Coaster (formerly The Birdmen, before the accident) was a veeeeery long wait. And this was before Dodonpa.

Second time was just after New Year. Only came to re-ride Fujiyama... and it was closed because of winds. After hours of hopeful waiting in the park, we gave up and walked towards the bus. Once outside the park, Fujiyama started testing. We decided to miss our bus and ran back into the park where we ended up waiting for over an hour in a not very long line in the freezing cold (-5 degrees celsius). I was happy as I achieved what I came for, but my boyfriend was not happy, as he had lost all feeling in his hands and feet. It was a cold and pitch black experience never to forget.

Great stuff so far, captain! I'm looking forward to the rest of the report and pictures, as well as hanging out with you in September! Bring on the beer

Cool trip report! This makes me want to go to Japan so bad!!! Maybe next year!

Part2:

Yomiuriland

Yomiuri is a big media company with a big daily newspaper and also the owner of one of the most famous baseball teams in Japan, the Yomiuri Giants. They also own this Tokyo park which is well hidden in a suburb area of this big city, nestled in a mountain terrain. The first great thing is that you`ve to transfer from the main train station through a gondola (which fly over the park) directly to the park entrance.

The natural park landscaping is really beautiful, but in spring with all the cherry tree blossom it`s amazing. The park offers some flat rides and 5 coasters. The best of them is Bandit.This coaster goes through the whole park, using the natural up and down of the mountain terrain. It`s not a coaster with much airtime, but it`s smooth, fast and makes just a fun.

The wooden coaster “White Cyclone” is just wonderful – if you see it from far away. If you`ll enter this coaster you`ll think this one really sucks – it hurts so bad that it makes no fun at all.

The third coaster is a standing and sitting coaster. They`ve two cars and you can choose if you`ll lik to sit or stand. This Togo coaster is really smooth for a Togo and the standing cars are comfortable too. The other two coasters are a kiddie coaster and some weird coaster which goes down to a lake and up to the station, really boring. Overall we liked Yomiuriland and we`ll think if they would add one or two major attractions this park can be a real good themepark.

Toshimaen

After Yomiurland we went straight to Toshimaen. It`s a inner city amusement park with no great atmosphere or great landscaping. They`ve tons of flat rides (even on the roofs of their restaurants or arcade houses). The 4 coasters are nothing special at all – okay one of them is special. It`s called “Cyclone” a 41 year old Togo coaster, which has kind of sofa like seats. It goes round the park, with no big hills or sharp turns. So it`s more a fast scenic railway than a coaster. A Mack powered “Blauer Enzian” coaster built on a roof, one smooth Schwartzkopf shuttle loop and an Arrow Corkscrew, that are the other coasters at Toshimaen.

We didn`t like this park too much, because we missed a good atmosphaere. In our opinion its one of the worst parks we`ve been on our tour, but it was okay for a coaster tour visit.

La Qua

This was park number 3 on this day and we`re really looked forward to visit this park. Why? Because we had the chance to visit Bubba Gumps, the restaurant chain we miss so much since our 2005 trip to Hawaii & California. Okay, we also looked forward to ride Thunder Dolphin, the Intamin coaster who goes straight through the roof of the shopping mall. We heard that a lot of people didn`t liked this coaster and we can`t understand why. It has a good first drop, nice speed, a good scenery, nice seats and most important: it makes fun. It misses some airtime, but overall it just makes fun and that`s our main reason to ride coasters.

The only thing to discuss is the security procedure ro ride Thunder Dolphin. It`s so ridiculous, that you`ve to take every single thing out of your pockets, even some papers. They`ll look at you and try to see if you`ve hide something in your pockets. They also try to see if you chew a gum and if you do so you`ve to take it out. It`s a bit too much, La Qua!

The other coasters are a Maurer Söhne Spinning Coaster and the Intamin Linear Gale. The last coaster, the enclosed Togo “Geo Panic”, is so amazingly boring that you`ve to remember that you`re on a rollercoaster and not on a dark ride. Overall La Qua is not a real themepark, it`s more a shopping mall with some coasters and entertainment opportunities. And if you see it that way, it`s nice.

Tobu Zoo

This park is about 90 minutes away from Tokyo, and it belongs to a big railway company. It is devided into a zoo part and an amusement part. The zoo part is so sad that we don`t recommend it.I`ve nothing against zoos at all, but if you make a zoo you`ll have to offer great space and nice surroundings for all your animals. A lot of Japanese zoos look like they are in a third country nation. I`m moving on to the amusement part of Tobu Zoo, which is really nicer than the zoo part. There`s a Zierer kiddie coaster, some flat rides, the typical great ferries wheel and a strange 3-D theatre. The two main attractions are a Togo Wild Mouse, which has a looping (!), weird but cool and Regina. This wooden coaster, built from the german company Intamin, is a really good wooden coaster. It has airtime, is smooth, has speed and a good length. For us it was the second best wooden coaster on this trip. At the end we left Tobu Zoo with a mixed feeling: amazing Regina and a nice Togo Mouse on the one hand and on the other hand the sad Zoo.

Our first 9 days ended in Tokyo with a lot of great impressions. Nice people, safe and clean city, not so expensive as everybody thinks and so stylish and modern that New York looks like a small town. We now moved on to our next hotel stop, the Granvia Kyoto. If you ever want to stay in the middle of Japan, this is our recommendation for a good hotel with a great location, because its right in the middle of Kyoto central train station. So you can easily access all the places and parks around. This was our place for the next 8 days and for part III.

Geishas are hard to spot, but we were lucky....

our first day in Kyoto was all about cultural sightseeing and cherry tree blossom.

I cant`t leave without one of the typical Tokyo night shots

our last coaster for part II - the wonderful Regina. Intamins woodie is smooth and fast.

nice theming

Togos Wild Mouse with a looping makes a lot of fun.

Japanese people like those big wheels

this little kid is telling her mum that this big girl has taken the bunny from her....

the kiddie coaster

did I told you from those moving animals...?

Welcome to Tobu Zoo, where all the animals don`t like to live but the coasters are in good conditions

this was a shot from our room in Tokyo

the Maurer Söhne Spinning Ride

even if they have to make holes in their roofs....

every shopping mall should add a ride like this

First drop of Intamin`s Thunder Dolphin. Besides all the critics we liked this coaster!

this is LaQuas wheel

some water action in april...

Toshimaens Shuttle Loop

another Bandit shot...

the Kiddie Coaster

"after driving a dog I`m playing the Bongos" This sounds like a typical themepark fan.

"yes, I`m driving a dog!"

the Standing seats

the "choose your car" ride - sit or stand - a smooth Togo, even if you stand!

it also has some ugly cars

this one sucks...

this is a real strange coaster - it first goes down and than it goes up -and - that`s it - what a boring ride

this is their main mascot

it`s really "busy" inside the park (like a lot of the smaller parks in Japan)

nice park - happy girl

in the background you can see those big golf cages. They are everywhere in Japan.

Yomiuriland - set in a wonderful landscaping. You can see Bandit going through the terrain, and in the background the terrible Woodie "Cyclone"

If you`ll ever have the chance to visit it, do so. The buzz is so amazing, and afterwards you`ll get a 8.00 am Sushi breakfast with the freshest fish (okay my wife had some problems after all the blood and smell in the halls and to start her day fish)

our first stop in the early morning was the biggest fish market of the world: Tsukiji

@chris

maybe we saw you too in this park. We just saw five caucasian people in this park, and one of them looked like this typical "TPR" guy searching for some new photo spots to show the world a themepark

But I can`t speak to anyone who looks like this, because they maybe think this german guy is nuts!

It was just the two of us visiting Japan.

@Derek

Yes, we`re really looking forward to see you guys. Its always a big pleasure to be with some guests and friends in one of the big oktoberfest tents and celebrating together. We`ll try to make it a night to remember...

Everybody rips White Canyon. OK, yeah, it's rough. I knid of like it.

Not enough people rip SL Coaster! That 's two, yes two, helixes, interrupted by about 4 too many brakes and the world's slowest lift hill.

Ugh!

EDIT:

You probably didn't run into me here. I haven't made it inside the gate at Yomiuriland since last year. I've arrived within 15 minutes of the park closing three times this year trying to get the stupid Wan Wan Coaster Wandit credit as a side trip on other trips!

@chris

I`m sorry, I meant Fuji-Q where we saw you.

At the time we`ve been to Yomiuri there were only twenty other people, and non of them looked like a Chris.

And Yes, this SL Coaster was one of the worst coaster in Japan!

Strangely we had a pretty good day at Fuji Q back in August (but I've also had good luck with my few visits to SFMM so go figure). The strange thing is that it rained for a while and I was sure Dodonpa would shut down but it didn't. It ran consistently all day. But we did got stuck in the hamster coaster line during rain which was a painful wait.

The more I read other trip reports for FujiQ, the more grateful I am for our experience there. It was overcast and rained on and off (and that wait for the hamster coaster was HELL), but we actually managed to get all the coasters. Go figure.

captain, can't wait to read part three, and I'll apparently be meeting you with Derek (and Tim, for that matter) in September.

Oh how I miss Blue Fall! Thunder Dolphin not so much ( it really was boring after the first drop)...Linear Gale was fun, though! Damn you make me want to go back to Japan.

Great TR Captain. Yomiuriland looks amazing in the spring with all the trees in bloom.

mmmm, that sushi experience looks much better than the one I had in Canada. Japan looks really pretty in the Spring, but then again it looks beautiful almost all the time with its nature and combination of old culture and new technology.

thanks to everyone for your comments.

Part III will follow tomorrow, because I`m a bit to busy this evening.

So thanks for your patience....

Part 3:

Expoland

After some rainy days where we did some sightseeing in Kyoto, Hiroshima, Miyajima, Nara and so on we travelled to Expoland, a park with 7 coasters, some weird but good dark rides, two water attractions and a lot of flat rides. This park missed a good theming and so it`s not the best atmosphere because you feel like you`re in a rundown park. That`s a real pitty because we liked this park and we think that they miss the chance to create a real good park. The best coaster in the park is the Inverted B&M Orochi, we liked this one very much.

The weirdest coaster is Daidarasaurus, which is the longest „coaster“ in the world. It takes 6.30 min to travel from the start to the end! You think this is great? No, it`s really boring. Because this coaster used to be a duelling coaster and now there`s only one car which takes the first track and then the second (and both are really boring).

They`ve some other crazy stuff too. There`s a house which looks like the entrance of a dark ride. Once inside you can see snow and frozen flowers – and you feel that it`s getting colder and colder. Damm, it`s getting real cold, and suddenly you recognize “yes, this is all for real”. This “dark walk through” has a inside temperature of – 32 degrees celcius (that`s – 26 fahrenheit). Another crazy ride is the splash boat wich is totally covered (that makes no sense at all). The other coasters are some kiddie rides, a Standing Togo (which was okay for us), an Arrow Corkscrew and a Wild mouse. All in all this park has a lot of things to explore, but lacks a good atmosphere.

Hirakata

After Expoland we travelled to Hirakata, another Osaka park. This one is more for the whole family, with a great kiddie land and a real nice scenery. The first kiddie is a real small kiddie coaster, the second kiddie coaster is really large for a kiddie and the bigger Red Falcon coaster is really boring. The spinning coaster “crazy mouse” is called crazy mouse because it doesn`t spin, and I think this is crazy for a spinning mouse. The last coaster is a small Intamin woodie called “ELF”, which is really nice and smooth. We really liked this one.

The park other attractions are a rapid ride (do they take off this plastic sheets in summer?), a water ride where you don`t get wet and some nice dark rides for kids. Overall, this park was a little surprise because we didn`t expect this nice theming.

Nagashima Spa Land

90 minutes from Kyoto, in the middle of nowhere is this well known park. Nagashima has to offer the typical hot springs, a real big water park (which was closed in april) and the amusement park. It doesn`t has to offer much for the little ones, they`ll really concentrate on coasters (there`s just one dark ride and only some flat rides).The saddest part was to see this great looking Steel Dragon 2000. What a shame to see such a interesting ride closed for some years now. Please Nagashima open it again or sell it. The other 9 coasters are a big variety of coasters, like the Togo pipeline (I`ve never been on one and now I`ve to say I like it), the Schwartzkopf Shuttle Loop and Looping star (this one is really nice), two tracks of Macks wild mouse, a kiddie coaster, this lame Togo jet coaster (what the hell is this, a scenic railway where you can`t see much scenic?) and last but not least the real beautiful “white Cyclone” a big Intamin Woodie, our Nr. 3 woodie in Japan. On our day Nagashima was so empty, we even had to call someone to open a coaster we wanted to ride. Overall this park was well worth a trip, but we missed this special moments we normally have in good parks, and so Nagashima is just average.

Universal Studios Japan

Okay, we`re from germany and so we don`t have the chance to visit Universal Studios every year (I think we`ve been some 7 or 8 times to the Universal Resort in Orlando and once in California). This was the reason to make a visit to this park in Osaka. They have a small City Walk (at the moment there`s a extension going on). The whole park looks real similiar to the one in Orlando, but the main street is covered (this is ugly) and the lagoon is a bit different. Also they`ve added some Islands of Adventure things like the Jurassic Park area and Spiderman (inside the mummy house). They miss Men in Black, the mummy and twister (but they have backdraft from California). They also has some shows (like Waterworld, Animal Actors...) and Shrek 4-D. So we really, really liked this park and think it easily can be the best of the three studios if they might add a good coaster (like Hulk or the Duelling Dragons) and something unique. But for americans on japan tour with no time to waste this park is not a must-see.

Nara Dreamland

We`ve heard so much from this park, and so it was really no shock to visit this ugliest park in the world (okay we thought it is the ugliest park in the world until we saw DubaiDave`s last visit to Egypt). It`s really bizarre to see the Disney rail station, some kind of run-down main street and a castle. Also there`s this ugly Matterhorn and this unbelievable Jungle Cruise experience. At the time we wanted to ride the kiddie coaster we had to wake up the operator because he slept in his operator house (there were 8 visitor in the whole park). The Arrow “screwcoaster” was really not in good condition but the 1961 matterhorn bobsleigh was in so bad condition that my girl was the first time frightened on a coaster. The “fantasy coaster” was broken and so we missed this credit forever. But hey, there`s one thing which you don`t expect in such a crappy park – ASKA. Their last coaster addition (1998) is a brilliant woodie, once again from Intamin, and we loved this one. It`s so smooth and has amazing airtime for a woodie. This was our favourite woodie in Japan, and for me its one of the best woodies in the world (how strange is that – one of the best woodies in the world in this rundown park). One week after we came back to germany we read that Nara Dreamland will close on the 31st of august 2006. After our impressions this is no wonder. It`s always sad that a themepark has to close but I think this is a loss which is not to big. My only hope is that they`ll move Aska to another place, but I think Aska will end with its park.

here we go again - Expoland

the little Universal City Walk

Universal Studios Osaka - celebrating 5th birthday

greetinx from Nagashima

the corkscrew

real good Intamin "White Cyclone"

beautiful cherry tree Schwartzkopf

Macks Wild mice

Steel Dragon 2000

this one is too wet for japan

the bonebreaker killer machine

we liked this Togo pipeline thing

Nagashima Spaland from above

we put the camera on the ground and see what a beautiful shot it made

please take it off for me, because I`m from germany and I`m used to rain

another stupid thing - why they don`t wanna get wet???

this is a large kiddie coaster

another nice themed area

the park was so empty that we could do a relaxed photo shooting while riding ELF

Red Falcon and the not spinning spinning mouse

the not spinning spinning mouse

I tried not to ride the lame Red Falcon

nice themed area

Hirakata -what a cute little park

Orochi by B&M

Arrows corkscrew

Daidarasaurus boring track

a shot from above (you see parts from the corkscrew and Orochi)

this is the crazy Ice World!

the Togo standing coaster

and this is the splash boat, it makes no sense for a SPLASH?!?

first they gave us this sheet of instructions to read while standing in queue (which q ??? nobody else wanted to ride). These are safety instructions. Good that we can read everything!!!

okay this is the splash (looks normal) but...

oh boy, do I look stupid

okay, this one is really "beautiful"

the wild mouse - nothing special

damm my connection broke down, here we go again....

the only good thing - the world class ASKA!

he was glad to see one of the 8 visitors!

Dreamland`s Jungle Cruise is a joke!

corkscrew in good condition

great main street

Matterhorn with the ugliest bobsleigh ride ever

great castle...

yap, it`s one of the crappiest parks in the world!

Nara "Dream"land

coming to the Studios is really simple - just take the Spiderman Metro...

how cute is this...

Ernie & Bert Reloaded

some Parade action...

...but Spiderman in "the mummy"`s house

like in Orlando...

I see, they`re buying rain coats!

the same Splashdown, but hey isn`t this Japan, where they don`t like getting wet?

like Islands of Adventure

yes, I`m in the Jurassic Park again

looks familiar

...here he is!

wating for Snoopy...

we hate this roof

These photos are FANTASTIC!!!! I love them!!!!

Did you actually get a chance to ride the Jungle Cruise or get pictures? It was closed when we were there.

And seeing the Cherry Blossoms, we HAVE to make a trip to Japan in April! Looks fantastic.

--Robb

I was thinking the same thing, Robb. I loved Japan well enough in August, but the scenery in these pictures is just amazing.