Photo TR: Fuji-Q Highland

Ok, normally I wouldn't write this TR. But since we're talking about one of TPR's favorite themeparks, if not the most favorite, I thought to myself, why not!

Oh, in case you don't know of which park I'm talking, it's about FUJI-Q!!! If you get bored by all the text, simply slide down to the pics, thank you!

As we woke up on this beautiful saturday morning (april 17th), we were welcomed by a nice little hail storm and melting snow. Immediately, we both thought this was going to be a *@#-àé§ up day! But buddha heared our prayers from the day before and answered them with more and more sunshine as we came closer to the mythical Mount Fuji!

A whole lotta snow on our way to the park!

Arriving at the park, it was nice to see that the park didn't do any effort to clear the roads and the parking from snow. Probably, because it's a lot more fun to see a bus full of tourists get off the road and burn in eternal damnation! Unfortunately for them, our bus driver skied his way nicely through the couple of inches of snow and dropped us off at the park's bus stop.

It's like the rally of Finland.

After almost crawling our way to the park's entrance, we were given an english written piece of paper at the pay desk; saying that most of the rides would probably remain closed because of the weather. But we had no other choice then to visit the park today. The only thing at that time that could help us was the sun, that was shining like it was summer.

Burning down Fuji-Q isn't that bad of an idea sometimes, as it would turn out to be.

Entering the park, you get a nice view of Fujiyama, Dodonpa and Eejanaika. Oh, and look, we see people on the track of Fujiyama and Dodonpa. Could this mean the park actually wants to try to get the rides open? Maybe they listened to the negative comments they got from TPR's last visit!?

Rather him then me to be honest.

Anyway, we didn't hope too much, since the park was officially open, but most of the employees were busy clearing out all the snow. We didn't care, walked around the park a bit and made some unique photos of this park. The only ride that was open was the ferris wheel, so we gave it a try. Zola 7 however would be closed for the whole day because of a ride update. It will reopen in 2010, the sign stated. Well, they still have 7 months...

Open in 2010! Yeah, well, we're 2010, why isn't it open?

After exploring the park a bit, we decided to go to Thomasland and try out that darkride everybody likes so much. Entering thomasland the first thing we got was a beautiful sight on Mt. Fuji; something that was rare the last couple of days because of the bad weather (at least we were told this by some Belgian girls we saw the day before in Kamakura).

On to the darkride then. Which is, to be honest, crap. It's a nice try and it maybe has its moments, but at the end it's a poor darkride, with almost no action what so ever. If there's a qeue of more than 20 minutes, skip it!

Behind the trees you see Mt. Fuji

Santa's village...oh, wait, no, it's Mrs. kindley's kitchen

Peekaboo! My name is Thomas, and I'm so popular in Japan, I've got my own ride in every Japanese themepark!

Back outside, the sun started to burn and all the snow on the rides and paths was melting. This were perfect conditions to operate all rides, but still, there was little movement on any ride, except the ferris wheel and some indoor attractions. We skipped the cursed hospital, because there was already a qeue of 45 minutes, but we did do the casket ride.

When you enter the building, you don't know what to expect (is it a darkride like Disney's Haunted Mansion, do you lie down,...?). But you do expect a great, thrilling ride if you look at the posters on the wall and the video they're playing. Also the setting of the ride and the whole idea behind it looks great. But after experiencing it, it sucked BIG time! Why? Well, the first thing that's f*cke*d up is the qeue. You can go left or right; left is for people under 180 cm (6 ft) and the right one is for over people taller than 6 ft. At least, that's what we made up of the signs. So we took the right one, but to our surprise everybody else took the left one. It's nice though, you get laughed at by little Japanese punks. We know where not George Clooney, but I don't know what was funny, maybe because we were giants to them or was it just Japanese hospitality?

Anyway, once you finally get in, you reach a theater full of caskets. They asign a kiddie casket (I'm not joking, if you're 6 ft or over, it's impossible to stand straight in those things, even the big ones) to everybody and the show begins. After a short stage appearance by some characters, explaining the story, the lights go out and the only thing that happens are some voices you hear and now and then a little push in the back of your casket. Then it ends. What the hell??? What do Japanese people find scary about this? I mean, Pooh's hunny hunt is more terrifying than this shit. Again, skip it if you ever visit Fuji-Q! It's a waste of time and effort!

Haunted Hospital. We didn't take photos from the Casket ride, because it simply wasn't worth spilling our camera batteries for.

It's almost noon and we headed for the snowfree Dodonpa to see what was going on. Not much, and we were not so kindly told to leave and that the ride wasn't going to open soon. Ok, this started to look more like Fu-Q Highland instead of Fuji-Q Highland. What's wrong with these people? Would it do them any harm to be a little friendly or to open up a ride in this magnificent weather? Appearantely yes.

If only we saw a train on it...

These were the conditions at that time. You can actually see the path drying up!

Fuji-Q also has 2 of those 'let's make our guests run around like idiots'-attractions. So we did those to do something. In each one you get a high-tech device (although they look more like a car battery and a ping pong bat) were you need to gatter objects in an amount of time to get to the next level and rescue either the earth or a girl. The concept are well thought out. I mean, they actually get all the people running around the building, hitting each other; in order to get all the required upgrades. The amount of time given however is way to little. You get so little time that nobody succeeds and we actually think there is no next level. It's fun to try, but the effort you put in is useless.

Me and one of those ping pong bats. Because it's useless to run around, it's better to go John McEnroe style and just demolish the damn thing!

It's noon and then, all of a sudden, we see a starting qeue for Fujiyma. We hurry and stand in line. In the mean while, on the other side, we see dodonpa blitsing out of the tunnel. It immediately placed a smile on our faces. After a 10 minute wait, Fujiyama opens. It becomes even better when we sit backseat on the first ride of the day.

Fujiyama truly is a king among coasters. It's a big, fast, airtime filled beast. It ran pretty smooth and also has some crazy twisting turns, including a high speed 90° banked turn. This is an incredible coaster to start your day with!

We love you, Fujiyama, King of Coasters!

Instead of going to Dodonpa next, we headed for the biggest capacity coaster, the Mad Mouse. Who designed this piece of scrap metal? A two-people car, which obviously can't sit 2 'normal sized' adults, hey, it doesn't even have a qeue line! It looks like they just threw the whole construction between Fujiyama and Eejanaika, simply because they still had some room there. Who was this originally build for? The vatican? It can't be for Japan, with its 100 million people that are allowed to ride. Anyway, it's a credit! Cha-ching!

A whole 'train' to ourselves.

Entering the qeue of Dodonpa, we had a waiting time of 1 hour. But it passed by quickly, thanks to some Japanese qeue jumpers we had a little brawl with. I love this country...NOT! I mean, there's a sign, written in English and Japanese, the size of Times Square that clearly says 'You cannot join anybody that's allready in the qeue behind this line'. You would assume that people understand this or would react if someone tries to jump to the front of the qeue. But no, this is normal in Japan (as we would see a lot more of this in other parks). Well, we're from Belgium and we do have discipline, so get back! Unfortunately, like rats, they found another way to pass us and join the rest of the nest. Unbelievable! Even the ride operator who saw it, didn't do anything, he was to busy sleeping instead of doing his job. As we were guided through the qeue by some groovy Dodonpa music, our misery would continue once it was our turn. We were friendly asked to remove everything from our pockets, even my handkerchief had to come out, although it seems pretty unrealistic that it would fall out of my pocket, no? After putting eveything away in a locker, I placed the key in my pants, in a pocket which I could close. But no, that was unsafe according to the operator, it was much safer to put it around your wrist. There, you couldn't possible lose it, even if you put your arms up during launch, could you? Oh wait, you're not allowed to put your arms up during the ride. Ok, off we go then. Really, at this moment, I love Europe more and more.

The ride itself, well, it's definitely the world's best launch! Nothing compares to this (although Hypersonic does come close, RIP), it's that good. Which can't be said for the rest of the ride. The bumpy right turn is ok, but the smack you get at the bottom of the tophat is kinda rough to say the least. Also, when you pass the actual top, it's in a brutal way. But still, it's not a bad coaster. It's a must do, especially for the launch and for the rest, just pray it ends real soon and you don't get hurt.

It's pronounced Do-Don-Pa.

Let's see, we had done 2 of the 3 major coasters, with 4 hours left to go and the sun still shining, what about opening up Eejanaika? Eh...no!

So we did the rest of the coasters and some thrill rides that you can find at any park nowadays such as a starflyer, shot 'n drop tower, shoot the chute, etc.

It's ten to two, beautiful weather, but still no Eejanaika.

Shot 'n drop tower with the suspended kiddie coaster.

The only coaster worth mentioning is that suspended 'mouse in the clouds' thing. Not because it's good, but because of it's "well" organised qeue system. I hope to help some of you with this. When you take the entrance stairwell, don't be surprised to see people standing in the exit area, left of you. They let 20-25 people through, so they can place their things in the lockers, who are located in the exit area. After those people are gone, they let another 20-25 people in. As well as some Japanese people, we didn't know this and we were wondering if we did something wrong. We even tried to jump over to the other line, we saw people leaving the qeue and try going via the exit. It was that confusing! Normal, if they don't explain it in anyway. So, Fuji-Q, wouldn't it be more logical to place the lockers at the bottom of the station, where the entrance begins? Would that make to much sense or perhaps it's too simple?

But, you know, despite of everything, we were having ourselves a good day here. The only thing that could make it even better was opening up Eejanaika.

Finally, at 3 pm, when I was taking this,

we saw something blue on that red thingy at the bottom of the picture. Could it be? Could Buddha again have answered our prayers? Yes!

Three hours before closing time, they opened up Eejanaika. We Usain Bolted our asses over there to see a waiting time of just 50 minutes! Actually it should've been 25, but since they were only running 1 train and weren't speedy at all, the wait time almost immediately took epic proportions.

Dimitri knew what to expect here, because he had done X2 just a couple of months ago. Me however, I was very nervous. But all that ended when we took of, for what would be one kick ass ride! Dimitri agreed with me and he found Eejanaika was better than X2. Words cannot describe how good this ride is and what it does to a human body (and its feelings). It's fast, smooth, it sometimes gives you a complete sense of desorientation. It's so good, that I'm giving it a number 4 spot in my top 10 (it just ends to soon to be the number 1). Please, would any park in Europe please build one of these?

Filled with joy, we decided to go for seconds on the 3 major rollercoasters. We got 2 out of 3. Fuji-Q decided to opress our joy a bit, by closing Eejanaika more than 1 hour before the park closed. What the #@�?? It hasn't been open for 2 whole hours and now they allready close it? Why, so everybody could go home on time? We begged the guy who stood at the beginning of the qeue to hold back the people, but it was too late. No extras, not even for 2 poor Belgian dudes. What kind of policy is that? Closing your rides 1 hour before the park closes? Ok, we got everything we hoped for (which is a lot more than what some of you got a couple of years ago), but just when you think this is a pretty good park to be at, they pull this one off. And it's not the only thing they close so soon. Leaving Eejanaika, an English (he really was from England) guy asked us directions to the haunted hospital. Five minutes later, we saw him again, coming back from a hopeless journey. So what can we do then to keep us busy? Maybe grab something to eat. Oh, wait no, it's 5.30 pm (park closes at 6 pm) and the resaurants are also closed. Eh? Why? Is Fuji-Q afraid to earn money? Or is it a health issue, so their guest don't turn into big, fat people? Maybe we should ask the general manager? We don't care anymore and head back to Tokyo hotel.

This is, or bether, could be a very good park, but it still has some (minor) issues to deal with; like the ones I mentioned, some theming wouldn't do any harm, more customer friendly,.... In our eyes, it's a must do park, just like SF Great Adventure for example is.

It has 3 really good coasters (or good enough if it comes to Dodonpa), enough family rides and other flat rides to keep anybody busy and happy (if they operate).

Sakura (cherry blossom) and 2 really good coasters

These aren't stairs, this is the olympic ski jumping ramp they used during the 1998 Nagano winter olympics!

We should've taken are snowshoes or skies with us.

Fuji-Q's patented foam cushioning

You sexy thing!

This is actually interesting. They put all the snow in these nets and then just launch all the snow back into the sky!

Eejanaika in the mist.

Yeah, right! You stayed inside the garage the whole day, you wimp! Or maybe he had a flat tire?

If you're still aware of what's happening around you behind this point, be happy and all will be fine in a couple of seconds.

Simple, yet beautiful. great system by the way of loading/unloading

Wet wet wet!

Clearely the designer was drunk here. Is it round or square?

So, no handkerchief in your pocket, but you can acces the track without anyone seeing you? Seriously, if I want, I can touch the train!

Amazing first drop!

It's like a parking lot with rides on it.

Entrance to one of those 'let's make them run around like idiots'-attractions

Handkerchief, big nono. Stupid drape and helmet, yes, go ahead! I thought all the Power Rangers would be dead by now!

Common you chicken, I dare you to cross the bridge!

Really big turn before the back breaking top hat.

You gotta love ERT on duncan!

These guys are sick, maybe they should try another hospital?

Fuji-Q's version of Aquatopia remained closed during the day.

One of the best and most intense parts of Eejanaika.

Launch strip of Dodonpa and the King of Coasters in the background.

Eejanaika is Gigantic, but doesn't take that much place.

ADMIN EDIT: I have updated the title to include "Photo TR:" at the front. Thanks for sharing this with us!

Thank you for this TR!

I'm going to go there either this month or next and seriously considering staying a night at their hotel. If you're in the hotel you get acces to the park 30min prior to opening, but then again that's kinda useless if they open the rollercoasters late!

I'll guess I'll buy some fast passes for the big coasters, though they are 1000 yen each. Boy that's going to be an expensive day

Also, is there someone who has actually done the haunted hospital ride? I heard it's the best one of it's kind in the world

Thank you for this TR!

 

I'm going to go there either this month or next and seriously considering staying a night at their hotel. If you're in the hotel you get acces to the park 30min prior to opening, but then again that's kinda useless if they open the rollercoasters late!

 

I'll guess I'll buy some fast passes for the big coasters, though they are 1000 yen each. Boy that's going to be an expensive day

 

Also, is there someone who has actually done the haunted hospital ride? I heard it's the best one of it's kind in the world

Their hotel seems nice, we ate there 2 days later, when we visited Mt. Fuji.

I wouldn't waste my money on those fastpasses though! 1000 Yen is too much, even for these babies! And even if there are a lot of people at the park, you should get all the major rides done.

It's a shame we didn't do the haunted hospital, but if its the same Japanese crap als the casket ride, it's a waste of time and money.

The haunted hospital costs 500 Yen by the way.

^ The Hunted Hospital is rated as one of the best haunted walk through attractions in the world, so it's a real shame that you didn't go. I have been to the part twice and both times it had a 3-4 hour queue the whole day. But I never went on it, since I wanted to get all the coasters first.

Still great that you managed to get all the coasters, especially considering the day.

The double rails, the mechanism that turns the the seats, the unpredictable movements, the serious head-first first drop. You were soo lucky to get this credit! I fully agree, Eejanaika is one of the best rides out there.

^ The Hunted Hospital is rated as one of the best haunted walk through attractions in the world, so it's a real shame that you didn't go. I have been to the part twice and both times it had a 3-4 hour queue the whole day. But I never went on it, since I wanted to get all the coasters first.

 

Still great that you managed to get all the coasters, especially considering the day.

It's not because it's high rated that it is good. Japanese horror is different from ours. I guess we'll have to find out some day . I see you're from Sweden, well, despite it isn't that scary, I find the Ghost hotel in Liseberg to be one of the best walkthrough rides out there. It's just very well themed and the atmosphere is amazing.

Imo Japanese horror is much better than western. I'm much more freaked out by little girls with long black hair shifting towards me then a masked killer with a chainsaw.

Definately going to try to do the haunted hospital.

Fuji-Q is such a god damn shit-hole. They have amazing coasters, but they lack everything in operations. I honestly believe I could run the park faster, by myself, compared to their whole entire crew. I have no idea how I managed to ride all of their Roller Coasters. I still really wanted to go Haunted Hospital, but the line was about 3+ wait. Stupid Fuji-Q.

-Ryan

Fuji-Q is such a god damn poo-poo-hole. They have amazing coasters, but they lack everything in operations. I honestly believe I could run the park faster, by myself, compared to their whole entire crew. I have no idea how I managed to ride all of their Roller Coasters. I still really wanted to go Haunted Hospital, but the line was about 3+ wait. Stupid Fuji-Q.

 

-Ryan

Believe my, you're not the only one who thinks he can do a better job than the entire Fuji-Q crew !

I even think their crew gets drugs to prevent them from working too hard or fast.

If there's always such a line at the haunted hospital, how do they operate the whole thing? Do the characters get a coffe break every 10 minutes or something?

Still, we were just happy to get in all of the big rides and got some great views of the park in the snow.

Thank you for this TR!

 

I'm going to go there either this month or next and seriously considering staying a night at their hotel. If you're in the hotel you get acces to the park 30min prior to opening, but then again that's kinda useless if they open the rollercoasters late.

I have stayed at the hotel and the 30 minutes early is a bust. All it means is that you get into the park before the general public. The rides open when the park does. So basically you get to be first in line is all.

What the park needs is some high capacity rides. What they have are a bunch with low capacity so end up waiting all day.

Nice pictures by the way and I think the coolest thing about the park is the view of Mt. Fuji.

Wow! For such a horrible, horrible park this was a FANTASTIC trip report!!!

While I hate Fuji-Q for many of the frustrating operations you guys witnessed, I'm so happy to see the park open under these conditions. I think it's total B.S. that more parks all over the world feel the need to close during the winter when it's so obvious they *could* be open, even under a limited operations schedule - weekends only, a limited number of rides at a time, etc.

I'm glad you had a good ride on Eejanaika. I had a much better ride during my '08 visit than I did on my '07 visit, but for me I think I'm just not a big fan of the 4D concept. But it's good to hear that some people are really into it. I would actually like to see more of these coasters built and more ride manufacturers introduce the idea into their project line up. Imagine an Intamin Windwalker and Zac-Spin hybrid! Crazy!

Thanks again for posting!

--Robb

I can sorta understand why the Horror Hospital has such a low capacity. Alot of the 'horror' gets lost if you're in there with too many people, so to add to the experience they only allow a small amount of people in. Sucks for the people who wait in line though.

Also, on their website it states the Horror Hospital has a DAILY capacity of 1000~1500 people

Thank you for this TR!

 

I'm going to go there either this month or next and seriously considering staying a night at their hotel. If you're in the hotel you get acces to the park 30min prior to opening, but then again that's kinda useless if they open the rollercoasters late!

 

I'll guess I'll buy some fast passes for the big coasters, though they are 1000 yen each. Boy that's going to be an expensive day

 

Also, is there someone who has actually done the haunted hospital ride? I heard it's the best one of it's kind in the world

Their hotel seems nice, we ate there 2 days later, when we visited Mt. Fuji.

I wouldn't waste my money on those fastpasses though! 1000 Yen is too much, even for these babies! And even if there are a lot of people at the park, you should get all the major rides done.

It's a shame we didn't do the haunted hospital, but if its the same Japanese crap als the casket ride, it's a waste of time and money.

The haunted hospital costs 500 Yen by the way.

I never realised Fuji Queue now had fastpasses for 1000 yen, around 10 US dollars.

Thats good value, especially considering their reknowned queue times.

Great report & the photos are awesome.

Good to hear Eejanaika was running well (albeit very briefly).

^ I share the same feeling about the Fast Passes. IMO, $10 is NOTHING if it can save you as much as 2-3 hours of your day. That means more rides that you can try to get in during that time and less hassle.

I would never buy it for a park down the street from me, but when I'm already traveling thousands of miles and spending thousands of dollars for a park experience, and someone tells me "For $10 you can save an hour or more to do other stuff in the park..." Hell yeah I go for it!

I even will get a Gold Flash Pass at Six Flags Parks, unlimited Universal Express at Universal Parks, or unlimited Quick Queues at Busch Parks when the lines are only 20-30 minutes. I mean, think about it. Even if the lines are only 20 minutes, why wait 20 minutes when you can wait zero to five minutes?

After 4 rides, you've just saved yourself an hour. After 8 rides, 2 hours or more. And if you're at a park open to close, you can probably do TWICE as much in a day with an unlimited queue skipping device.

Why would you spend all that money and fly all that way for the sole reason of visiting a park and NOT want to get this?

--Robb

Great photo trip report.

One of these years I will get to ride a coaster in the snow. Wonders why Cedar Point doesn't do this?

^hmm maybe wind is an issue on the peninsula? Although it would be awesome. But for sure there are some parks that could be open around here.

How cold does it get in that area of Japan?

Awesome TR, thanks for sharing!

(watch out: spoiler!)

Nice photo-TR: never knew there could be so much snow that time of the year!

About the "running-attractions with the special devices": there is actually a second level. I've been there with a friend in the mount-Fuji clone. The second level was impossible: the time you spend in the main hall is deducted from the total time. With your collected armies you can enter a door which leads to the second level. There you have to dodge laser beams, etc. in the remaining time (which was about 13 seconds in our case). Probably after that you'll save the princess...?

Kind of cool to be the only ones to make the first level that time I was there, instead of the Japanese who probably play it a lot more (and better).

We couldn't beat the Gundam-ride though: we were learning the system to play these attractions at that time.

I would love to see one of these in Europe! Although with all the vandalism I think it's not possible here.

It's cool that this park operated in the winter; as Robb said, I wish more parks did that.

What's funny is the 'Fuji-Q on Fire entrance' thing in the snow.....

This photo contridicts itself in more ways than one! (Can anyone guess the second reason?)

Also, is there someone who has actually done the haunted hospital ride? I heard it's the best one of it's kind in the world

I did the haunted hospital on my 2005 visit to Fuji-Q (the wait was too long on my 2007 visit). It really was amazing! One of the best haunted houses I've ever been in (it's number one or two for me). I waited nearly 90 minutes, and then it takes about 45 minutes to walk through the hospital. (And it's designed to ensure that you WILL get lost inside.) I seem to recall it being an upcharge attraction. The lines are always long, since they only let in a few people at a time - that way, no matter where you are in the hospital, you always have the feeling of isolation. (And then you get chased through the corridors by zombies!) One thing that was fun - the exit was right next to the entrance, and the entire time I was waiting in line, I saw nearly every single person come RUNNING out the exit, screaming - definitely a promising sign! (Scottish Steve really needs to experience this one!) Anyhow - it's worth the long wait.

Although there's certainly room for improvement, I actually enjoyed Fuji-Q a lot on both visits. The haunted hospital is really phenomenal. I like Fujiyama a lot - it has some faults (it's a bit rough in places, has some lagging moments, and could use more airtime), but it's still a fun hypercoaster - really tall, really long. I like Eejanaika much better than the California version (X2 is an improvement over X1, but it still beats me up a bit - Eejanaika didn't). Dodonpa was great when I rode it in 2005 (the line was too long in 2007). Although the park could use more theming, the view of Fuji-san is breathtaking. And there's some yummy food in the park - SQUID ON A STICK!! (Mmm!)

My biggest complaint about the park is the crowds - on both of my visits, the lines were ridiculously long. I'm sure ride operations plays a role in this too. But overall, I enjoyed the park and will visit again someday.

^TPR Japan Trip 2011?

^I will definitely make it over there with you guys one of these days! Japan is so awesome - can't wait to go back.

^TPR Japan Trip 2011?

So you are saying Fuji-Q makes the "Best" of Japan?

^Note I didn't say "Best" of Japan 2011!!!

In all seriousness, any Japan trip will obviously HAVE to go to Fuji Q...it just sucks!!!!

When I went to Fuji - Q last summer, the queue line for eejanaika was 0 minutes for most of the day. The longest wait time was about an hour for the Mad Mouse Coaster.

I think leaving Fuji-Q out of any TPR Japan tour would be just scandalous.

That said, I am truly TRULY glad I have ONLY the two rodents (Mouse and Flying Hamster coasters) to ride and count.

The Haunted Hospital?.... well, we'll see. Maybe.

2011?